Put like that it sounds achievable but people have different life experiences. That's why you have food banks, people living on the streets, people with mental health issues, people lose their jobs and need that little nest egg to pay the electric, and so it goes on.
but i passed a restaurant earlier and people were in it so everyone in the whole wide country must be loaded
If someone had told me that when I was 16 I'd be OK now, but they didn't. Even if they did I doubt a 16 year old me would have listened, kids now a days are more clued up on this type of thing though as they're putting money into high interest accounts etc. as the whole financial market is a totally different beast to when we were young.
It's far more accessible than it ever was. But the vast majority of people I've talked to about such things, and I'm meaning from teenagers through to and beyond my own age, really don't have the first clue. -> "I'd guess some of them never had the money to mis-manage in the first place." True, some. A very, very small percentage. As for the vast majority .... ignorance, laziness, distorted priorities, lack of common sense, wrong role models, etc etc etc.
I think you're being a bit harsh. Have a read of this, as an example, I bet they don't have £1000 tucked away somewhere, than tell me if they're ignorant, lazy, have distorted priorities, wrong role models. Or are they just normal folk who've fallen foul of a lousy set of circumstances? ‘We had a Northern Rock mortgage – 20 years on, we’re in a caravan’
And that's why I used the terms 'small percentage' and 'vast majority'. Think of a normal distribution curve. Your example is from the tails of the curve. Of course there are a myriad of examples like that. I was talking about the majority. Back to the OP (not mine) do you really think such examples as yours explain for example "the 40% of over 65s have less than £1,000 In savings"?! Maybe a few % at most, the rest fit with the harsh truths I posted.
Taking out an Interest only mortgage at 50 years old with no provision to pay off the Capital? Short sighted? Badly advised? Clinically insane? Just reading it brought me out in a cold sweat.
You forgot, after all the publicity regarding interest only mortgages and all the claims for compensation after those of us who took one out in the 1980s were left short.
People are always saying there is no money in Hull and everyone is hard up. But people on here have regular foreign holidays and eat out so everyone in Hull must be loaded. Some pensioners have a lot of money so every pensioner, even those on the basic state pension is loaded, in fact some claim most are millionaires.
True it needs education about these things really . They need to push the private pensions more and use the fact you can retire 10 years early as a big selling point .
I'm just pointing out that ordinary people can find themselves in bad circumstances, it isn't just the feckless as your language implies. Here's another read, this covers all age groups but I'd bet an awful lot of these 11m will go on to be just as skint after they're 65 as they are now. It's more than a 'small percentage'. I've done a lot of voluntary work with charities since I retired and I've seen a lot of people who I just know don't have £1000 to spare. More than 11 million Britons have less than £1,000 in savings | UK cost of living crisis | The Guardian
Yes, but you're probably more financially astute than many. And there are an awful lot of silver-tongued mortgage salespeople out there to catch out those who aren't.
Maybe desperate? It doesn't say why they needed the money, nor why they were able to get an interest free mortgage with no equity in the house (perhaps it was possible pre-2008). I got a neighbour who is working at 72 because his daughter got cancer and he borrowed all he could to get her treatment and loaned his smallholding up to his bollocks - I'd do the same. I mean, if the mafia did the same, it would be a financial crime, but a poorly regulated banking system gets away with usury.
