Purple you make very valid points but your experience is probably not typical. You have been working about 9 years when you got your mortgage, nowadays people mainly start working between 23-26 after a third level education so 9 years working brings them to early mid 30’s before they have similar purchasing power.
I entered the work force in the mid- late 80’s when it was very hard to get a job and hard to get decent wages. I did not have generational wealth behind me so purchasing a house in the mid 90’s before house prices went sky high was very hard. 5 years later with a few kids we did a major overhaul of the house increasing our mortgage significantly, we were very broke but able to pay mortgage and crèches. Now the oldest is working, the mortgage is paid off and we have cash savings from working full time and saving our income.
So us giving our kids €3K each per year is a was for us to help them save a deposit, and in 10 years time when they look to buy they will have hopefully €50K from us.
As others said we are in our 50’s now and 3/4 of the parents are dead and we did get a modest inheritance from one which had increased our wealth. But it would have been so much nicer to get a trickle of that 25 years ago when we were buying. And knowing our relatively straightforward struggles nice to help our children have it a bit easier. I can remember a work colleague and his fiancé meeting for a walk twice a week for 3 years as they cut back on all socialising and lived at home to save money for that deposit.
I don’t see our savings as anything but earned income (the inheritance was in the past 12 months so not really a consideration in my argument) and we worked very hard for it so spending on the kids is our choice and hopefully it will make their lives a bit easier.
But I still think you make a really interesting and valid point.
I entered the work force in the mid- late 80’s when it was very hard to get a job and hard to get decent wages. I did not have generational wealth behind me so purchasing a house in the mid 90’s before house prices went sky high was very hard. 5 years later with a few kids we did a major overhaul of the house increasing our mortgage significantly, we were very broke but able to pay mortgage and crèches. Now the oldest is working, the mortgage is paid off and we have cash savings from working full time and saving our income.
So us giving our kids €3K each per year is a was for us to help them save a deposit, and in 10 years time when they look to buy they will have hopefully €50K from us.
As others said we are in our 50’s now and 3/4 of the parents are dead and we did get a modest inheritance from one which had increased our wealth. But it would have been so much nicer to get a trickle of that 25 years ago when we were buying. And knowing our relatively straightforward struggles nice to help our children have it a bit easier. I can remember a work colleague and his fiancé meeting for a walk twice a week for 3 years as they cut back on all socialising and lived at home to save money for that deposit.
I don’t see our savings as anything but earned income (the inheritance was in the past 12 months so not really a consideration in my argument) and we worked very hard for it so spending on the kids is our choice and hopefully it will make their lives a bit easier.
But I still think you make a really interesting and valid point.