Let's stop selling the myth of 'self-made' success

“I know my friend will eventually be able to own her own home because we’re in the lucky cohort of people who work well-paid white-collar jobs and have partners bringing a second income. “

That’s like saying I know my child will eventually get good grades at school if they apply themselves, study hard and avoid frivolous distractions? So do we expect someone who procrastinates, spends their days partying and playing video games to get good grades as well?

It sounds like the author would like a medal for making a life decision which everyone else does regularly based on their personal circumstances and those of the broader world at the time.

Almost three years ago, I was medically retired from work. We used my Super, which, after tax, was made available to me, to become debt free and to use as a deposit to buy a brand new home. And getting a mortgage on a Comcare pension, in your 50s, was tough in itself.
We had bought and sold houses before but had been renting the previous 9 years after selling our old house. An old fixer upper that was getting expensive so we thought “rent a couple of years while we find a block of land”. Then my mother in law got cancer and my Wife flew to England a few time to help care for her. That, and that price surge in the 2010s, meant that we had a shrinking deposit so decided to stay renting. We were lucky that we had a great landlord and nice little townhouse to rent.
Life happens. Not everything is straight forward or simple. We were and are lucky but not as lucky as some. We’ve struggled but others have struggled more. But my own journey makes me very aware that we need, as a nation, to do something about affordable housing and it needs to be done 3 years ago.

“But for everyone who doesn’t have those initial privileges, the dream of home ownership might never come to fruition, and that’s not because they ‘didn’t try hard enough’.”

It’s all OK, the same corporatist bloodsuckers who have created the current housing affordability shambles (and who are very happy to see distracting inter-generational and intra-middle class squabbles over this issue) have the perfect solution – “build to rent” – just don’t be unemployed and try not to think about what will happen if you go into retirement with nothing much more than the aged pension to live on.

“I don’t think it should have to be a case of giving up other joys in life to have such a fundamental resource like secure, affordable housing.”

That is what people NEED to do. People who aren’t willing to do this, don’t want their own house badly enough. Unless you are born rich, have a very high paying job, or two people with good incomes to combine, that’s entitlement talking. Get over entitlement if you want to own your own home and come back to reality.

For years I didn’t go to movies, eat out (I grew most of my vegetables), etc. No hairdresser and certainly (LOL) no getting the fingernails done 🙄). I mostly rode a bike or took a bus to work. My small car stayed home in the garage on work days. I didn’t buy any new clothes (but mended) for five years, except for some cheap underwear. Didn’t spend money on alcohol or soft drinks, or mercy-me, bottle water. I rented out the spare bedrooms. I also bought the cheapest house on the whole Canberra market at the time. I was a realist; and didn’t expect to buy something similar to the standard of my parent’s house (ie, what my parents eventually had after many years. It wasn’t their first house; that was a flat in an iffy area). The same as my parents example, I started out with downmarket accommodation.
I bought my house in a different era, but it wasn’t easy, especially as I had a lower than average income, and it was a single income. Interest rates were a lot higher then. I quote from an article.

“Affording a home was a lot more difficult in the late 1980s than it is now, Centre for Independent Studies chief economist Peter Tulip said.

“Interest payments on a new home represent 38 per cent of the average wage now, in 1989 they constituted 64 per cent,” he said. “That’s interest payable on a new loan.””

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8078477/property-showdown-did-boomers-gen-x-or-millennials-have-it-easier/

“…I assume they forwent plenty of other experiences in favour of saving every penny to own a home. I don’t think it should have to be a case of giving up other joys in life to have such a fundamental resource like secure, affordable housing” – this is the very attitude that needs to be stamped out of people from an early age. Unfortunately our education system and socialist governments seem to reinforce a belief that people are born entitled to “fundamental resources” instead of having to work for them.

I disagree with your comment that attaining home ownership should not be at the expense of giving up other luxuries. I don’t know anyone who has bought a house (me included) that has not scrimped and saved, gone without and given up luxuries to buy their houses and pay the mortgages. I have been paying off mortgages for over 30 years since I bought my first house. I am very careful what I spend my money on and rarely splurge on luxuries such as holidays, going out for meals or have them home delivered. These are luxuries that many of today’s youth and hopeful home owners seem think are given rights without doing the hard yards of saving for a house.

And this is where the author looses any degree of empathy she otherwise might have received.

“I don’t think it should have to be a case of giving up other joys in life to have such a fundamental resource like secure, affordable housing”.

I’m a Boomers. A generation that is ridiculed by younger people.

We were married at 20 & 19 and have raised 3 children. My wife has never had a full-time job. Neither of us went to University. Neither of us has ever had a job that paid close to the average “Canberra” income. We have never been overseas. We only have one car; it’s 23 years old. We don’t own any investment properties either.

We did it hard, gave up and continue to give up joys in life. Anyone who expects to not have to make sacrifices should take a real dose of reality.

“…the most basic of dreams – owning your own home”…..,that is interesting how youngsters’ dreams have changed over the past few decades😂

I’m now 48, by the time I was 42 I owned my own 4 bedroom, two bathroom, double garage home. I’ve done it all on my own with no help from anyone and I’m a single parent as well. I’m now working on the second house so I have something to retire on. How did I do it? My grandmother told me 2 things: firstly look after the cents and the dollars take care of themselves and secondly you can do anything you put your mind to. So true.