befogged

Following on from thoughts over at Blue Witch’s pad…

The timing of large scale economic decisions for my generation has been a bit of a bitch, really, all things considered.

I hit the early years of the ‘oh shit, we never planned for this’ group of sixth formers whose parents never expected that free and accessible higher education, having been won only in their lifetime, would be taken away so soon. My sister, just 8 years older, must be one of the last people who actually received a free higher education. By the time I got to university in 1996, my grant was half the size of hers despite us both qualifying for the full allowance. I think it was a princely £1600, and it didn’t even cover rent. I just missed having to pay tuition fees, thankfully (would I even have been able to attend had I had to suddenly find an extra few grand? I doubt it). I wonder if British parents are now setting aside ‘college funds’ as soon as they have babies, like their US cousins? I know that degrees have lost much of the merit they used to have, and I really don’t think that 50% of the country needs one but how does giving university attendees a financial hammering help ensure we educate the brightest and the best rather than just the wealthiest?

Having collected my degree, I emerged bright eyed and bushy tailed into the working world… with the best part of £6000 debt (student loan of about £1800 x 3 years) to pay off and a starting salary of £10,000/year. I could have deferred payment, but felt I’d rather clear it sooner than later and had paid it off five years later. How much more difficult must it be if you add tuition fees and qualifications that take more years to gain?

And now? 

Well, it seems to me that I have been viewing my remaining working life as being probably due to last ‘about 40 more years’ since the day I first started work after University, 10 years ago. Regrettably I am still right.

Where my father was able to retire in his mid 50s and had hoped for a free education for his children, I will be lucky if I can stop working before my 70s (assuming I can continue to find employment all that time) and I have no idea if my friends’ children will even be able to attend university, regardless of whether they want to.

I have never had access to a contributary pension scheme, only work-led stakeholder schemes which barely seem worth the trouble over a private pension, especially if you change jobs a few times (and who has a job for life these days?).

I’m starting to wonder about the validity of private pensions, too. A growing number of people of a similar age to me have been told by various financial advisors that it’s not really worth maintaining one unless you can afford to contribute literally half your income. Instead, goes the advice, you are better off putting your money into a succession of ISAs, high interest accounts and property - when the economic climate allows.

I am lucky enough to have a reasonably-paying job (touch wood) and reasonable health (touch wood) and I can see a struggle ahead to try to avoid working until I drop. If things don’t change, how many more people will  just keep working until they can’t do much of anything any longer?

And the scariest thing about all this? I bet I’ve got it easier than my friends’ children will have it trying to unpick this mess.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 12:48 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.