General Chat

[villa4europe]

1 hour ago, Mark Albrighton said:

I think for me, the appeal of going to clubs wasn’t so much dancing or trying to meet women (although there was an element of that), it was mainly a case of “where can get a drink and carry the night on for a couple more hours?”. 

Quite often we weren’t ready to call it quits at 11:30/midnight. Even now, and I’m organising a night out to somewhere that isn’t familiar to me or the group, beforehand I’ll try and find somewhere that’s open until around 2am, although I disregard clubs and just try and seek out “lively” pubs. We rarely reach 2am, but it’s good to have the option.

Best thing about getting older the start has got earlier, I'm now checking to see what times various take aways close, the Chinese on station hill in kiddy closes at midnight and I want one so I also want 14 hours of drinking... Meet at spoons for a breakfast and a beer at 10am it is 

Sunshine drinking is a different level to clubbing 

[sidcow]

4 hours ago, lapal_fan said:

At least I know.  

It's a shit week without at least one @lapal_fan off the wall surreal ramble.  I feel robbed of a nugget of pure joy. 

Edited March 12, 2021 by sidcow

[lapal_fan]

2 minutes ago, sidcow said:

It's a shit week without at least one @lapal_fan off the wall surreal ramble.  If feel robbed of a nugget of pure joy. 

[sidcow]

3 hours ago, Genie said:

I remember few years back me and a mate went out to watch a big England game. The sports bar near by was absolutely **** rammed, could barely get through the door. The bar is massive as was 4 deep the entire length.

We said no way, old mans pub 2 doors down. Got a seat right in front of the TV, no queue at the bar, the beer was really nice. We couldn’t believe how so many mugs had piled into the other place for a miserable experience. When 2 doors down there was the game, air con, nice beer, comfy seats. It wasn’t as lively but still some cheering and such.

We were glad to be out of it when we saw the scenes after, it was during that phase where throwing beer all over the place during every goal became the norm.

(I wonder if VAR will put a curb on that?).

I was halfway through your post and about to ask if you also asked the barman to pour half a pint of beer over your head when we scored..... But then you covered that off, but I've gone and posted it anyway. 

[Paddywhack]

1 hour ago, sidcow said:

It's a shit week without at least one @lapal_fan off the wall surreal ramble.  I feel robbed of a nugget of pure joy. 

Imagine being in a whatsapp group with him, it's a great laugh.

[lapal_fan]

13 minutes ago, Paddywhack said:

Imagine being in a whatsapp group with him, it's a great laugh.

 

[maqroll]

Life is looking good for 22 year old Fernando Tatis Jr. He just signed a 14-year, $340 million contract extension to play baseball for the San Diego Padres. I should've kept at the baseball.

[maqroll]

16 hours ago, Ingram85 said:

I’m a bit of a weirdo, I never once enjoyed going out to get drunk or just have a few drinks and dance in the clubs etc... I hated it all. Academy, Snobs or wherever. It was something I just did to fit in as my mates were doing it. I wasn’t confident, girls didn’t like me, I found the whole thing miserable. Led me down a dark spiral that period of my life. Ugh, lot of bad memories of late teens/early 20’s. 

Always preferred going out for a couple of drinks and a meal with a few mates or family instead.

My impression of the UK from over here is that there is more pressure to booze and banter than in the US.

[Seat68]

2 hours ago, maqroll said:

My impression of the UK from over here is that there is more pressure to booze and banter than in the US.

I think thats a fair comment. Its part of our culture to drink. 

[sidcow]

6 hours ago, maqroll said:

My impression of the UK from over here is that there is more pressure to booze and banter than in the US.

One of the things I hate when on a corporate or work doo is the bunches of blokes you get hanging in groups going full bantz.  I hate it and if I try to join one of those groups I will inevitably drift away quickly. 

I don't know if you've seen the UK Office sitcom, and I've not seen the US version to compare the character but it reminds me of a group of Finchys.  There must be a collective noun for a group of such blokes.  An arrogance of Finchys perhaps. 

Edited March 13, 2021 by sidcow

[HanoiVillan]

On 11/03/2021 at 23:04, villa4europe said:

Haven't been to Worcester clubbing in 10+ years now, rarely drink there either

Can't say I'm surprised, would be quite a long way to go for a pint from Germany

[HanoiVillan]

6 hours ago, markavfc40 said:

Another reason I feel for young adults now is due to what others have mentioned and the housing situation. I purchased my first house in 1998 when I was 23. It cost 35k and my mortgage cost me £180 a month. That same house now is worth approx. 210k. Back in 1998 I was earning around 16k a year. That same job now I think pays around 24k. A 50% increase in the wage of the job I was doing 23 years ago but a 600% increase in the cost of the first house I purchased at that time. I'd imagine that is quite common.

 

5 hours ago, Xela said:

I do agree that house prices have got out of control now and the disparity between wages and house prices is just getting wider. I wouldn't want to be starting out now as a new starter into the working world. I was probably part of the generation that could get away with not having any qualifications and still ending up with a decent job.

I wanted to continue this interesting discussion about young people and buying a house, but the Racism thread didn't seem like the right place for it.

I am also a young-ish (not that young any more unfortunately) adult who doesn't own a house, but I want to ask a question, especially for others in my position who want to buy, but anyone can chip in:

Why do you want to buy a house?

It's not a trick question, I'm curious what other people's answer is. There are several ways of getting housing, without buying a house, most obviously by renting one. And the cost of housing has absolutely not gone up by anything like the rate of houses. Just to give one example, I spent three years at my previous flat, extending for a year each time, and at the first extension the rents remained the same, at the second one he increased it by £25/month, and had I extended it a third time he would have kept it at that same level. Going from £650/month to £675/month over four years is hardly inflation-busting, and when you think about it it's no surprise really when interest rates are near zero. Yet like seemingly many people on this forum, I want to own a house; I have my reasons, but I'd like to know other people's.

[NurembergVillan]

1 hour ago, HanoiVillan said:

I wanted to continue this interesting discussion about young people and buying a house, but the Racism thread didn't seem like the right place for it.

I am also a young-ish (not that young any more unfortunately) adult who doesn't own a house, but I want to ask a question, especially for others in my position who want to buy, but anyone can chip in:

Why do you want to buy a house?

It's not a trick question, I'm curious what other people's answer is. There are several ways of getting housing, without buying a house, most obviously by renting one. And the cost of housing has absolutely not gone up by anything like the rate of houses. Just to give one example, I spent three years at my previous flat, extending for a year each time, and at the first extension the rents remained the same, at the second one he increased it by £25/month, and had I extended it a third time he would have kept it at that same level. Going from £650/month to £675/month over four years is hardly inflation-busting, and when you think about it it's no surprise really when interest rates are near zero. Yet like seemingly many people on this forum, I want to own a house; I have my reasons, but I'd like to know other people's.

I bought my own home at 39.  By that point I'd lived in 9 rented properties.  The house I've bought is the third cheapest house in terms of monthly cost, but the only two cheaper were a lot smaller, no garden and one of them was 10 years before I bought this one, albeit it was in St Albans rather than the North West.

[villa4europe]

I think it's ingrained in English culture to buy a house, you have to buy a house, rent is dead money, the amount of times I was told this by my family in my 20s when I was renting was mad, I came under a lot of pressure to buy a house, I bought one and sold it when I moved 

Now living in Germany everyone rents, house prices are mad 

My personal reason for wanting to own a house was the freedom of being able to do what I wanted with it... And then I did very little in terms of DIY cos I hate it and then also the retirement safety blanket of being mortgage free or maybe even downsizing and pocketing the cash but no one does that anymore 

And I'm looking now at the housing market to see what would happen if I came back, I'd need £20k for a deposit, £5k for the rest and that'll get me an OK if I'm lucky 3 bed in Kidderminster with a 25 year mortgage with repayments around £850 a month without insurances...

Edited March 16, 2021 by villa4europe

[Genie]

1 hour ago, villa4europe said:

I think it's ingrained in English culture to buy a house, you have to buy a house, rent is dead money, the amount of times I was told this by my family in my 20s when I was renting was mad, I came under a lot of pressure to buy a house, I bought one and sold it when I moved 

Now living in Germany everyone rents, house prices are mad 

My personal reason for wanting to own a house was the freedom of being able to do what I wanted with it... And then I did very little in terms of DIY cos I hate it and then also the retirement safety blanket of being mortgage free or maybe even downsizing and pocketing the cash but no one does that anymore 

And I'm looking now at the housing market to see what would happen if I came back, I'd need £20k for a deposit, £5k for the rest and that'll get me an OK if I'm lucky 3 bed in Kidderminster with a 25 year mortgage with repayments around £850 a month without insurances...

How much would it cost to rent the same house?

I’m paying about £400-£500 less on my mortgage that it would cost to rent the same house. 

[villa4europe]

3 minutes ago, Genie said:

How much would it cost to rent the same house?

I’m paying about £400-£500 less on my mortgage that it would cost to rent the same house. 

Kiddy is a bit shit for rentals at the moment but from what I've seen depending on quality of finishes and location somewhere between £800-1000 so renting and buying for me is more or less the same monthly outgoing 

I think the biggest problem with renting from my experience of 2 years ago before I moved to Germany was that say a good new build comes available 25 people put an offer in on it, complete lottery and so the estate agent told me I lost out because I was single, they don't like single source of income, that was despite me earning more than the couple who they gave it to earned together... 

Edited March 16, 2021 by villa4europe

[sidcow]

Well surely if you spend let's say £1,000 per month renting for 25 years, you've spent a quarter of a million pounds and got nothing for it, literally zero.  £250,000 and you are essential at square 1, then have to spend another £1,000 per month for the next however many years. 

If you spend £1,000 per month on a mortgage for 25 years you've spent a quarter of a million pounds and now actually own something worth half a million. 

Instead of losing everything, you've doubled your money. 

And then you don't have to pay anything more for the rest of your life. 

It's the best investment you can ever make, unless you were lucky enough to buy a load of bitcoin of invest early in Tesla or something like that. 

Even with the big housing collapse as long as you had no need to sell within a couple of years you would still have come out well ahead of the game in the long term. 

I feel incredibly sorry for young people because it is increasingly difficult to get a home.  

I strongly feel a lot of the inflation is driven by the banks.  They used to be really strict about only lending 2.5 times salary, but once you allow people to borrow many multiples of salary prices inevitably will rocket. 

They probably need to tax landlords higher as  well to make it less attractive though I understand other issues this may create, you would need to somehow remove lower cost housing from that equation.  Maybe tax more the higher up the rent scale. They somehow need to find a way of getting more of those homes owned by casual investors, those London bankers investing their bonus, into private ownership, increasing the number of homes available to buy. 

If I was a young person now I would live like a hermit for a couple of years to get my deposit together. But I probably wouldn't have thought that when I was actually young because you just have other priorities then. 

Edited March 16, 2021 by sidcow

[villa4europe]

I completely agree with sidcow why you should buy a house and that renting is dead money I just don't see how a young couple in their early to mid 20s could ever be expected to save the £15k+ to buy something

Would say very few of my friends seem to be playing the ladder, maybe 2 of them, I know I personally can't be bothered with it, I don't want a £100k "dooer upper" never did

And that's in a town, how the folk down in the big smoke do it is beyond me 

You look at the big housing developments just outside kiddy, Hartlebury and Hagley, their cheapest house is north of £300k, in kiddy the housing development there was part of that government shared ownership scam, even the apartment developments are £120k for a one bedroom 

[Genie]

24 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

part of that government shared ownership scam

I got on the ladder with a 50% shared ownership house (new-ish 2 bed semi). Sold my share 2 years later for about £12,500 profit which went into the deposit for a better house.

With interest rates at record lows, help to buy schemes, stamp duty holidays and prices creeping up it’s an incredibly good time to buy. 

Edited March 16, 2021 by Genie

[MCU]

8 hours ago, NurembergVillan said:

I bought my own home at 39.  By that point I'd lived in 9 rented properties.  The house I've bought is the third cheapest house in terms of monthly cost, but the only two cheaper were a lot smaller, no garden and one of them was 10 years before I bought this one, albeit it was in St Albans rather than the North West.

This makes me feel slightly better. Since 21 I've moved 5 times so far and still a good few years off having a deposit yet. It's tough but as someone eluded to above, unless you have some help you've got to save really, really well. As good as they are to get on the ladder, I'm trying to avoid the HTB schemes due to interest and the fact it needs to be on a new build.

Just getting sick of constantly moving house. I'm single as well so in an ideal world I'd like to meet somebody first and buy together.

I do wonder how long this rule of 'it's a good time to buy' is going to be valid for though. I certainly am in no position to buy right now but if the market could hold on for a couple of years that would be great.