Living with Parents
New research released this week found that a quarter of twenty to thirty-four year-olds live at home with their parents. I am one of that number.
There's a weird stigma attached to living at home in your twenties. It's something I tend to shy away from telling people. There's an assumption that you must be somehow weird or unhinged to have not moved into your own place. But according to these statistics over three million around my age are in the same position- surely not all three million of us are weird?
There's only one reason why that number is so high and why the number has increased by almost a million over the last twenty years. Money. House prices have risen dramatically but wages have not increased at anywhere near the same rate. It's not quite so bad if you live in the North of the country but here on the South coast, house prices are extortionate. My only hope for owning my own property is to save for years on end.
Renting is an option and something many people have to do. Over the last few years I probably could have found somewhere to rent at a rate I could just about afford. To do so I would have to forgo all luxuries, with 'luxuries' here meaning decent clothes and food. I'd probably have to find a weekend or evening job and would therefore have no leisure time whatsoever. Plenty of people live like this but it's not for me. It's not really that I'm especially lazy- I'll work hard if it's worth doing so. But I've maintained for a while now that it's pointless working if you have no time when you are not working. Besides, renting would likely only be sustainable for a limited time before my savings would vanish and I'd probably be forced to return home anyway.
I have proved that I can live perfectly well without my parents. I was at university for four years and coped perfectly adequately. I could only do this thanks to student loans though and determined though I was to live independently once I finished my course I had no choice but to return home. I've saved money effectively in my nearly five years of working and am very nearly in the position to be able to afford my own place. Certainly I will have my own property by the time I turn thirty. With any luck, one of the few advantages of Brexit may be that house prices fall enough to get me onto the property ladder sooner rather than later.
Being single doesn't help. If I had been in a long-term relationship for a few years now I would probably be living in the place I jointly-owned with my partner. It sounds like an idyllic life. It wouldn't cost much more to buy a place for two people but the cost would be split between us so I would be able to afford it. There's something ironic about the fact living at home puts some women off dating you yet if they were dating me I probably wouldn't be living at home.
The experience of living at home as an adult is a mixed one. In some ways, it is quite nice. I'm paying out very little to live here and that means I can actually buy things I want whilst still saving a good amount. I get to watch Sky TV and have unlimited broadband for nothing. I do all my own cleaning and washing but I rarely have to go shopping for food. Meals are mostly cooked for all three of us and so I don't have to cook every day which is great.
I'd trade all that in without a second thought though. The big issue of living at home as an adult is the lack of freedom, feeling like you are still a child. I can't very easily stay up late and watch TV or whatever because my parents are asleep by 11PM. My parents can't help but inform me if my room gets untidy, only one step beyond actually being told to tidy up. I can't watch what I want on the TV most of the time and instead have to watch the tiny TV in my room. Even then it feels awkward if I want to watch something that has a sex scene in for fear of the awkwardness of my parents hearing it. I can't pig out on junk food without being picked up on it. Every movement of my life at home feels controlled by the people whose house I live in. Of course, that's fair and I don't complain about it but it is deeply frustrating.
The day I move out for good is at least on the horizon now. I look forward to eating massive pizzas and leaving the boxes strewn across the room just because I can!
There's a weird stigma attached to living at home in your twenties. It's something I tend to shy away from telling people. There's an assumption that you must be somehow weird or unhinged to have not moved into your own place. But according to these statistics over three million around my age are in the same position- surely not all three million of us are weird?
There's only one reason why that number is so high and why the number has increased by almost a million over the last twenty years. Money. House prices have risen dramatically but wages have not increased at anywhere near the same rate. It's not quite so bad if you live in the North of the country but here on the South coast, house prices are extortionate. My only hope for owning my own property is to save for years on end.
Renting is an option and something many people have to do. Over the last few years I probably could have found somewhere to rent at a rate I could just about afford. To do so I would have to forgo all luxuries, with 'luxuries' here meaning decent clothes and food. I'd probably have to find a weekend or evening job and would therefore have no leisure time whatsoever. Plenty of people live like this but it's not for me. It's not really that I'm especially lazy- I'll work hard if it's worth doing so. But I've maintained for a while now that it's pointless working if you have no time when you are not working. Besides, renting would likely only be sustainable for a limited time before my savings would vanish and I'd probably be forced to return home anyway.
I have proved that I can live perfectly well without my parents. I was at university for four years and coped perfectly adequately. I could only do this thanks to student loans though and determined though I was to live independently once I finished my course I had no choice but to return home. I've saved money effectively in my nearly five years of working and am very nearly in the position to be able to afford my own place. Certainly I will have my own property by the time I turn thirty. With any luck, one of the few advantages of Brexit may be that house prices fall enough to get me onto the property ladder sooner rather than later.
Being single doesn't help. If I had been in a long-term relationship for a few years now I would probably be living in the place I jointly-owned with my partner. It sounds like an idyllic life. It wouldn't cost much more to buy a place for two people but the cost would be split between us so I would be able to afford it. There's something ironic about the fact living at home puts some women off dating you yet if they were dating me I probably wouldn't be living at home.
The experience of living at home as an adult is a mixed one. In some ways, it is quite nice. I'm paying out very little to live here and that means I can actually buy things I want whilst still saving a good amount. I get to watch Sky TV and have unlimited broadband for nothing. I do all my own cleaning and washing but I rarely have to go shopping for food. Meals are mostly cooked for all three of us and so I don't have to cook every day which is great.
The day I move out for good is at least on the horizon now. I look forward to eating massive pizzas and leaving the boxes strewn across the room just because I can!
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