city apartment prices sky rocket

When Mimi and her husband sold their city apartment to buy a family home in a leafy, sleepy suburb they had no idea that years later they would regret that decision when they were ready to return to city living - the price of city apartments has sky rocketed!

“At the time we thought we were making a rational decision, after all we planned on having a family and it would have been difficult to raise kids in the city,” explains Mimi, “but we were only thinking of the short term, not the long term.”

“John and I are now in our early 60s, we’re empty nesters, all three of our children having moved to the city years ago – and we hate being stuck in the suburbs, it’s hell, and we long to be back where the action is, and closer to our kids, too.”

“Our suburban house hasn’t appreciated half as much as city apartments over the years,” explains Mimi, “which means that even if we sold our house now there is no way we could afford to buy back the old apartment – it is worth twice as much!”

“I wouldn’t feel so bad about our situation if selling our old city apartment had been a matter of life or death, something we had to do, but it was nothing like that,” says Mimi. “We actually had a lot of cash and plenty of credit at the time and could very easily have kept the apartment and mortgaged the suburban house up to the hilt – but we didn’t!”

“Instead, we stupidly thought that it would be better to reduce our debt load as much as we could – believing that raising kids would cost a fortune, which it did, but we failed to take into consideration that our earning power would increase and that city property appreciates a lot more than suburban property.”

“John’s out of work right now and I’m hanging on to my job by the skin of my teeth,” sighs Mimi, “and maybe the global economic crisis has something to do with our situation but we personally believe that being in our early 60s is the real problem – and that’s something we never took into consideration either.”

“We’re living proof that earning power peaks in the early 40s and then plateaus or sinks thereafter,” sighs Mimi, “which means that most of us ordinary people have only 25 years to make our fortunes and if you make a stupid financial decision in that time period you’re stuffed for the rest of your life.”

“Had we been prepared to take on massive debt in our 20s we would be the proud owners of a city apartment and a suburban house right now, and John’s being out of work wouldn’t be the huge problem it is today because we’d have rent coming in.”

“Actually, if we had the city apartment to move back to it’s likely that John would be able to find another job much easier than he can where we live now, so we wouldn’t be in trouble at all.”

“It’s not just money we’re upset about,” explains Mimi, “it’s being stuck in the suburbs and being bored out of our brains that really gets to us.”

“Suburban life is great for raising kids, but once they’ve grown up it’s a dead stinking life for adults.”

“If there are any young couples out there reading my story, then please don’t make the same mistake we did,” says Mimi. “If you’re paying off a city apartment, no matter how small or noisy it is, don’t sell it to buy a suburban family home!”

“Do everything you can do to hang on to the apartment – even renting a suburban house while you’re raising your family, if you have to – because years down the line you are going to be grateful not only for the financial benefits but most importantly also for the social and cultural benefits that only a city apartment can give you.”

an age old problem

Continentals are shocked that Britain has elected such young politicians to run the country, and yet Audrey sees it as a consequence of an aggressive youth revolution in the workplace that is putting younger and younger people in charge and sidelining middle-aged people like her who, in less revolutionary times, would be gearing up to take over from the retiring ranks.

“As soon as we reach 40, or even 35 in some industries,” claims Audrey, “older women are seen as dinosaurs – past their use-by date – and a younger candidate will always get preference over a mature woman when applying for a job or a promotion.”

“The mature women will be told that other candidates had skills, qualifications or experience that were more appropriate for the position,” says Audrey, “yet these women know what is really at issue – their age.”

"It may be legally discriminatory to hire, fire or select for promotion on the basis of age," says Audrey, "and I’ve never been asked my age outright, but all employment forms carry our date of birth and despite these records supposedly being confidential, everyone at work knows how old I am - 45.”

"My mother never put her real age on her employment form," laughs Audrey. "She said it was none of their business and back in those days she could get away with it. It was considered indelicate to ask a woman her age. You can’t lie about your age these days. It’s against the law."

“Ageism as a result of an aggressive youth culture in the workplace is a newly created problem – it never existed when all young people started at the bottom irrespective of their talents,” says Audrey. “Giving positions of power to young people who may be talented, but lack the qualities of responsibility that only come with age, is a risky business.”

“I’m not saying that all young people are incapable of being leaders – in the workplace or in the political arena,” says Audrey. “I am merely pointing out that their age has not yet conferred upon them the experience they need – something you can’t gain from a text book or a lecture – and I no more feel comfortable with a 20-something boss than a 40-something prime minister.”

“I may be terribly old fashioned, but I feel people in their retirement years are better suited to leadership than any other age group,” says Audrey. “They’ve been there and done that and are less likely than a younger person to seek leadership for personal gain.”

“When will this madness end – with an 18 year old candidate gaining selection with a platform of ending all welfare for the elderly?”

Read more by Audrey on this issue:

being old in a young workplace

workplace dinosauresses