Missingblade said
"I realize now that I will never be able to have a bigger boat than my current Hobie 16. I will also have to stay with the 1500cc Daihatsu - might get an 1800 though...
Realize too that the 1100sq Ft apartment in HKG will be my home for at least another 25 years since no bases available. Also thanks to your sagely advice I have just compensated for the lack if Prov Fund due to delayed command by upping my own contributions to the max. I am also not getting that little flat in Thailand anymore - I will just rent some of the senior guys Villas. And since we are in China anyway I told the wife the one child policy now applies to us as well.
Thank you so much for clearing all this up for me - planning for the 'future' is what it's all about!!"
Just got to thinking – is this a generational thing? House prices in much of the world went up so much, that I can’t imagine a young pilot in Sydney or London is any better off. In the US, pilots have for a long time now had a culture of commuting from Smalltown, where cost of living is cheap, to expensive urban bases.
Basically, in just about any career except investment banking, the baby boomers won. Training/ university tended to get paid for back in the day, high inflation reduced the real cost of mortgages, they got final salary pensions, their properties went through the roof. Compare with now – student loans, silly property prices, piss-poor pensions, and no high inflation to help debts reduce.
1100 sq ft in a major city? Unfortunately, that isn’t bad – check out the crap 700 sq ft places in UK at 250k gbp
I blame the end of the cold war myself. Damn Eastern Block, China and India deciding to go capitalist…!