Millennials don't feel adult when they can barely afford to live as one | Emma Kay

My possessions mostly amount to hand me down furniture, lots of geeky memorabilia and a constant amazement I have yet to kill my latest succulent plant.

I imagined by 26 I’d be an enviable adult with an amazing career, and be living a life of permanence and stability which would be light years ahead of all the bullies from school.

Being able to live in my own property for someone my age is a privilege that so many of my friends are unable to have. The biggest detriment to whether millennials can afford to get on the property ladder may not be how much they earn, but if they are able to access it through generational wealth. So it is no wonder that many millennials do not feel like an adult when they can barely afford to live as one.

Having a space to call your own outright that is of a liveable standard is becoming rarer and rarer in this country. The average age of homeowners is much higher than it was 20 years ago. Data shows that 65 per cent of outright owners are in the 65-and-over age range compared with fewer than 10 per cent aged 35-44. Such figures indicate that so many are way behind their elderly peers.

A mark of adulthood is said to be living independently, to own a house, having a family and be stable. These rather affordable prerequisites of the past are a huge immoveable boulder to the present generation. There are higher poverty rates, higher transportation costs, less job security, higher student debt with the biggest and hardest hurdle of them all, having the deposit to put down on a home.

The reality is much of the financial advice that worked for our parents’ generation sadly just does not apply anymore. The world that exists today is a very different one than the one our parents dealt with in the past. A lot of people I know have never been able to afford living like an adult and maybe they should consider that we are all are trying to do the impossible in a system that is no longer built for us. So maybe we need to move the markers for ‘adulthood.’

But it is okay not to feel like an adult in your late twenties or early thirties? You should feel pride in the things you have accomplished with what you have been given. We may not be ‘adults’ by definition of society but maybe, hopefully, one day the scales will tip and we can get our feet through that proverbial front door of our dreams.

The smell around Hilsea Lido detracts from a pleasant area

Hilsea Lido has seen a lot of suffering of late.

Anti-social behaviour and harassment of staff means it’s not operating as normal but is still popular.

Sadly, it is plagued by a rather nasty pong. Walking around the lido there were many spots where a plethora of stinks and smells follow you like a dog on a lead. Is it a miasma of drains or stagnant water?

The lido offers free parking and a pleasant walk around. A place for parents to entertain their children in the splash pools or the teens on the skate board humps and bumps. There is a cafe offering many flavours of ice-cream and multiple food options. A great place to sit and watch the zip wire water-skiing as well as the swans and ducks.

But the smell diverts the positive attention from an otherwise pleasant place, which is a shame, but it’s still very much there.

Pythons are the perfect pets

I never thought I would be sitting on my bed, perfectly poised with a peaceful ball python who simply wants to sit and chill in her scaled simplicity.

Her beautiful pear-shaped scales and pebbled pattern make her incredibly beautiful to look at and very easy to handle.

Snakes are silent, only need feeding once a week are so magically low maintenance that it is a wonder why more people do not opt for them as pets.

There is of course the underlying fear that some people have for such companions but spending a bit of time with these creatures is the best medicine for fear.

There have been many times where I have encouraged people who have been afraid of these magnificent creatures, to hold or stroke my python for them to be amazed at how soft and gentle she is. Pythons are my new preferred pet!

A message from the editor, Mark Waldron.

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