1971 and all that

Happy 40th Birthday to me!

Post Birthday Blog

1971 and all that

I turned 40 yesterday having been born 27 July 1971

A friend and client was kind enough to send me a birthday card with a few numbers from 1971 on it.

It makes interesting reading...

 Petrol was 7.5p a litre (compared to over £1.35 at the garage I passed on my way home tonight)

A large loaf was 10.5p (half a penny, remember those!)

Colour TV licence was £12 (black and white licence was abolished)

Average house price £5,970 (what would that buy you now?)

Prescription charge –  20p

Cinema ticket – 40p

Pint of beer – 12p

And to pay for all this the average weekly wage for a full time working man was £32.90 (£1,710 per annum)

I then looked a little further into a few more financial differences between then and now.

In the US in 1970/1 a typical skilled working class couple with two children had one wage earner, saved around 11% of their income and had revolving credit (ie they had credit cards but paid them off in full each month). The family therefore could be thought to have a reasonable safety net: little risk of mortgage default, adequate savings, low borrowings if any and a potential additional wage earner if required.

Compare and contrast that with today. In the same type of family, typically both parents are working, and the safety net has gone. There are little or no savings and paying back credit (excluding the mortgage) takes up 15%+ of income. The loss of one job, or accident or illness would threaten the survivorship of the family finances and the fall in their house price since 2008 has wiped out any equity there.

In 1971 Inflation in the UK was 8.6%

Decimalisation hit the UK (in February admittedly) and also in February 1971 the NASDAQ exchange, beloved of all investors until the tech bubble burst at the turn of the century, started in America. Continuing the technology theme, Intel invented the first microprocessor (numbered the 4004 tech fans!)

Oil is in the news at the moment as then. North Sea Oil had just started production in Norway.

And to finish on a more serene and suitably named note, GreenPeace came into existence.

Ian Green (age 40 and 1 day)