Advice not helping renting generation

Sir, – A letter writer (July 2nd) comments that cappuccinos and pints are luxuries and, if people feel they are too expensive, they just shouldn’t purchase them.

It is good to give advice to others, and maybe giving up every little luxury or pleasure will help some young person save money – a €3.50 cappuccino every day adds up to almost €1,300 a year, you know! That’s a month of creche fees saved a year, or maybe a month’s rent saved a year. Fifteen years of that, and you’ve got €19,000. A complete no-brainer to deny yourself of a small comfort every day for 15 years to have about half a deposit ready to put on a mortgage – plenty of time to find a partner who has given up a pint for 15 years to put up the other half.

I would like to offer my own advice, if I may? Perhaps a generation of people who go on television talking about how they jumped onto the property ladder with a do-upper in 1987 for £19,000 should be a bit more restrained when they give financial advice to others. Some might think it displays a complete lack of understanding of the economic landscape facing young people nowadays. – Yours, etc,

MARIA O’BRIEN,