Buying anything outright is so yesterday. Everything is available for small monthly payments these days – few of us will happily pay over £500 for the latest new smartphone, for example, but £30 a month seems much more reasonable.
It’s the same with furniture… how many adverts are there on TV, tempting punters with a shiny new sofa for as little as £20 a month?
This is particularly true for young people. Older generations are perhaps a little more cautious about their monthly outgoings, and anecdotal experience suggests they would rather save up and buy something outright. But, young people are increasingly impatient – they want the latest thing and they want it now.
This applies as much to cars as it does the latest gadgets. Gone are the days when new drivers would spend their formative years running around in an ancient old banger, worth no more than a few hundred quid. Look at the new Toyota Aygo, a car that I drove in Amsterdam earlier this week, a car desperately trying to appeal to a youthful market.