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Reflecting further on the exotic cars driven by the youngsters in our vicinity, I realise something else is different: they’re still living with their parents.

Thinking back to the early 2000s, I now recall that even friends who were trainee solicitors were driving old bangers then. That’s because we were setting out in life, prioritising a place of our own.

We might say those were different times. Twenty-five years ago, you could rent a property for about £100 a week. The average rent in the UK now stands at £1,220 each month — and nearly double that in London.

Those spiralling costs, it seems, are forcing more and more young people to stay at home for longer. Far from flying the nest, they’re bedding themselves in.

Whereas our generation would scrimp and save to make it on our own, the stay-at-home generation is able to redirect what would have gone on rent to other priorities.

Whatever this grumpy git might say about extravagance, the monthly finance payments for an AMG Mercedes-Benz sports turbo are still significantly less than the average UK rent.

Put that way, I realise we could replace our family car with two luxury sporty coupés right now. But, of course, we won’t because right now we’re saving up to put two kids through university.

That’s not to say we don’t have dreams of our own. I’d really like to be a digital nomad, spending my winters on the Turkish Riviera, summers in the Black Sea and inbetween roving around in a camper.

But that’s a vision of the future, and only if the Most Merciful wills. For now, we have responsibilities. Children coming of age. Elderly parents.

Though they don’t get it yet, there’s a reason we take our children to see the tiny rooftop flat we lived in when we first got married. Likewise, showing them photos of the state of our house when we bought it.

In a bedsit in Hanwell, I had to contend with no hot water, a flatmate with manic depression, a sick resident cat, and an infestation of fleas.

In our flat in West Ealing, we had to contend with a leaking roof, black mould and the screaming and clattering of fighting neighbours having another domestic meltdown.

And while we paid off the loan for our little house, we shivered through several winters, looking forward to the day we would be able to replace the rotting window frames with double glazed units.

These are the journeys we are on. Looking back, I now recall that we didn’t shun those luxuries because we had no ambition or self-respect. We just couldn’t afford it then because we had to prioritise other things.

It’s important to keep ourselves grounded. To recall that everything comes to fruition at its proper time. Sure, you can take shortcuts to get exactly what you want right now. But really the right way is to take it step by step, moving forward one day at a time.