Younger generations face major money hurdles

The survey, conducted by bank lender ME, used a panel of 1,000 Australian adults and found that younger generations indicated greater financial difficulty than older generations across 9 out of 10 milestones.

According to the survey, younger generations nominated ‘starting their own business’, ‘buying their first home’ and ‘raising a family’ as their top challenges, while older generations nominated ‘having money left over for holidays and luxuries’, ‘starting their own business,’ and ‘making ends meet’ as their top challenges.

The survey also found that women are facing greater financial difficulty than men, with 73 per cent of women indicating that they found in difficult to start their own business (11 percentage points higher than men).

Compared to 53 per cent of men, 63 per cent of women said that earning a decent income was difficult.

Nic Emery, head of deposits and transactional banking at ME, commented that the survey’s findings support the arguments that younger generations are struggling compared to their older compatriots.

“As a bank we see firsthand how hard it is for younger people, particularly for Gen Ys buying a first home, when average house prices are seven times the average income today compared to three times 30 years ago,” Mr Emery remarked.

“With greater financial challenges, it’s more important than ever for younger Australians to have solid money management skills,” he said.

[Related: Financial comfort gap widens between young and old]