S3E8: Are We Worse Off Than Our Parents?
How do younger generations deal with the financial challenges they’ve been dealt? And is it really harder than it was for their parents? Iona Bain is a writer, speaker, broadcaster and author of ‘Own It: How our generation can invest our way to a better future’. She started the Young Money blog in 2011 to help young people get to grips with personal finance and is currently BBC Morning Live’s money expert.
What you should remember from this episode
Iona Bain is a journalist we like who’s written a book “Own It! How our generation can invest our way to a better future”
There has been a big generational shift with more people not being able to afford to get on the property ladder because of wage stagnation relative to the increasing cost of property in the UK.
This means more people today need family money to get on the housing ladder than previous generations.
Another big generational change has been the cost of education. University used to be free so student loans are a tax our parents’ generations didn’t have.
We’ve also experienced record low interest rates for 15 years, which gave millennials very little incentive to save.
Iona says quantitative easing has caused a lot of inflation, which benefits older people because it inflates their asset prices. This disproportionately hurts younger people who need more money to acquire assets.
There were problems in previous generations of course, e.g. misselling was rife (regulations have got better).
We may be in a worse state as a generation financially than the previous one, but Iona argues we have more freedom, flexibility and ability to define success on our own terms.
Put sauce on your pasta Damo’s nan!
