Increasing financial pressures faced by Australians are set to breaks the tradition of the next generation enjoying a better lifestyle than the one before, research reveals.
Data from the IPSOS/MLC Australia today — part two - A look at lifestyle, financial security and retirement in Australia, white paper, found a third of Australian's believe their children will not be able to afford the same quality of life as they have.
Researchers found that almost three in five Australians were concerned that they might not be able to maintain their current lifestyle over the coming decade, people age 50 to 70 years marginally more concerned, while 17 per cent said they would have to rely on family inheritance to pay off their mortgage.
MLC chief executive, Andrew Hagger, said the research there's a lot of work to be done to help the nation feel more confident about the future.
"We know that maintaining our lifestyle and financial security are our top priorities for Australians," he said.
"However, Australians are telling us they are worried.
"There has always been the expectation that future generations will do better than us.
"Yet these findings paint a different picture. It's concerning to see so many people worried about how their children will afford their own homes and live a comfortable lifestyle."
The research also found that 35 per cent of respondents were concerned about their job security, with that fear highest among new migrants who moved to Australia within the last four years (78 per cent).
Comments
All the indications coming from major reports into the future of financial security as such have the same result.
Expecting the government to do something about it is totally unrealistic. The government doesn't have the big green button to push to get anyone to of trouble including themselves. So if they can't manage the finances of this country, let alone any other country on this globe, then how can any expect them to help the people.
This story has been around for a long enough time which is why I developed the Money Rules program. People have been struggling for generations and I meet with them every day. Once they have seen the program, they say, why doesn't anyone tell us about this?
DUH! PROFITS!!! The banks profits and shareholders dividends. The government taxes on profits. The lenders and the government need people to be paying ridiculous amounts so they can get obscene amounts of BILLIONS of profit and taxes.
People need to stop whingeing and moaning and take responsibility for their own actions and futures, including teaching their children.
The problem for most is that you can give them the solution for nothing and most still wouldn't do anything other than complain.
Agree Nobby. This is and always has been part of life. To expect that you will always be able to preserve an inheritance may be a great ideal but if it is not possible then that is part of life and normally greatly influenced by the decisions made by those concerned.
From a socio-demographic aspect, again this is an ages old issue. Since the invention of money and property prices, there have been those who cannot afford to live in major cities and have had to move to where it is cheaper to live, and hence one of the reasons why especially in the fifties a lot of our Nation's rural areas grew and flourished.
Our age is one of artificial expectations, where couples on average wages want to own the million dollar home in the capital city. Fine, however that is your choice; if you do not pay off the mortgage in your lifetime, or else need the inheritance to do so, or in your old age have to sell and rent or move to where it is cheaper then all these are not Government problems but simply individual choices that you make.
Having teenaged children myself, one of the biggest ongoing criticisms I have of Governments past and present is that not enough emphasis has been placed in our school curriculum on financial literacy and education; the basic tools of a population to simply allow it to make better and more informed decisions for themselves.
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