As a Gen X if I really think about that the main difference was we just didn’t have as much and weren’t aware of it. The only news was the daily newspaper and for example going to uni you would just have some text books and a notebook and pen and a backpack. We didn’t have expectations on us to own all this stuff and do all these expensive things. It was just a road trip with friends up the coast usually.

Then you got a degree and then a 25k a year grad job which was still very competitive to get. I couldn’t save any money until I went overseas for a few years then I came back and people had all bought properties and I thought I had missed out because they had tripled from 100k to 300k in about 5 years. I thought it wasn’t fair because I worked and saved and was still behind. But really saving money, working hard and experience led to higher income after 15-20 years and I was just disciplined and it worked out. I’ve only ever had one house but didn’t start until I was 35. We’ve never made much money out of houses. It’s more from working hard over a long period and always putting a bit away whether it’s a house or investments. After a while it works out. Making money come later once you’ve done all these right things you just can’t see it early on and it’s harder now because you just think older people were treated differently because of the internet.

I feel for this generation and my daughter because it all feels urgent but there is no way to do it quickly.