Are your kids ignoring your money advice?

{"text":[[{"start":6.15,"text":"Nick, 26, didn’t go to university. Instead, he turned down an offer to study, and took a job producing videos for a family friend’s small sporting goods business in Sussex. He was earning £45,000 before launching his own company in a similar field with his brother. He now operates it as a digital nomad from Costa Rica."}],[{"start":26.6,"text":"His plan didn’t go down well, initially, with his parents, who thought he was giving up on schooling."}],[{"start":32.9,"text":"But Nick was undeterred; he no longer trusted the old way of doing things. Today, he believes he got ahead by bucking the trend."}],[{"start":42.099999999999994,"text":"“Everyone else who has followed the traditional path seems to be moving at a much slower pace,” says Nick, who asked to be identified by only his first name. “They’re just following the script.”"}],[{"start":53.14999999999999,"text":"Those currently in their twenties — known broadly as Gen Z — have come of age in a particularly challenging economic climate marked by inflation, job cuts and a stagnant housing market. "}],[{"start":65.35,"text":"It’s hardly surprising, then, that young adults in the UK and elsewhere have begun to question the traditional blueprint for wealth building, especially when it comes to getting a university education, owning property, or landing a steady graduate job."}],[{"start":78.55,"text":"Many see the old playbook for building wealth as one rooted in a bygone economic reality. Parents offering “old-school” advice may have found themselves ignored or ridiculed, accused of holding on to financial dogmas that have long since crumbled."}],[{"start":94.69999999999999,"text":"For some parents, this has been a tough pill to swallow. One FT reader, a senior public servant with an Oxbridge degree, who describes himself as “conventional, and financially prudent”, said he had fallen out “badly” with his son who decided not to take up an offer to study law at a top university, and instead go straight into the workforce. "}],[{"start":116.35,"text":"“He liked law, but didn’t want the debt, or to end up as a graduate serving coffee,” he said. "}],[{"start":121.94999999999999,"text":"After his father gave him £2,000 to help him qualify as a tree surgeon, his son was earning £35,000 at age 22 with no student debt. "}],[{"start":133.64999999999998,"text":"“I still fear for his long-term prospects without a degree. But . . . I have to let him live his own life.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":"

---

"}],[{"start":140.14999999999998,"text":"For several decades, there was a relative consensus around wealth building. Save, buy a house, trade up when you need a bigger one, stick to a job with a defined benefit pension scheme, and ride off into the sunset to a happy retirement. As New Labour came to power in the UK in the late 1990s, a new dogma was added: go to university, and be rewarded with a lucrative, life-long career."}],[{"start":163.84999999999997,"text":"These days, it’s not as simple. Though there are still tangible benefits to saving and getting a degree, the financial data reveals a more complicated picture."}],[{"start":173.49999999999997,"text":"While some studies show Gen Z are earning higher salaries than their parents were at the same age, there is a generation of people in their twenties and thirties who nevertheless have markedly lower economic status than their parents had. Young people in the UK are less likely to own a house, graduate salaries have stalled and they are much more likely to be saddled with university debt. "}],[{"start":197.74999999999997,"text":"“In real terms, children are actually worse off,” says University of Nottingham economics professor John Gathergood. “It’s very easy to think ‘oh when I was young I didn’t have anything.’ But actually, in terms of their standard of living, there’s a generation coming of age [who] have less than that generation had at the same age. Parents need to recognise that.”"}],[{"start":215.14999999999998,"text":"It can be tempting to cast blame on youngsters’ perceived lack of diligence or laziness. Alice Lassman, an economist and writer, argues that this is largely a “sensationalist” trope, and that it ignores the idea that Gen Z members are responding to their environment. "}],[{"start":231.34999999999997,"text":"“It’s failing to join the dots. We shouldn’t be having to navigate the economy in this way,” says Lassman, who uses the term “disillusiononomics” to capture the “economics of a generation raised on promises that never materialised”."}],[{"start":246.94999999999996,"text":"Young people face a starkly different “experience” of the economy from their parents, says Lassman. “Our parents were raised in Thatcherism — the doctrine was hard work would produce a predictable roadmap.” But that no longer holds true for most young people, who have experienced “a perpetual crisis” of one kind or another since 2008, she says."}],[{"start":265.99999999999994,"text":"This is the context in which youngsters have begun rejecting parental advice to simply copy their lead. On Reddit, there are hundreds of comments on sub-threads dissecting the teachings of users’ parents, including: “What’s the worst financial advice/life lesson your parents tried to give you?” or, “What financial advice from our parents’ generation is officially dead?” "}],[{"start":286.54999999999995,"text":"Examples include being told to go to university to get a good job (but then facing eye-watering student loan costs) or to buy a flat early (despite soaring maintenance costs, meaning some felt they’d have been better off renting). Others said they had been dissuaded from investing in the stock market, or to stay in the same job simply to show loyalty at the expense of a pay rise elsewhere. "}],[{"start":310.65,"text":"Most often, the complaint is that even valuable advice — like not spending more than a third of your salary on rent — is futile, given its lack of feasibility. “It’s still good advice,” one Reddit user posted, but whether it’s possible “is a different matter.” Official data, for instance, shows that renters in England aged 16-24 now spend an average of 49.7 per cent of their gross salary on housing costs."}],[{"start":336.75,"text":"One Reddit user, who asked not to be named, told the FT that he’d started his own sub-thread (“Contending with parents’ lack of financial knowledge”) out of “exasperation”. He said his parents “don’t understand” the financial reality he faces, harking back to a “classic generation that bought a house very cheaply and through luck of the market became pretty financially secure.” "}],[{"start":null,"text":"

---

"}],[{"start":357.15,"text":"Much has been written about Gen Z’s disillusionment with the economy fuelling risky behaviour, dubbed “financial nihilism”. Reduced effort at work and increased investment in risky financial assets (including crypto or via prediction markets) are all found to be disproportionately common among young adults who face little to no realistic prospect of being able to afford a house. "}],[{"start":382.25,"text":"But these behaviours are much less prevalent among the middle classes; namely, those for whom buying a house feels attainable one day (even through family support)."}],[{"start":392.7,"text":"Young people haven’t universally given up. Instead, data suggests Gen Z are simply starting to think differently about how to boost their long-term wealth — and departing from the established track."}],[{"start":404.15,"text":"For instance, the youngest members of Gen Z are now thinking twice about university, partly to avoid debt, and partly hoping to leapfrog past graduate jobs. The application rate for UK 18-year-olds peaked at 42 per cent in 2022, and has fallen since."}],[{"start":420.25,"text":"Crucially, the financial case for university has softened. Gen Z graduates in the UK are earning 30 per cent less than millennials did at the same stage, with the graduate pay premium having roughly halved compared with minimum wage jobs since 2007. On top of that, growing interest rates on student loans have prompted outrage over young people’s unprecedented level of post-university debt in the UK."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":444.8,"text":"Equally, Gen Z are moving towards putting their money in stocks, ahead of property. They boast an unprecedented number of investors for their age. On average, Gen Z made their first investment at 20 years old, compared with millennials at 26, Gen X at 28 and baby boomers at 31. Notably, more than half (56 per cent) of British 18 to 34-year-olds are now investing, according to a 2025 study from HSBC. This has seen Gen Z dubbed “savvy” by some academics."}],[{"start":476.55,"text":"While a small fraction have been reported to be following misguided online advice or buying high-risk meme stocks, many are more measured — educating themselves to build diversified portfolios. "}],[{"start":488.25,"text":"Among them is 22-year-old Darren, not his real name, tells the FT he’s invested heavily in commodities like gold. Darren says he spent “hundreds of hours” researching where to place the funds, which he was gifted; older generations, meanwhile, “tend[ed] to receive a consensus from the top down.” He doesn’t see the point of having “money tied up in highly illiquid assets and products, like housing or pensions,” as his parents’ generation did and indeed advised him to do. "}],[{"start":516.55,"text":"He adds: “Taking a mortgage with 10 per cent down at the top of the most overbought housing market in history is insane. Putting money in any product dependent on the goodwill of characters like [chancellor Rachel] Reeves is equally suicidal . . . The old advice does not apply.” "}],[{"start":531.9,"text":"Finally, Gen Z has shifted away from climbing a rigid career ladder as a route to financial security. Instead, many are embracing “career minimalism”, whereby they have a 9-5 day job and build their own projects on the side. "}],[{"start":545.9499999999999,"text":"Data collected this year by Harris Poll suggested that 57 per cent of Gen Z Americans have a side hustle. This isn’t because they don’t want to work, but rather because they believe they can progress more quickly via non-traditional methods. For instance, a 2025 Deloitte report found that 67 per cent of Gen Z are developing skills outside of work hours; double the rate reported by millennials."}],[{"start":569.6999999999999,"text":"Tash, who is in her early thirties (technically a fringe Gen Z/late millennial), says she has decided not to follow her parents’ advice to simply cling to reliable employment, and instead to pursue self-employment as a content consultant-cum-writer."}],[{"start":584.65,"text":"“My dad has said to me: ‘You should make more money, and then you can do what you want.’ . . . [But] certainly, for me, I’ve decided that’s not really relevant,” she says. “I [want to] just focus on being happy now and building a business that I’m passionate about.”"}],[{"start":599.05,"text":"She adds: “Even my friends who have been working in tech . . . are still not buying a house in San Francisco.”"}],[{"start":604.9499999999999,"text":"That’s not to say that the Gen Z thesis will be proven entirely right. But it may provide some relief to parents that this is a generation investing in knowledge. Financial literacy books are currently the fastest-selling category for young people, according to Lassman, and online financial education programmes, including the newsletter Finimize and women’s groups such as Female Invest, are growing in popularity.  "}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":"

---

"}],[{"start":629.5999999999999,"text":"For many parents, it’s a disorienting time. They may not like their children’s decisions, but it’s difficult to argue with their logic."}],[{"start":636.8999999999999,"text":"In fact, parents themselves now seem to be in doubt about what’s best. According to a 2024 study by Skipton Building Society, 85 per cent of British parents of Gen Z children worry that they will give bad financial advice to their children. "}],[{"start":651.5999999999999,"text":"Across the Atlantic, over half of Canadian parents say they do not feel fully confident having financial conversations with their children. While that anxiety may be less stark among those with a finance background, middle-class parents are not immune from the pressure. "}],[{"start":666.1999999999999,"text":"This unease may lie in the fact that parents, too, lack experience in navigating this new world, says Gathergood."}],[{"start":673.9999999999999,"text":"“The rate of innovation and change means that new generations face a very different world to previous generations,” he says. “The capacity of parents to advise children on, say, how to manage money . . . is probably quite limited because of that.”"}],[{"start":689.4499999999999,"text":"He adds: “Being qualified to be the Bank of Mum and Dad doesn’t mean you’re qualified to be the financial adviser of Mum and Dad.”"}],[{"start":696.9999999999999,"text":"Annamaria Lusardi, a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, stresses that parents should not be deterred from talking to their children about money. But those who can, she says, could also gift their adult children a session with a fee-only financial planner, to help."}],[{"start":714.0499999999998,"text":"“Even the parents had to learn [financial rules] themselves and it’s very hard to learn just by watching the world around you,” she says."}],[{"start":721.6499999999999,"text":"Ultimately, she warns, all of us — young and old — are tackling a new economic reality, with few clear answers."}],[{"start":729.4499999999998,"text":"“Really using common wisdom here is not enough [any more],” she says. “The world is changing faster than we are catching up.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":742.6999999999998,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1777124229_4290.mp3"}