It's extremely difficult for Gen Z to afford a house due to high property prices, cost of living, and interest rates, creating a huge deposit gap, but some are using smaller deposits, family help, government schemes, moving to cheaper areas, or leveraging higher wages from job market shortages, with many still delaying homeownership or relying on alternative strategies to achieve it.
More than one in three (35%) Gen Z Australians plan to buy their first home within five years, according to Westpac's latest Home Ownership Report. Intentions have jumped five percentage points since January 2025, signalling a wave of growing confidence despite ongoing affordability challenges.
Gen Z's current economic woes: no houses and no kids
Gen Z is also struggling with holding down a job. Young households receiving unemployment surged 32% year over year in February, according to the report. But it's not for a lack of trying, despite the naysayers.
Five years from now, in 2030, it's expected to quadruple from that number and hit $36 trillion. By 2040, the then-middle age generation is expected to rake in $74 trillion in income. These projections, made in a 2025 Bank of America report, also estimate that Gen Z will be the richest generation by 2035.
Baby boomers own the largest share of U.S. homes among any generation. Despite accounting for one-fifth of the total U.S. population, those born between 1946 and 1964 owned more than one-third of all residential homes in 2022, per Freddie Mac data.
Baby Boomers faced high inflation and interest rates but could access affordable housing. Gen X navigated economic uncertainty but still found reasonable property prices. Gen Y pioneered the digital economy while watching housing slip away. Gen Z inherits technological advantages but faces unprecedented housing costs.
It is a commonly held notion that wealthy families struggle to pass down and preserve their wealth beyond more than two generations. Families go from “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations,” according to the old saying.
Whilst boomers and millennials may use the 😂 emoji, this has long since been deemed 'uncool' (or 'cheugy') by Gen Z. Instead, this has been replaced by the skull (💀) or the crying emoji (😭), dramatising the idea of 'dying with laughter'.
There's no single "toughest" generation, as each faces unique struggles, but Generation X (born 1965-1980) is often cited as the most stressed due to balancing work, family, and finances while facing economic uncertainty, yet they also show high resilience, while younger generations like Gen Z grapple with unprecedented housing costs and climate anxiety, making the definition of "tough" subjective and dependent on the specific challenges faced.
Donald Trump, born in June 1946, falls squarely into the Baby Boomer generation (typically 1946-1964) as one of the first individuals in that cohort, while President Joe Biden, born in 1942, is a member of the preceding Silent Generation (roughly 1928-1946). Trump's birth year places him at the very beginning of the Baby Boom era, making him a Boomer, not Silent Generation.
Michael Sheen has written off £1 million ($1.29 million) of debt for 900 people using £100,000 ($129,000) of his own money. The Welsh star, famed for roles in Good Omens, Twilight and more recently, A Very Royal Scandal, has started a debt acquisition company to help the group in his native south Wales.
Mental health is still a big issue for Gen Z. They're the most likely generation to say they're prone to anxiety (28% say this) and to report that social media stresses them out (18% say this). Since 2020, there's been a 25% rise in Gen Z reporting a mental health condition.
The 70% money rule usually refers to the 70/20/10 budgeting rule, a simple guideline that splits your after-tax income into three categories: 70% for needs/living expenses, 20% for savings/investments, and 10% for debt repayment or giving. It helps you balance essential spending, building wealth, and managing debt by allocating funds for day-to-day costs (housing, food, bills), future goals (retirement, emergency fund), and debt reduction (loans, credit cards).
Using this free income calculator, the approximate income you need to buy a $500,000 home, assuming you need a $400,000 loan, is $77,000 gross per year, excluding superannuation.
More than half (52%) of Gen Z expect to retire before 65, with a comparable number from this generation (57%) believing they could live to be 100. Millennials also believe in their ability to live to 100 (49%), but a smaller number from this generation (40%) expect to retire before they reach 65.
3.5% down payment options
You can buy a $300,000 house with just a $10,500 down payment using an FHA loan. These loans are easier to qualify for than conventional loans, especially if your credit score is lower.
Across much of the world, it is no longer middle-aged adults who are the most miserable. Instead, young people, especially Gen Z, are reporting the highest levels of unhappiness of any age group.
46% of Gen Z workers, 37% of Millennials, and 25% of Gen X said they would likely quit due to limited growth or upskilling opportunities.
Recent research shows that members of the Baby Boomer generation have worse health than previous generations did at the same ages—diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illnesses are more common.
“Can't lie” “Can't lie” falls under the same umbrella as slang terms like NGL (not gonna lie) and TBH (to be honest). The 🆑 emoji is perfect to use when you're trying to keep things unfiltered and brutally honest.
The upside-down face emoji 🙃 is basically code for “this is terrible” or FML. It's used when things aren't going well or the user is having a terrible day. This modern usage is an update to the millennial sense. For the older generation, this emoji often indicated sarcasm or even silliness.
Bae. Meaning : Similar to the '90s slang word “boo,” a term of endearment meaning “baby” or “babe,” often used to refer to a boyfriend, girlfriend, or romantic partner. While “bae” became mainstream with Gen Z, it actually originated earlier, with usage traced back to the mid-2000s. Example: “I'm out with bae tonight.”
Millennials will be inheriting the most ($46 trillion) of any generation over the course of the next 25 years. However, Gen X stands to inherit the greatest portion of assets in the next 10 years, totaling $14 trillion to Millennials' $8 trillion, the report further advises.
People may find it empowering to organize their money in four buckets: liquidity (cash), lifestyle (spending), legacy, and perpetual growth. In this way, they discover whether their money is organized—and utilized—in a way that supports their intentions.
One of the most difficult transitions that a family business must make is from the second to the third generation. It's not just that the third generation, accustomed to wealth and privilege, is likely to spend the business into bankruptcy.