Sound the generational warfare klaxons! The generations are once again living in very different Australias. Or so it seems.
The relentlessly rising price of rents, mortgages and basics is depressing spending by the youth and the relatively young, while those silver-haired souls untouched by monthly mortgage payments are living a rather less thrifty existence. In Crikey’s latest Paint by Numbers we take a look at how the young and old are living.
Monthly spend by 50-54 age group: $3,575 (+2.6% compared to last year)
Monthly spend by 25-29 age group: $2,099 (-3.5% compared to last year)
Most Australians are spending more on boring essentials while dispensing less on fun discretionary items:
Amount the average person spends on insurance each month: $244, up $19
Amount the average person spends on clothes each month: $101, down $3
Fall in hospitality spending over the year to April: -1%
But that fall in discretionary spending is not seen in all demographics:
Age groups with inflation-adjusted increases in discretionary spending: 65+
Age groups with inflation-adjusted falls in discretionary spending: 40-65
Age groups with actual falls in discretionary spending: 18-39
Increase in spending by outright home owners over the year to April: 6.3%
Increase in spending by mortgaged home owners over the year to April: 4.5%
Increase in spending by renters over year to April: 1.3%
But! Could some of the apparent difference in spending be because young and old people are not living in different Australias at all? Might the young and the old in fact be living at the exact same address?
Decline in supermarket spending by 25-29 year olds: 4%
Rise in supermarket spending by 65+ age bracket: 5%
Share of men age 18-29 living with parents in 2021: 54%
Rise in capital city rents in the year to March 2024: 8.5%
In a housing shortage/cost of living crisis, moving out of home a year or two later than planned makes a lot sense. The people to be truly sorry for are those for whom that’s not an option.
