66% of young Australians earn more than a year ago: Urban List survey reveals
New research from lifestyle media house, Urban List, has revealed two in three young Australians are earning more than they were a year ago, displaying significant shifts in their attitudes toward their finances and careers.
The third annual report — Money Cents: Keeping Up With Australians’ Attitudes Toward Money — showed 45% of the Urban List audience have started a new role within the last 12 months, a significant contributor toward their growth in income; with their new wealth more than twice as likely to be channeled into establishing long-term financial security.
The Money Cents report also uncovered that Urban List’s audience have been squirreling away their bigger paychecks with 86% actively saving and one in four having $40,000+ in their savings account and finding ways to cut their cost of living.
In analysing the new data, Urban List head of insights, Sophia Wilcox, admitted she was alarmed to see how significantly respondents’ gender contributed to both their earnings and savings goals.
Men were twice as likely to be saving $1500+ each week, and also twice as likely to be earning above $120,000/year. Women were twice as likely to be saving to start a family, whereas men were more than twice as likely to be saving for their retirement.
“As a business, we actively showcase the benefits of equality on our cities’ culture and so it was disheartening to see that even amongst our audience, the gender pay gap is still so prominent. The clarity of this data has brought a fresh sense of drive and purpose to our Career and Finance content as we look to address these themes and build up women’s’ wealth and financial literacy,” Wilcox said.
Urban List CCO, Jacqui La’Brooy, added: “There is no question that as a society, we are making great progress when it comes to addressing issues around gender balance.
“However, financial inequality continues to be an issue for too many women. “ Financial inequality is power inequality and that’s what inspired us to launch Culture Curve: The Feme-conomy Edition. A new woman’s wealth initiative designed to highlight all the latest happenings in the world of finance and the perfect opportunity for a brand partner to align with woman’s money matters.”
The instability caused by the pandemic has made future-proofing finances a priority for many Australians, but especially the next generation — young Aussies have actively engaged in activities to increase their financial knowledge. When asked if they want to know more about their finances, three in four agree, yes. Young people care more and are being more proactive with money matters.
The get rich quick noise from day trading may have dominated the fin press headlines over the past year but 71% of Money Cents respondents are more inclined to pursue a longer-term investment strategy, pursuing a ‘get rich slow’ mentality, bucking the day-trading trend.
Wilcox concluded: “Young Aussies have just lived through one of the biggest financial shakeups of their lives. They are fully engaged with their financial future and understand the choices they make today will pay off longer term. Real opportunities exist for brands to make long lasting connections by helping them set and achieve their goals.”
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topics
Gen Z
Money Cents: Keeping Up With Australians’ Attitudes Toward Money
Sophia Wilcox
Urban List
