BUYING a house is stressing many children out, with research revealing one in five teenagers are “saving” for a deposit.

Money-worried Generation Z are stashing  pocket money to avoid needing the handouts from family or the government that their credit-happy predecessors Generations X and Y required.

Financial data on teen money habits, obtained when researchers for Australia’s largest credit file bureau Veda Advantage interviewed 2000 children aged between 12 and 18, uncovered a disturbing trend of money stress.

Nearly 70 per cent worried about money, most have a  savings account and plan to pay for their own cars, education and house.

“Teens are considering their financial future and putting their quality of life ahead of immediate materialistic goals,” teen researcher Habbo Asia Pacific director Jeff Brookes said.

“Australian teens desire to be in a position where they can be homeowners in the next five years. Teenagers have strong establishment goals of car and home ownership and investing in their education versus spending money on travel, which was more popular among Generation Y.”
Some young people were signing up for mortgages the day they turn 18, but research suggested most were not planning on buying a house until their mid-20s.
It found Australian teenagers had strong convictions about paying bills on time and “do not like owing people money at all” even if it is to their parents.

“They have a healthy respect for money,”  Veda Advantage’s Kelvin Kirk said.

“The current financial climate would have had an impact on them. Families would have been talking about money at home. They don’t miss mobile phone repayments and 67 per cent do not like owing anyone money.”

The credit data is a stark contast  to Gen Y, who, now aged 19 to 30 years, are responsible for more than one third of Australia’s total consumer credit defaults, despite only constituting one fifth of the entire credit card holding population.

Mr Kirk said Gen Y default more on personal loans and  mobile phone bills “than any other generation”.
Victoria Shehadie, 17, is working hard to beef up her savings account before she heads on a two-month educational exchange to Italy.

“I have been saving all year,” she said.

“It can be really daunting but it’s all worth it in the end. You don’t want to live off your parent’s money.  Some of my friends save all their money, they have literally hundreds of dollars. They are saving money for cars, trips and houses.”

When she returns she is planning to pay at least half her tertiary fees while studying a communication degree, cover all her expenses when she moves out of home, and eventually buys a house in another 10 years.

“My friends and I looked up some houses recently, we were like “oh my gosh – you may as well start saving now, these are really expensive” and I should start getting a handle on it,” she said.

Source: Daily Telegraph