September 18, 2025 • 29 mins
What is the one thing splitting our generation? It shapes our future, divides us from friends and maybe even matters more than a university degree.
In this episode, our host Iona Bain is joined by historian and generational expert Dr. Eliza Filby to explore the rise of the “inheritocracy” - a world where the Bank of Mum and Dad increasingly decides who gets ahead.
They unpack how family wealth shapes education, housing, childcare, and even relationships, and what this means for millennials and Gen Z. From the great wealth transfer to shifting attitudes around inheritance, Eliza shares insights from her new book and offers practical advice for those who don’t have parental support to fall back on.
Whether you have the support of Mum and Dad or not, it’s important to understand the economic differences that it creates along with some guidance on what you can do if you’re not in this position.
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Follow Dr. Eliza Filby on Instagram.
Iona and her guests share their own personal thoughts and opinions in this podcast. These might be different from L&G’s take on things. They give financial guidance for a UK audience that’s relevant at the time of recording. It’s general best practice, not the kind of personalised advice you’d get from a financial adviser.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Iona Bain (00:01):
Hello and welcome to A Little Bit Richer with me, Iona Bain. Brought to
you by Legal & General. Now for many of us, we
grew up believing in a meritocracy where hard work brings
rewards. You grow up, get a job, put in the
hours and things will work out. But the reality is that
the opportunities are no longer shaped by what we learn
or earn, but by whether we have access to the
(00:22):
bank of mum and dad. We're living in an inheritocracy
where parental support is what matters most. Whether that's covering
the cost of university, gifting a house deposit, or helping
with childcare. With trillions of pounds set to be passed
down the generations over the next two decades, a significant
divide is emerging between those who can rely on family
(00:43):
wealth and those who can't. Joining me today to unpack
this, if you do or don't have the bank of
mum and dad to lean on, is historian, author, and
generational expert Dr. Eliza Filby. Eliza's writing has been published
in The Times, The Guardian, and The Financial Times, and
she's recently published her latest book, Inheritocracy
(01:03):
Talk About the Bank of Mum and Dad. So there
is no one better to talk to today. Welcome, Eliza.
Dr. Eliza Filby (01:10):
Great to be here.
Iona Bain (01:11):
So your work over many years has been highlighting the
real financial challenges affecting millennials. Can you give us a whistle-
stop tour through those challenges?
Dr. Eliza Filby (01:21):
Yeah. I mean I think I like to call the millennials like the in- betweeners, because we are
literally straddling two centuries. And in many instances, in many
respects, we grew up with that sort of late 20th
century dream of, " Let's get as many of you to
university. Let's kind of instill this meritocratic belief that education
(01:41):
is the path to opportunity. By the way we're going
to charge you for that degree." So this idea of
education being the path to opportunity was very much a
kind of combined with, " Okay, the value of that degree
is actually going down because more of us are getting
them, and the price of that degree is actually going
up." So that was the first dent in the dream.
(02:01):
And then the second part of the dream was get
a professional career and get that on that track to
financial stability, home ownership and financial wellbeing. And we know
the car crash that is the housing market, and frankly has been
really since 2008. And so the story of our generation
(02:23):
is a level of frustration at the fact that things
haven't quite worked out in the way that we thought,
or certainly we were told they would. Many of us
entered the workforce in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis,
and have seen multiple shocks since then, where wages basically
have stagnated, right? And certain things have become cheap. Travel,
(02:47):
technology, eating out, but the really big ticket items in
life have become incredibly expensive. And we're not just talking
about housing, we're talking about renting a house and buying
a house of course. We're also talking about the cost
of education, and also the cost of childcare. So the
access point into adulthood when you need to purchase a
(03:09):
house or make the big decisions in your life, what's
really happened to our generation is not that we've been
able to do those things, it's that some of us
have if we've had access to the bank of mum
and dad, and those that haven't have really struggled. I
make the distinction between, yes, there of course is a
divide between those that went to university and those that
did not. And we've madly created an education system in
(03:30):
which we leave 50% behind, as it were. But also
there's another layer, which is really evident in the middle
class, between those that have the bank of mum and
dad and those that don't. And that's created a inheritocracy
where it increasingly is dependent on who your parents are and whether
they can afford to support you.
Iona Bain (03:52):
Yeah. That's a very, very blunt analysis, but I think
it's one that people watching and listening will really recognize.
And you really hit nail on the head when you
talked about expectations, because objectively we are living through an
era where we have pretty good living standards, but the
problem is what people perhaps expected when they were younger.
It's not really turned out that way for them, even
(04:13):
when they've been well- educated, they've worked hard and they've
got what most would consider to be a good job.
And that is perhaps the reason why there is that
tension between younger people and older people who look at
today's consumer landscape and say, " Well, come on, you guys
have got it good."
Dr. Eliza Filby (04:28):
I know. You've got the world's information in your pocket.
Iona Bain (04:29):
Absolutely.
Dr. Eliza Filby (04:30):
I think you're absolutely right. There's this misunderstanding that material
conditions have improved, undoubtedly, but it's that expectation and that
failed expectation where the frustration is, and it's particularly acute
amongst people who have done very well in the education
track. And one of the reasons why I wrote the
(04:52):
book is that basically I got to 32, and I
grew up in ostensibly a working- class household, certainly culturally.
Although we did own our own home, and that was
because my grandfather won it in a car game. But
we had this real pressure from my parents, " Get to
university." I was the first person in my family to
graduate. I really did believe that education was the great
(05:16):
opener of opportunity, and I believed it so much that
I did a BA, an MA, and then a PhD. And
I got to my early 30s and I was on a
quite an appalling wage, around 10 grand. I had a part-
time cleaning job. And I was only able to basically
survive because my parents had made some seriously savvy property
investments in the '80s. So my mum with her sister had
(05:39):
bought a five- bedroom house in Tooting for 28,000 pounds
in 1981. Worth a lot more now.
Iona Bain (05:45):
That's so painful just to hear that.
Dr. Eliza Filby (05:47):
Exactly, but I mean we need to hear that. And
she'd also subsequently bought a house with her nextdoor neighbor.
And so by the time I was in my early
30s and expecting to be independent and making big decisions
and thinking about babies and all this and that, I
wasn't able to even though I'd succeeded in the education
system. And I was only able to frankly survive, and
(06:10):
had an embarrassing level of dependency on my parents, because
they had basically become paper millionaires through property. And I
think what I just wanted to explain was how that
came about. What happened to the baby boomer generation, and
how they were basically under certain conditions able to accumulate
property, able to accumulate good pensions, and now we have
(06:33):
that significant wealth in that generation. And what happened in
our generation where things went a bit wrong. The education,
although still important, was generating declining rewards. And big cities
became basically closed areas for people that didn't have parental
support. And childcare becoming exceedingly expensive, and marriage increasingly dependent
(07:01):
on banks of mum and dad. And financial unions being
less based on shared educational attainment; it used to be
that graduates marry graduates. My evidence in the book suggests
that people are increasingly uniting one bank of mum and
dad through marriage with another bank of mum and dad.
So I was beginning to see the inheritocracy playing out
(07:23):
in education, childcare, marriage and dating, and obviously the workforce
and housing as well. And essentially the bank of mum
and dad we often say is to do with the
house deposit. It's dependent on two things. Number one, the
time at which you get that kind of support means
you can invest in a property, it compounds over time.
(07:45):
The earlier you get that inheritance or gift, the more
independent you can become and the more basically financially set
you are.
Iona Bain (07:51):
You paint quite a bleak picture there, especially of people
getting together on the basis of whether someone's parents have
got enough wealth to support them. And that almost takes
us back to the era of Jane Austen when you
would consider your partner based on their financial stability. Would
you say that that is playing more and more of a role
(08:12):
in our relationships and our big life choices?
Dr. Eliza Filby (08:14):
Yeah. I mean I don't want to put it too
crudely, and I'm a romantic, right? I do believe in
romance. I'm not saying that romance is dead.
Iona Bain (08:20):
Perish the thought.
Dr. Eliza Filby (08:21):
No, exactly. I'm saying that there is an economic rationalism
happening in the dating scene that's less to do with
algorithm and more to do with money. There is evidence
that inter- class marriaging is declining, and there's also evidence
that women are more likely to see their inheritance as
(08:44):
their own and see their finances as their own, and
not a co- joining of finances through marriage. But there's
also evidence of mums and dads, when their offspring are
getting married, seeking to protect their wealth. Maybe through prenups,
certainly getting much more involved in that conversation. And there's
(09:04):
this whole theory in sociology about associative mating, this idea
that graduates mostly tend to marry graduates. And that was
very much the kind of emerging picture in the '90s.
And there is evidence from the Resolution Foundation that there
is less graduates marrying graduates and that being the key
determiner, and more wealthy people marrying wealthy people. And so
(09:26):
I don't want to overstate the sort of Jane Austen
like selection process that is guiding the contemporary marriage. We
did some polling in the book asking people, " How important
do you think financial compatibility is in a relationship for
determining the success of a relationship?" Now we know money
is one of the chief reasons, if not the most
(09:46):
important reasons for divorce and separation.
Iona Bain (09:48):
Very true.
Dr. Eliza Filby (09:49):
But what's interesting is when you broke down the question
by age, Gen Z and millennials thought it was more
important than boomers and Gen X. So you see this
sort of gradual increasing understanding, the lower down the generational
scale we go, that money and financial compatibility is important.
(10:10):
And I think that we've grown up in this idea
of sort of romantic rom- coms, like just find my
significant other. And it's interesting in the cost of living
crisis in a financially precarious environment, actually financially independent women
are being much more rational. It's not, " Let me marry
(10:30):
a guy in finance." That's the kind of TikTok sensation.
It's financially not dependent women arguing this. Independent women going, "
This has to be a core part of the conversations
I have with my significant other, and potentially even how
I date."
Iona Bain (10:46):
And that seems to be a really massive shift compared
to previous generations. And it has its upsides in terms
of us having a generation of women who are more
financially independent, who are making their own decisions, who are
actually in line for some of this inheritance, which they
wouldn't have been previously.
Dr. Eliza Filby (11:03):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Iona Bain (11:04):
Can you just talk us through that shift?
Dr. Eliza Filby (11:05):
Historically, there's always been inheritance, right? There's nothing new. What
is new is the amount of money that's trickling down.
There is an extraordinary amount of money in the boomer
generation, and Gen X as well, trickling down to millennials
and Gen Z. But really for the first time in
history, it's going to daughters as much as sons. And
so therefore you've got this twin impact there of the
(11:28):
rising independence of women, and that's not a millennial story,
that really starts with the boomers, and then with Gen
X, and then increasingly with millennials and now Gen Z. But
then the gender equality around inheritance. We are in a
new era. So combined with rising female financial independence, that's
made women's economic position ever more important, and actually key
(11:53):
in this not just great wealth transfer, you could argue
it's a great gender wealth transfer.
Iona Bain (11:58):
And is that partly because attitudes have changed? Or is
it more a reflection of the fact that we need
to be able to pass on that money to daughters
as well as sons? Or perhaps both?
Dr. Eliza Filby (12:09):
When you look at education, and now the workplace, women
are doing better than men. Girls are now 28% more
likely to go to university than boys. There's evidence to
suggest that young women in their 20s are out earning
men in their 20s. And that's an indication of women
working really hard, but also obviously a level of equality
for women in the professional workplace that has meant that
(12:31):
people don't see investing in daughters as...
Iona Bain (12:35):
Risky.
Dr. Eliza Filby (12:35):
Risky, or money that eventually goes to a husband.
Iona Bain (12:39):
A lot of the trends that you've talked about, they
might feel quite uncomfortable for people. But do you think
that some of the stigma and taboo around this subject
is disappearing? Or do you think that people are still
a little bit reluctant to acknowledge that this is what's
going on?
Dr. Eliza Filby (12:58):
Yeah. I mean I called the book a deliberately provocative
title Inheritocracy, but the subtitle is really important. It's time
to talk about it, because I don't think we really
have the... Legal & General actually, their reports on the bank
of mum and dad were instrumental in bringing into the
conversation this bank of mum and dad. And there was
a lot of shame, there still is a lot of
(13:18):
shame on that parental dependency. There's a lot of unsaid, whispered, "
How did she afford that deposit?" All that kind of
stuff. In friendship groups, there's a lot of silence in
families talking about gifting, talking about dependency, certainly about inheritance.
There's a level of economic infantilization that a lot of
(13:41):
people feel when it comes to their parents. I think
we need to talk about it, we need to be
much more open. Both if you are in a privileged
position of having the bank of mum and dad, but
also if you're not. Actually creating a greater level of
empathy amongst your friendship groups and saying, " Do you know
what? I can't spend 2000 pounds on attending your hen
party and wedding because I'm not in the position that
you are." And I think talking about it in your
(14:03):
peer groups, but also talking about it within your family
and also talking about it in society. Because one of
the things that I'm really passionate about is helping people
understand the social and economic forces that actually govern their
lives. I think basically what's happened since 2008 to 2025
is that the state has shrunk, the market's become dysfunctional, and
the parents have stepped up. Stepped up from a point
(14:24):
of love, and I'm not someone that believes that inheritance
should be taxed into oblivion. It's about creating and having
a conversation where inheritance matters less, and an economy where
inheritance matters less, because ultimately it's demotivating. And interestingly, and
we did a big survey asking people, " Do you think
we live in an inheritocracy?" Overwhelming majority said yes, particularly amongst
(14:46):
young people. " Do you want to talk about it?" The
category in society that does not want to talk about
it the least, at all, is men that earn over
100,000 pounds.
Iona Bain (14:56):
Interesting.
Dr. Eliza Filby (14:57):
I'm assuming here they don't want to talk about it
because they feed off of that kind of self- made
myth and are somewhat embarrassed that there is a degree
of parental dependency. So ironically, the higher up the income
scale the less likely people are to talk about it,
but more likely to be dependent on it.
Iona Bain (15:16):
And maybe sometimes they don't want to admit that to
themselves, because we all want to think that we've got
to where we are in life.
Dr. Eliza Filby (15:21):
And that was me.
Iona Bain (15:23):
Absolutely.
Dr. Eliza Filby (15:23):
That was me. I was so convinced that I was
so intelligent and hardworking and working class. I mean just
a joke the kind of story I used to tell
of my life. And I tell that story in the
book and I'm like, " It was all rubbish. Because actually,
when you look into the nuance here, yes, I was
the first person in my family to go to university.
(15:43):
Yes, I came from somewhat dingy part of South London,
certainly in the '80s. Less so now. And yes, I
was someone who my father his final job was a
cleaner." If you look at the metrics, I was someone
who didn't have a lot of privilege. Actually, the most
important part is that my parents had generated a property
portfolio and it was affordable for them to do that,
(16:05):
and by the time I was in my 30s was
an awful lot of money.
Iona Bain (16:08):
And what about those people who don't have that kind
of good luck? What are they doing now to try
to get on the property ladder, given that that does
seem to be quite a big driver still of people's long-
term wealth?
Dr. Eliza Filby (16:20):
Yeah. And it's a really important point, and something that I
wanted to do in the book was tell my story,
but not only tell my story because my story was
one privileged white girl in South London. So we sort
of unpick a lot of stories in the book of
people who have subverted the inheritocracy, I call them the
meritocratic millennials. And there are a lot of people who
(16:41):
are, in many instances, without the bank of mum and
dad doing very well. So what's the commonality there? Number
one, they don't live in London, and quite often not in
a big city. Number two, they did STEM subjects, not
arts and humanities subjects like me. That may change with
AI, but certainly the reward on those degrees is higher
(17:03):
than the reward on arts and humanities degrees. Number three,
they're often supporting their parents. We assume, and we're talking
about money trickling down the family tree. For these meritocratic
millennials, they are supporting their parents. And actually that creates
a level of interdependency that they benefit from, as well
as sacrifice for. Number four, and I think this is
(17:27):
really important, is that most of them are in dual
income households. So 70% of millennials are in dual income households, and
that becomes complex when you have children obviously. But if
you have the wider family network, and that's the fifth
commonality, you then can basically have help when it comes
to childcare and potentially you help when it comes to
(17:50):
elder care. So it's a much more, I would say,
intergenerational economic support system, rather than just the bank of
mum and dad gifting down money.
Iona Bain (17:59):
And it's not just about the bank of mum and
dad lending to children for their house deposit as well.
How else do families now support their kids in this environment?
Dr. Eliza Filby (18:09):
There's a full breadth of support coming from mum and
dad, and sometimes actually grandma and grandpa.
Iona Bain (18:16):
It's true.
Dr. Eliza Filby (18:16):
And that can be help with education in its various
forms, university, but also tutoring, extracurricular stuff. Then help with
rent, help through the mortgage rate crisis, help with the
cost of living, also childcare. There's several examples of the
book where lots of people returned back to the family
home to save for their own deposit. Parents didn't charge
(18:38):
them rent, and lots of parents wanting to do that
and accommodating in that way for their children because they
realized they couldn't give them that cash injection that perhaps
others were able to. So I think it's important to
see the real breadth of ways that people are dependent
on their parents.
Iona Bain (18:56):
Yeah. We're becoming a bit more like Italy, where it's
always been fairly normal to kind of have intergenerational living,
certainly more normal than in the UK. And we are
seeing the financial industry start to respond a little bit
to these challenges and trends by coming up with products
that could start to help those who don't have the
bank of mum and dad. I mean I'm starting to see interest- free
(19:19):
mortgages come back, whether that's a good thing or not
is up for debate. Also, 100% mortgages.
Dr. Eliza Filby (19:25):
And for those that have been paying rent regularly, there's a product on the market-
Iona Bain (19:29):
Yes, that's right. So you can get a five- year fixed rate
deal with a 100% deposit, so long as you can prove
that you've paid your rent on time for the past few years.
Dr. Eliza Filby (19:36):
Yeah, yeah.
Iona Bain (19:36):
Now to some older folks that might seem a little
alarming, but for younger people that could be one of the
only ways that they get on the property ladder without
that parental support.
Dr. Eliza Filby (19:45):
And also I think mortgages are calculated on wages, and
people have multiple streams of revenue now. So actually mortgages
and products in respect to housing need to really adapt
to how people's financial situations are changing as well.
Iona Bain (20:01):
Yes, because if house prices are still way out of
kilter with average wages, how on earth are people going
to bridge that gap?
Dr. Eliza Filby (20:08):
Exactly.
Iona Bain (20:09):
And are you seeing any signs that changes to the
housing market in recent years, such as stamp duty going
up in lots of parts of the UK, that that's
having an impact on people's decision to buy property?
Dr. Eliza Filby (20:21):
Absolutely. I think it's crippling if you are wanting to
move up the ladder, as it were. I think we
need more fluidity and more movement in the housing market,
and stamp duty is the obvious way of perhaps injecting
some of that.
Iona Bain (20:35):
I completely agree. It just feels that the whole process
of buying a property now has got far more complicated
on so many different fronts.
Dr. Eliza Filby (20:43):
Yeah. And actually it speaks to a broad point, is
that we talk about the bank of mum and dad
like there's naturally a mum and dad. And of course
in many instances there's a blended family, and that brings
a new layer of complexity. And we shouldn't make assumptions
that people have a naturally sort of emotionally straightforward relationship
with their parents. Many don't, and I lay out some
(21:04):
examples in the book where there was a lot of
fraught issues around either accepting money or talking about money
or approaching your parents around the issues of financial help.
And so I think it's really important to recognize that
families are complicated, and when you add money into that
equation it's not straightforward. And yes, a lot of parents
(21:28):
are gifting from the position of love. A lot of
parents are helping in other ways from the position of
love, but it can be highly fraught, highly complex, the
very opposite of straightforward.
Iona Bain (21:40):
And then also perhaps people feel that if my parents
give me money, maybe they're expecting something back from me
later on in life when they're older and they're not
in a position to look after themselves perhaps.
Dr. Eliza Filby (21:51):
Yeah. Someone said to me, " I think we're becoming more Asian
as a society." And that speaks to that high idea of intergenerational
contract that the parents look after the children, and eventually
the children parent the parents as the parents age. And
certainly that's what has happened in my family, but you
do eventually parent your parents. That comes with a level
of complexity if we are all living longer with illnesses
(22:13):
and people require a lot more care in their older
years. More women are working, and I'm afraid to say elder
care still relies and falls on women.
Iona Bain (22:22):
Absolutely.
Dr. Eliza Filby (22:22):
A lot of women in their 50s and 60s leaving
the workforce, elder care is becoming a really, really key
issue for them. And also financially, how do we parent
our parents when we're potentially not in the financial position
that we would like to be at that age in
our lives?
Iona Bain (22:37):
If we can't parent ourselves?
Dr. Eliza Filby (22:38):
Exactly. Well, quite. So I think elder care and looking after
our parents is something you do, not out of obligation
because they gave you a deposit, but out of love.
It can be complex of course, but it's also something
that does involve a financial discussion. And there's a lot
of parents wanting right now to help their kids in
their 30s, they're thinking far more about helping their kids
(23:00):
buy a house than thinking about how they can deal
with their own and fund their own social care. And that is a
conversation we don't want to have in politics, we don't
want to have in families, and even we probably don't
want to have with ourselves.
Iona Bain (23:13):
Definitely something that needs to change. And are you also
seeing evidence of people looking for support from friends or
siblings or other family members?
Dr. Eliza Filby (23:24):
I did find a lot of tension from people that
had lived in buy- to- lets where their friend was
effectively their landlord.
Iona Bain (23:32):
Yes.
Dr. Eliza Filby (23:33):
And that tension of, " My rent is paying basically into
their inheritance pot."
Iona Bain (23:38):
Yes, I can imagine that dynamic can get really awkward.
Dr. Eliza Filby (23:40):
That's messy. And a lot of conversation about the financial
inequality within friendship groups, and how there's a sort of
leveler at university. So to a certain degree everyone's broke in
their 20s, and then you get these kind of super
shooters who then kind of catapult into adulthood. And that's
because of the bank of mum and dad. And I
(24:02):
think the other thing to say, and this is really
evident in Gen Z, less so I think in millennials, is a financial
savviness. I think Gen Z have looked at millennials going, "
You work really hard, you made your job your life, and
you still can't afford a house at the age of 40." And they've
grown up with a very different attitude towards money, and
(24:22):
a very different obviously social media landscape that enables them
to self- educate to a certain degree, particularly around investment. So what's
interesting since 2018, the super surge of Gen Z is investing.
Iona Bain (24:37):
Yeah.
Dr. Eliza Filby (24:37):
I didn't do that in my 20s. You probably did, you're
very wise.
Iona Bain (24:40):
No, I was a bit of a latecomer too. And I
think it was because of this perception that I had
to have everything else in my life kind of sorted
out before I could progress and mature to that stage.
But yeah, I'm seeing the same with younger people where
they're thinking, " I can't really afford to play safe with
my finances, but if I invest I can maybe play
to win. And perhaps even get together enough money to
get a deposit for a property," which is a real
(25:02):
shift in attitude.
Dr. Eliza Filby (25:02):
And I think the reason for that is, yes, the economic turbulence
they experienced post- COVID, cost of living crisis. A sort
of acceptance in a way that millennials didn't have that
they're going to have to potentially live at home longer.
Iona Bain (25:16):
Yeah.
Dr. Eliza Filby (25:17):
Yeah. Hotel of mum and dad, which affects working class
families as much as middle class families. That is a
definite trend, and I think devoid of some of the
shame that it had in the 2010s with millennials. I think also
they don't believe in wages alone, and they're right not
to. And this is the key point, is that wages
(25:37):
and our jobs don't buy us what it bought our
parents, depending on obviously what your parents did. But let's
just remember that baby boomers, not all of course, had
access to decent pensions, increasing professional wages, and affordable homes.
And Gen Z know they don't have access to any
of those things. And so they have access to auto
(25:58):
enrollment, which is actually a really interesting sort of backstop.
But this generation is thinking in terms of multiple streams
of revenue, in terms of investment. In terms of I
think, and this is the key point, is as housing
has become increasingly a long- term saving goal, and potentially
a long- term maybe 35 year mortgage, long- term investment,
(26:23):
people are thinking of housing not as a ladder but
as one destination. So you look at millennials because they're
buying well into their 30s, they're not getting a flat,
they're getting a family home.
Iona Bain (26:36):
Yeah, they're skipping that first rung and going straight to a house.
Dr. Eliza Filby (26:38):
They're skipping that first rung, because actually millennials are wanting family homes
that will set them up for 10, 20, 30 years. And so
they've adapted accordingly. And then when you look at Gen
Z, the attitudes towards housing is less, " This is going
to be a savvy investment." More, " Is it even obtainable?"
(26:59):
Now they're in a certain life stage where they're thinking
differently. And let me tell you, obviously when you have
kids like suddenly having a fixed abode where you're not
subject to-
Iona Bain (27:08):
The whims of the landlord.
Dr. Eliza Filby (27:09):
Yeah, exactly. Becomes super important. And let's also remember that
buying a house is inaccessible for a large proportion of
the population, but I am seeing Gen Z as thinking
very differently when it comes to buying a house.
Iona Bain (27:26):
That is giving me some hope. Because where I think
what you do and what I do where we meet
is that you talk about these wider issues in the
hope that people don't feel bad about what's going on
out there maybe outside of their control. And where actually
I come in is trying to help people understand what
is in their control, even if it might be not
what they would've conventionally done in the past, and how
(27:48):
we need to evolve and adapt sometimes to meet these
challenges. So I'd be really interested to know, Eliza, what
are your kind of three tips? If you can distill
it all down into three tips for folks who maybe
don't have access to the bank of mum and dad,
and they're wondering, " How can I build up some of
this security and resilience for myself?"
Dr. Eliza Filby (28:08):
Number one is don't blame yourself. I think it's not
you, it's the system. And hopefully my book goes some
way to helping people understand the broader economic forces out
of their control. So don't internalize that sense of guilt
and failure. Number two is financially educate yourself. And I
think that people like you and just there's so many people out there
(28:30):
on social media, but also your parents and your wider
peer group is just start talking about money, start finding
out about money. Start that educational journey of self- knowledge.
It is nothing but empowering, right? And I say that
as someone who had a lot of shame around money,
and a lot of complex issues around money. Education is
(28:51):
empowerment. And then the final thing is take the first
step. And I'm sure you would advocate for this, it's
like it's all about time, ironically, rather than money and
rather than sums. And it's the wonder of compound interest,
and actually taking small steps now means that your 50, 60, 70- year-
old self will thank you. But it's also just actually
(29:14):
building that confidence in small steps. And I think that's
really it. Rather than me advocating for a certain ISA,
I think those three things are get rid of the
blame, get empowered by knowledge, and take the first step.
Iona Bain (29:26):
They are fantastic tips, Eliza. Thank you so much.
Dr. Eliza Filby (29:29):
Thank you.
Iona Bain (29:29):
It's just been great to get an understanding of how
these dynamics have shifted and what we can do about
them. If this episode has sparked a conversation that you
want to have with friends or family, I'd love it
if you could share the podcast and help others get
a little bit richer too. This podcast is brought to
you by LNG. You can keep up with the show
(29:49):
on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram at Legal & General. Until next time, see
you soon.
Hello and welcome to A Little Bit Richer with me, Iona Bain. Brought to
you by Legal & General. Now for many of us, we
grew up believing in a meritocracy where hard work brings
rewards. You grow up, get a job, put in the
hours and things will work out. But the reality is that
the opportunities are no longer shaped by what we learn
or earn, but by whether we have access to the
(00:22):
bank of mum and dad. We're living in an inheritocracy
where parental support is what matters most. Whether that's covering
the cost of university, gifting a house deposit, or helping
with childcare. With trillions of pounds set to be passed
down the generations over the next two decades, a significant
divide is emerging between those who can rely on family
(00:43):
wealth and those who can't. Joining me today to unpack
this, if you do or don't have the bank of
mum and dad to lean on, is historian, author, and
generational expert Dr. Eliza Filby. Eliza's writing has been published
in The Times, The Guardian, and The Financial Times, and
she's recently published her latest book, Inheritocracy
(01:03):
Talk About the Bank of Mum and Dad. So there
is no one better to talk to today. Welcome, Eliza.
Dr. Eliza Filby (01:10):
Great to be here.
Iona Bain (01:11):
So your work over many years has been highlighting the
real financial challenges affecting millennials. Can you give us a whistle-
stop tour through those challenges?
Dr. Eliza Filby (01:21):
Yeah. I mean I think I like to call the millennials like the in- betweeners, because we are
literally straddling two centuries. And in many instances, in many
respects, we grew up with that sort of late 20th
century dream of, " Let's get as many of you to
university. Let's kind of instill this meritocratic belief that education
(01:41):
is the path to opportunity. By the way we're going
to charge you for that degree." So this idea of
education being the path to opportunity was very much a
kind of combined with, " Okay, the value of that degree
is actually going down because more of us are getting
them, and the price of that degree is actually going
up." So that was the first dent in the dream.
(02:01):
And then the second part of the dream was get
a professional career and get that on that track to
financial stability, home ownership and financial wellbeing. And we know
the car crash that is the housing market, and frankly has been
really since 2008. And so the story of our generation
(02:23):
is a level of frustration at the fact that things
haven't quite worked out in the way that we thought,
or certainly we were told they would. Many of us
entered the workforce in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis,
and have seen multiple shocks since then, where wages basically
have stagnated, right? And certain things have become cheap. Travel,
(02:47):
technology, eating out, but the really big ticket items in
life have become incredibly expensive. And we're not just talking
about housing, we're talking about renting a house and buying
a house of course. We're also talking about the cost
of education, and also the cost of childcare. So the
access point into adulthood when you need to purchase a
(03:09):
house or make the big decisions in your life, what's
really happened to our generation is not that we've been
able to do those things, it's that some of us
have if we've had access to the bank of mum
and dad, and those that haven't have really struggled. I
make the distinction between, yes, there of course is a
divide between those that went to university and those that
did not. And we've madly created an education system in
(03:30):
which we leave 50% behind, as it were. But also
there's another layer, which is really evident in the middle
class, between those that have the bank of mum and
dad and those that don't. And that's created a inheritocracy
where it increasingly is dependent on who your parents are and whether
they can afford to support you.
Iona Bain (03:52):
Yeah. That's a very, very blunt analysis, but I think
it's one that people watching and listening will really recognize.
And you really hit nail on the head when you
talked about expectations, because objectively we are living through an
era where we have pretty good living standards, but the
problem is what people perhaps expected when they were younger.
It's not really turned out that way for them, even
(04:13):
when they've been well- educated, they've worked hard and they've
got what most would consider to be a good job.
And that is perhaps the reason why there is that
tension between younger people and older people who look at
today's consumer landscape and say, " Well, come on, you guys
have got it good."
Dr. Eliza Filby (04:28):
I know. You've got the world's information in your pocket.
Iona Bain (04:29):
Absolutely.
Dr. Eliza Filby (04:30):
I think you're absolutely right. There's this misunderstanding that material
conditions have improved, undoubtedly, but it's that expectation and that
failed expectation where the frustration is, and it's particularly acute
amongst people who have done very well in the education
track. And one of the reasons why I wrote the
(04:52):
book is that basically I got to 32, and I
grew up in ostensibly a working- class household, certainly culturally.
Although we did own our own home, and that was
because my grandfather won it in a car game. But
we had this real pressure from my parents, " Get to
university." I was the first person in my family to
graduate. I really did believe that education was the great
(05:16):
opener of opportunity, and I believed it so much that
I did a BA, an MA, and then a PhD. And
I got to my early 30s and I was on a
quite an appalling wage, around 10 grand. I had a part-
time cleaning job. And I was only able to basically
survive because my parents had made some seriously savvy property
investments in the '80s. So my mum with her sister had
(05:39):
bought a five- bedroom house in Tooting for 28,000 pounds
in 1981. Worth a lot more now.
Iona Bain (05:45):
That's so painful just to hear that.
Dr. Eliza Filby (05:47):
Exactly, but I mean we need to hear that. And
she'd also subsequently bought a house with her nextdoor neighbor.
And so by the time I was in my early
30s and expecting to be independent and making big decisions
and thinking about babies and all this and that, I
wasn't able to even though I'd succeeded in the education
system. And I was only able to frankly survive, and
(06:10):
had an embarrassing level of dependency on my parents, because
they had basically become paper millionaires through property. And I
think what I just wanted to explain was how that
came about. What happened to the baby boomer generation, and
how they were basically under certain conditions able to accumulate
property, able to accumulate good pensions, and now we have
(06:33):
that significant wealth in that generation. And what happened in
our generation where things went a bit wrong. The education,
although still important, was generating declining rewards. And big cities
became basically closed areas for people that didn't have parental
support. And childcare becoming exceedingly expensive, and marriage increasingly dependent
(07:01):
on banks of mum and dad. And financial unions being
less based on shared educational attainment; it used to be
that graduates marry graduates. My evidence in the book suggests
that people are increasingly uniting one bank of mum and
dad through marriage with another bank of mum and dad.
So I was beginning to see the inheritocracy playing out
(07:23):
in education, childcare, marriage and dating, and obviously the workforce
and housing as well. And essentially the bank of mum
and dad we often say is to do with the
house deposit. It's dependent on two things. Number one, the
time at which you get that kind of support means
you can invest in a property, it compounds over time.
(07:45):
The earlier you get that inheritance or gift, the more
independent you can become and the more basically financially set
you are.
Iona Bain (07:51):
You paint quite a bleak picture there, especially of people
getting together on the basis of whether someone's parents have
got enough wealth to support them. And that almost takes
us back to the era of Jane Austen when you
would consider your partner based on their financial stability. Would
you say that that is playing more and more of a role
(08:12):
in our relationships and our big life choices?
Dr. Eliza Filby (08:14):
Yeah. I mean I don't want to put it too
crudely, and I'm a romantic, right? I do believe in
romance. I'm not saying that romance is dead.
Iona Bain (08:20):
Perish the thought.
Dr. Eliza Filby (08:21):
No, exactly. I'm saying that there is an economic rationalism
happening in the dating scene that's less to do with
algorithm and more to do with money. There is evidence
that inter- class marriaging is declining, and there's also evidence
that women are more likely to see their inheritance as
(08:44):
their own and see their finances as their own, and
not a co- joining of finances through marriage. But there's
also evidence of mums and dads, when their offspring are
getting married, seeking to protect their wealth. Maybe through prenups,
certainly getting much more involved in that conversation. And there's
(09:04):
this whole theory in sociology about associative mating, this idea
that graduates mostly tend to marry graduates. And that was
very much the kind of emerging picture in the '90s.
And there is evidence from the Resolution Foundation that there
is less graduates marrying graduates and that being the key
determiner, and more wealthy people marrying wealthy people. And so
(09:26):
I don't want to overstate the sort of Jane Austen
like selection process that is guiding the contemporary marriage. We
did some polling in the book asking people, " How important
do you think financial compatibility is in a relationship for
determining the success of a relationship?" Now we know money
is one of the chief reasons, if not the most
(09:46):
important reasons for divorce and separation.
Iona Bain (09:48):
Very true.
Dr. Eliza Filby (09:49):
But what's interesting is when you broke down the question
by age, Gen Z and millennials thought it was more
important than boomers and Gen X. So you see this
sort of gradual increasing understanding, the lower down the generational
scale we go, that money and financial compatibility is important.
(10:10):
And I think that we've grown up in this idea
of sort of romantic rom- coms, like just find my
significant other. And it's interesting in the cost of living
crisis in a financially precarious environment, actually financially independent women
are being much more rational. It's not, " Let me marry
(10:30):
a guy in finance." That's the kind of TikTok sensation.
It's financially not dependent women arguing this. Independent women going, "
This has to be a core part of the conversations
I have with my significant other, and potentially even how
I date."
Iona Bain (10:46):
And that seems to be a really massive shift compared
to previous generations. And it has its upsides in terms
of us having a generation of women who are more
financially independent, who are making their own decisions, who are
actually in line for some of this inheritance, which they
wouldn't have been previously.
Dr. Eliza Filby (11:03):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Iona Bain (11:04):
Can you just talk us through that shift?
Dr. Eliza Filby (11:05):
Historically, there's always been inheritance, right? There's nothing new. What
is new is the amount of money that's trickling down.
There is an extraordinary amount of money in the boomer
generation, and Gen X as well, trickling down to millennials
and Gen Z. But really for the first time in
history, it's going to daughters as much as sons. And
so therefore you've got this twin impact there of the
(11:28):
rising independence of women, and that's not a millennial story,
that really starts with the boomers, and then with Gen
X, and then increasingly with millennials and now Gen Z. But
then the gender equality around inheritance. We are in a
new era. So combined with rising female financial independence, that's
made women's economic position ever more important, and actually key
(11:53):
in this not just great wealth transfer, you could argue
it's a great gender wealth transfer.
Iona Bain (11:58):
And is that partly because attitudes have changed? Or is
it more a reflection of the fact that we need
to be able to pass on that money to daughters
as well as sons? Or perhaps both?
Dr. Eliza Filby (12:09):
When you look at education, and now the workplace, women
are doing better than men. Girls are now 28% more
likely to go to university than boys. There's evidence to
suggest that young women in their 20s are out earning
men in their 20s. And that's an indication of women
working really hard, but also obviously a level of equality
for women in the professional workplace that has meant that
(12:31):
people don't see investing in daughters as...
Iona Bain (12:35):
Risky.
Dr. Eliza Filby (12:35):
Risky, or money that eventually goes to a husband.
Iona Bain (12:39):
A lot of the trends that you've talked about, they
might feel quite uncomfortable for people. But do you think
that some of the stigma and taboo around this subject
is disappearing? Or do you think that people are still
a little bit reluctant to acknowledge that this is what's
going on?
Dr. Eliza Filby (12:58):
Yeah. I mean I called the book a deliberately provocative
title Inheritocracy, but the subtitle is really important. It's time
to talk about it, because I don't think we really
have the... Legal & General actually, their reports on the bank
of mum and dad were instrumental in bringing into the
conversation this bank of mum and dad. And there was
a lot of shame, there still is a lot of
(13:18):
shame on that parental dependency. There's a lot of unsaid, whispered, "
How did she afford that deposit?" All that kind of
stuff. In friendship groups, there's a lot of silence in
families talking about gifting, talking about dependency, certainly about inheritance.
There's a level of economic infantilization that a lot of
(13:41):
people feel when it comes to their parents. I think
we need to talk about it, we need to be
much more open. Both if you are in a privileged
position of having the bank of mum and dad, but
also if you're not. Actually creating a greater level of
empathy amongst your friendship groups and saying, " Do you know
what? I can't spend 2000 pounds on attending your hen
party and wedding because I'm not in the position that
you are." And I think talking about it in your
(14:03):
peer groups, but also talking about it within your family
and also talking about it in society. Because one of
the things that I'm really passionate about is helping people
understand the social and economic forces that actually govern their
lives. I think basically what's happened since 2008 to 2025
is that the state has shrunk, the market's become dysfunctional, and
the parents have stepped up. Stepped up from a point
(14:24):
of love, and I'm not someone that believes that inheritance
should be taxed into oblivion. It's about creating and having
a conversation where inheritance matters less, and an economy where
inheritance matters less, because ultimately it's demotivating. And interestingly, and
we did a big survey asking people, " Do you think
we live in an inheritocracy?" Overwhelming majority said yes, particularly amongst
(14:46):
young people. " Do you want to talk about it?" The
category in society that does not want to talk about
it the least, at all, is men that earn over
100,000 pounds.
Iona Bain (14:56):
Interesting.
Dr. Eliza Filby (14:57):
I'm assuming here they don't want to talk about it
because they feed off of that kind of self- made
myth and are somewhat embarrassed that there is a degree
of parental dependency. So ironically, the higher up the income
scale the less likely people are to talk about it,
but more likely to be dependent on it.
Iona Bain (15:16):
And maybe sometimes they don't want to admit that to
themselves, because we all want to think that we've got
to where we are in life.
Dr. Eliza Filby (15:21):
And that was me.
Iona Bain (15:23):
Absolutely.
Dr. Eliza Filby (15:23):
That was me. I was so convinced that I was
so intelligent and hardworking and working class. I mean just
a joke the kind of story I used to tell
of my life. And I tell that story in the
book and I'm like, " It was all rubbish. Because actually,
when you look into the nuance here, yes, I was
the first person in my family to go to university.
(15:43):
Yes, I came from somewhat dingy part of South London,
certainly in the '80s. Less so now. And yes, I
was someone who my father his final job was a
cleaner." If you look at the metrics, I was someone
who didn't have a lot of privilege. Actually, the most
important part is that my parents had generated a property
portfolio and it was affordable for them to do that,
(16:05):
and by the time I was in my 30s was
an awful lot of money.
Iona Bain (16:08):
And what about those people who don't have that kind
of good luck? What are they doing now to try
to get on the property ladder, given that that does
seem to be quite a big driver still of people's long-
term wealth?
Dr. Eliza Filby (16:20):
Yeah. And it's a really important point, and something that I
wanted to do in the book was tell my story,
but not only tell my story because my story was
one privileged white girl in South London. So we sort
of unpick a lot of stories in the book of
people who have subverted the inheritocracy, I call them the
meritocratic millennials. And there are a lot of people who
(16:41):
are, in many instances, without the bank of mum and
dad doing very well. So what's the commonality there? Number
one, they don't live in London, and quite often not in
a big city. Number two, they did STEM subjects, not
arts and humanities subjects like me. That may change with
AI, but certainly the reward on those degrees is higher
(17:03):
than the reward on arts and humanities degrees. Number three,
they're often supporting their parents. We assume, and we're talking
about money trickling down the family tree. For these meritocratic
millennials, they are supporting their parents. And actually that creates
a level of interdependency that they benefit from, as well
as sacrifice for. Number four, and I think this is
(17:27):
really important, is that most of them are in dual
income households. So 70% of millennials are in dual income households, and
that becomes complex when you have children obviously. But if
you have the wider family network, and that's the fifth
commonality, you then can basically have help when it comes
to childcare and potentially you help when it comes to
(17:50):
elder care. So it's a much more, I would say,
intergenerational economic support system, rather than just the bank of
mum and dad gifting down money.
Iona Bain (17:59):
And it's not just about the bank of mum and
dad lending to children for their house deposit as well.
How else do families now support their kids in this environment?
Dr. Eliza Filby (18:09):
There's a full breadth of support coming from mum and
dad, and sometimes actually grandma and grandpa.
Iona Bain (18:16):
It's true.
Dr. Eliza Filby (18:16):
And that can be help with education in its various
forms, university, but also tutoring, extracurricular stuff. Then help with
rent, help through the mortgage rate crisis, help with the
cost of living, also childcare. There's several examples of the
book where lots of people returned back to the family
home to save for their own deposit. Parents didn't charge
(18:38):
them rent, and lots of parents wanting to do that
and accommodating in that way for their children because they
realized they couldn't give them that cash injection that perhaps
others were able to. So I think it's important to
see the real breadth of ways that people are dependent
on their parents.
Iona Bain (18:56):
Yeah. We're becoming a bit more like Italy, where it's
always been fairly normal to kind of have intergenerational living,
certainly more normal than in the UK. And we are
seeing the financial industry start to respond a little bit
to these challenges and trends by coming up with products
that could start to help those who don't have the
bank of mum and dad. I mean I'm starting to see interest- free
(19:19):
mortgages come back, whether that's a good thing or not
is up for debate. Also, 100% mortgages.
Dr. Eliza Filby (19:25):
And for those that have been paying rent regularly, there's a product on the market-
Iona Bain (19:29):
Yes, that's right. So you can get a five- year fixed rate
deal with a 100% deposit, so long as you can prove
that you've paid your rent on time for the past few years.
Dr. Eliza Filby (19:36):
Yeah, yeah.
Iona Bain (19:36):
Now to some older folks that might seem a little
alarming, but for younger people that could be one of the
only ways that they get on the property ladder without
that parental support.
Dr. Eliza Filby (19:45):
And also I think mortgages are calculated on wages, and
people have multiple streams of revenue now. So actually mortgages
and products in respect to housing need to really adapt
to how people's financial situations are changing as well.
Iona Bain (20:01):
Yes, because if house prices are still way out of
kilter with average wages, how on earth are people going
to bridge that gap?
Dr. Eliza Filby (20:08):
Exactly.
Iona Bain (20:09):
And are you seeing any signs that changes to the
housing market in recent years, such as stamp duty going
up in lots of parts of the UK, that that's
having an impact on people's decision to buy property?
Dr. Eliza Filby (20:21):
Absolutely. I think it's crippling if you are wanting to
move up the ladder, as it were. I think we
need more fluidity and more movement in the housing market,
and stamp duty is the obvious way of perhaps injecting
some of that.
Iona Bain (20:35):
I completely agree. It just feels that the whole process
of buying a property now has got far more complicated
on so many different fronts.
Dr. Eliza Filby (20:43):
Yeah. And actually it speaks to a broad point, is
that we talk about the bank of mum and dad
like there's naturally a mum and dad. And of course
in many instances there's a blended family, and that brings
a new layer of complexity. And we shouldn't make assumptions
that people have a naturally sort of emotionally straightforward relationship
with their parents. Many don't, and I lay out some
(21:04):
examples in the book where there was a lot of
fraught issues around either accepting money or talking about money
or approaching your parents around the issues of financial help.
And so I think it's really important to recognize that
families are complicated, and when you add money into that
equation it's not straightforward. And yes, a lot of parents
(21:28):
are gifting from the position of love. A lot of
parents are helping in other ways from the position of
love, but it can be highly fraught, highly complex, the
very opposite of straightforward.
Iona Bain (21:40):
And then also perhaps people feel that if my parents
give me money, maybe they're expecting something back from me
later on in life when they're older and they're not
in a position to look after themselves perhaps.
Dr. Eliza Filby (21:51):
Yeah. Someone said to me, " I think we're becoming more Asian
as a society." And that speaks to that high idea of intergenerational
contract that the parents look after the children, and eventually
the children parent the parents as the parents age. And
certainly that's what has happened in my family, but you
do eventually parent your parents. That comes with a level
of complexity if we are all living longer with illnesses
(22:13):
and people require a lot more care in their older
years. More women are working, and I'm afraid to say elder
care still relies and falls on women.
Iona Bain (22:22):
Absolutely.
Dr. Eliza Filby (22:22):
A lot of women in their 50s and 60s leaving
the workforce, elder care is becoming a really, really key
issue for them. And also financially, how do we parent
our parents when we're potentially not in the financial position
that we would like to be at that age in
our lives?
Iona Bain (22:37):
If we can't parent ourselves?
Dr. Eliza Filby (22:38):
Exactly. Well, quite. So I think elder care and looking after
our parents is something you do, not out of obligation
because they gave you a deposit, but out of love.
It can be complex of course, but it's also something
that does involve a financial discussion. And there's a lot
of parents wanting right now to help their kids in
their 30s, they're thinking far more about helping their kids
(23:00):
buy a house than thinking about how they can deal
with their own and fund their own social care. And that is a
conversation we don't want to have in politics, we don't
want to have in families, and even we probably don't
want to have with ourselves.
Iona Bain (23:13):
Definitely something that needs to change. And are you also
seeing evidence of people looking for support from friends or
siblings or other family members?
Dr. Eliza Filby (23:24):
I did find a lot of tension from people that
had lived in buy- to- lets where their friend was
effectively their landlord.
Iona Bain (23:32):
Yes.
Dr. Eliza Filby (23:33):
And that tension of, " My rent is paying basically into
their inheritance pot."
Iona Bain (23:38):
Yes, I can imagine that dynamic can get really awkward.
Dr. Eliza Filby (23:40):
That's messy. And a lot of conversation about the financial
inequality within friendship groups, and how there's a sort of
leveler at university. So to a certain degree everyone's broke in
their 20s, and then you get these kind of super
shooters who then kind of catapult into adulthood. And that's
because of the bank of mum and dad. And I
(24:02):
think the other thing to say, and this is really
evident in Gen Z, less so I think in millennials, is a financial
savviness. I think Gen Z have looked at millennials going, "
You work really hard, you made your job your life, and
you still can't afford a house at the age of 40." And they've
grown up with a very different attitude towards money, and
(24:22):
a very different obviously social media landscape that enables them
to self- educate to a certain degree, particularly around investment. So what's
interesting since 2018, the super surge of Gen Z is investing.
Iona Bain (24:37):
Yeah.
Dr. Eliza Filby (24:37):
I didn't do that in my 20s. You probably did, you're
very wise.
Iona Bain (24:40):
No, I was a bit of a latecomer too. And I
think it was because of this perception that I had
to have everything else in my life kind of sorted
out before I could progress and mature to that stage.
But yeah, I'm seeing the same with younger people where
they're thinking, " I can't really afford to play safe with
my finances, but if I invest I can maybe play
to win. And perhaps even get together enough money to
get a deposit for a property," which is a real
(25:02):
shift in attitude.
Dr. Eliza Filby (25:02):
And I think the reason for that is, yes, the economic turbulence
they experienced post- COVID, cost of living crisis. A sort
of acceptance in a way that millennials didn't have that
they're going to have to potentially live at home longer.
Iona Bain (25:16):
Yeah.
Dr. Eliza Filby (25:17):
Yeah. Hotel of mum and dad, which affects working class
families as much as middle class families. That is a
definite trend, and I think devoid of some of the
shame that it had in the 2010s with millennials. I think also
they don't believe in wages alone, and they're right not
to. And this is the key point, is that wages
(25:37):
and our jobs don't buy us what it bought our
parents, depending on obviously what your parents did. But let's
just remember that baby boomers, not all of course, had
access to decent pensions, increasing professional wages, and affordable homes.
And Gen Z know they don't have access to any
of those things. And so they have access to auto
(25:58):
enrollment, which is actually a really interesting sort of backstop.
But this generation is thinking in terms of multiple streams
of revenue, in terms of investment. In terms of I
think, and this is the key point, is as housing
has become increasingly a long- term saving goal, and potentially
a long- term maybe 35 year mortgage, long- term investment,
(26:23):
people are thinking of housing not as a ladder but
as one destination. So you look at millennials because they're
buying well into their 30s, they're not getting a flat,
they're getting a family home.
Iona Bain (26:36):
Yeah, they're skipping that first rung and going straight to a house.
Dr. Eliza Filby (26:38):
They're skipping that first rung, because actually millennials are wanting family homes
that will set them up for 10, 20, 30 years. And so
they've adapted accordingly. And then when you look at Gen
Z, the attitudes towards housing is less, " This is going
to be a savvy investment." More, " Is it even obtainable?"
(26:59):
Now they're in a certain life stage where they're thinking
differently. And let me tell you, obviously when you have
kids like suddenly having a fixed abode where you're not
subject to-
Iona Bain (27:08):
The whims of the landlord.
Dr. Eliza Filby (27:09):
Yeah, exactly. Becomes super important. And let's also remember that
buying a house is inaccessible for a large proportion of
the population, but I am seeing Gen Z as thinking
very differently when it comes to buying a house.
Iona Bain (27:26):
That is giving me some hope. Because where I think
what you do and what I do where we meet
is that you talk about these wider issues in the
hope that people don't feel bad about what's going on
out there maybe outside of their control. And where actually
I come in is trying to help people understand what
is in their control, even if it might be not
what they would've conventionally done in the past, and how
(27:48):
we need to evolve and adapt sometimes to meet these
challenges. So I'd be really interested to know, Eliza, what
are your kind of three tips? If you can distill
it all down into three tips for folks who maybe
don't have access to the bank of mum and dad,
and they're wondering, " How can I build up some of
this security and resilience for myself?"
Dr. Eliza Filby (28:08):
Number one is don't blame yourself. I think it's not
you, it's the system. And hopefully my book goes some
way to helping people understand the broader economic forces out
of their control. So don't internalize that sense of guilt
and failure. Number two is financially educate yourself. And I
think that people like you and just there's so many people out there
(28:30):
on social media, but also your parents and your wider
peer group is just start talking about money, start finding
out about money. Start that educational journey of self- knowledge.
It is nothing but empowering, right? And I say that
as someone who had a lot of shame around money,
and a lot of complex issues around money. Education is
(28:51):
empowerment. And then the final thing is take the first
step. And I'm sure you would advocate for this, it's
like it's all about time, ironically, rather than money and
rather than sums. And it's the wonder of compound interest,
and actually taking small steps now means that your 50, 60, 70- year-
old self will thank you. But it's also just actually
(29:14):
building that confidence in small steps. And I think that's
really it. Rather than me advocating for a certain ISA,
I think those three things are get rid of the
blame, get empowered by knowledge, and take the first step.
Iona Bain (29:26):
They are fantastic tips, Eliza. Thank you so much.
Dr. Eliza Filby (29:29):
Thank you.
Iona Bain (29:29):
It's just been great to get an understanding of how
these dynamics have shifted and what we can do about
them. If this episode has sparked a conversation that you
want to have with friends or family, I'd love it
if you could share the podcast and help others get
a little bit richer too. This podcast is brought to
you by LNG. You can keep up with the show
(29:49):
on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram at Legal & General. Until next time, see
you soon.
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