Pain it Forward, an article by Jemima Williamson-Wong

Someone rightly made the point that our journal had not ever included content from anyone under 30. We didn’t have to look far to find Jemima Williamson Wong, law and sustainability student, climate activist and fledgling Instagram influencer . In Pain it Forward, Jemima asks her Gen Z followers a series of questions about their thoughts and fears for the future.

Equity the act of things being fair and just. Get Z, the Tik Tok generation, wasting too much time online. Money, the disparity between socio-economic levels, stress, luxury.

As a 20-something, I’ve found myself feeling a bit hopeless when it comes to my financial future. No matter how much I try to better my financial situation I worry I will never own my own house aka the predominant marker of success. I’ve also come to realise that these feelings are part of a broader attitude amongst Gen Z – it seems everyone is demoralized when they think about their financial future.

I know that I am privileged. My parents own property, I went to a private school, I’ve had help getting jobs, I was taught how to save and manage my money. I’ve had so many leg-ups and yet I still feel my financial future is bleak – and certainly won’t look anything like my parents. I’m 20 and I’ve already started saving for a house deposit – a house I probably won’t be able to afford for another couple of decades.

It’s an uncomfortable feeling carrying this concern about my own future, and at the same time, facing the boomer narrative that Gen Zs don’t work hard enough and choose smashed avocado on toast over saving for a house.

It’s hardly motivating to live frivolously when your entire news and Instagram feed is about the latest grim housing statistic. Or when every older family member you see lets you know they’ve been feeling worried that you may never be able to afford a home.

Through conversations with friends of a similar age, I noticed that I wasn’t alone in the way I was feeling. Three areas of concern had started to emerge: financial education, housing and wealth redistribution. To learn more, I put the following questions to my followers on Instagram (all 832 – I know, call me an #influencer).

Three areas of concern had started to emerge: financial education, housing and wealth redistribution. To learn more, I put the following questions to my followers on Instagram (all 832 – I know, call me an #influencer).

How do you feel about your financial future?

• #worried
• I feel like I have to work harder in my youth to be financially set up for uni years
• A little worried tbh, I’m entering a pretty competitive area with my degree
• Anxious and pessimistic
• Feel like the cost of living and the pay rates are so drastically different to what they’ve been
• Uncertain – but less worried than I feel like I should be
• Not good! Prices for houses, cars, cost of living continue to fluctuate, and inflation is scary!
• I reckon prices for things have gone up eg. housing and wages haven’t grown enough. Bit worrying.

Do you think there is financial fairness between generations?

• No wayyy
• That’s a tough one but no I don’t think there is fairness. Also depends on class
• Nope! Unfortunately not 
• Noooope
• Hell no
• Lol no – my grandparents paid off the war. My parents nothing. I will pay off the results of Covid
• I do not! I think it’s harder for younger generations to feel financially stable.

How do you feel about housing?

• I will not have one probs 
• Worried that I won’t be able to afford one! And I’m in a privileged position which makes me think about those who are in a lower socio-economic bracket than me and those without the option of living with family as I am now
• I feel like it is becoming very inaccessible and that scares me
• Concerned…
• Scared, the average cost of a house compared to the average income is insane. Even paying rent is hard to cover on minimum wage
• Worried that I won’t be able to own my own home.

How do you feel about financial education (and how it’s impacted by social media)

• Not enough of it! School did jack shit to teach us real life financial situations
• Everyone seems to be financially comfortable on social media but it’s not real
• We weren’t educated enough in school and e-com makes it look so easy to make money online.

Thoughts on wealth redistribution?

• It is pretty important in my opinion. Everyone should be able to afford basic essentials!
• I think it is important but it needs to be done right
• Universal income ftw [for the win]
• It makes me so sad to see the contrast between billionaires and those who have so little.

Any other thoughts?

• There’s a lot that’s wrongly attributed to gen z’s work ethic or lack thereof
• I think there’s a lack of understanding between generations.

Putting these questions online and reading the responses helped me to organise my own thoughts about this mess….

There is obviously a strong awareness about the inequity between the generations. We know that we will be inheriting trillions of dollars of government debt due to Covid, the climate crisis and all the other ‘unprecedented events’ that we are repeatedly experiencing. This cynical acceptance has fed into our attitude of hopelessness, pessimism, and anxiety about what our financial futures will look like.

It’s hard not to feel annoyed when I look at how older people view my generation as though we don’t work hard enough; if we spent less time on our phones we could get ahead.

I think there are two things at play here. First, there seems to be a lack of understanding about the way that social media has influenced our lives, and how it continues to shape different avenues of wealth creation. Successful influencers are the wealthiest people of our generation and they only got there because they hustled – on their phones.

Secondly, when I look around at my friends, I see a generation of hard-working hustlers. Of people trying to bring in money from multiple streams and yet are only just able to cover the cost of basic essentials.

As Gen Z influencer and media personality, Flex Mami put it: ‘the difficulty of Gen Z is that they have been touted to be these radical change-makers, and it is a lot of pressure for this environment we’ve built up. How do you be a change-maker when you have to pay your rent?

If we accept that the financial gap between generations will never be closed, why then do we continue to work towards the same financial aspirations as the generations before us? Because of this, I am starting to question the pursuit of financial security through property.

If we truly are the generation facing global catastrophe, owning a home and creating a wealth base through property hardly seems like a priority. Instead, would it be more prudent to focus on re-writing our expectations? To balance the need for a house and stability in a world marked by increasing volatility. Would there be more freedom, would we be happier if we could let go of this archaic pursuit of ‘to succeed in life’ you need to own a home and instead create a rental system that could provide stability?

This idea of balancing expectations is something I’ve come to after spending time trying to unpack the complicated mess of expectations, attitudes, reality, and stereotypes that surround housing and financial futures. I still haven’t resolved whether I’m willing to accept that my financial future and property ownership will look vastly different to my parents.

All I can ask from whoever is reading this, is that you take the time to think through my argument in light of your own context. No doubt many of you reading this will own investment properties. What we really need is better tenancy laws that will provide us with security while we get on with trying to fix the mess the generations before have made of the planet.

* Pain it Forward was first published in Equity, Issue 05 of our journal. Copies can be purchased at The Fulcrum Press, with all revenue going towards projects in First Nations communities.

** Hear more from Jemima via her Instagram account, @ourclimateconnection.