Sponging, not saving, stops gen Y leaving home
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday December 28, 2009
As a parent of three 20-year-olds, I am not surprised to read that children are staying at home longer than ever, but question whether the incentive is to save for their first home ("More first-home buyers rely on parents' help", December 26-27). Anecdotal evidence suggests the motive is not to fund their prospective first home, but their self-indulgent lifestyles.It is not only my children who have turned the financial safety net into a hammock, but droves of them, all over the country. Talk to any group of parents whose children have left school and you will find a consensus - they won't pay rent of their own volition and they are reluctant to help with household chores. What really sticks in my craw is that they begrudge the fact that they need to stay at home to accommodate their wanton lifestyles.With the cost of air travel at an all-time low, and job adherence nonexistent, generation Y has become flotsam drifting the globe in a sea of uncertainty, with the only constant a warm bed and full larder waiting back home.This generation has seized on the good graces of their parents and may rest comfortably in their hammocks, but I have serious reservations about any assertion they will be our next generation of home owners.Christopher Woodley Vaucluse
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald
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