Australia’s cost of living conversation usually focuses on short-term pressures.

We zoom in on fuel prices, supermarket specials and interest rate speculation. Yet bigger forces are shaping our financial wellbeing operate over decades rather than months.

Demographics, housing markets, public finances and technological changes all influence our money challenges. 

Today we step back and look at the major financial hurdles facing each generation. 

This column is about structural rather than personal pressures. Understanding them helps us anticipate where political tension, consumer behaviour and household stress might head next. 

Pre-boomers (born before 1946)

The final chapter is expensive 

Australians born before 1945 are in their 80s and 90s. Their financial challenge is not accumulation but endurance. The next decade is overwhelmingly about aged care, health expenses and the complexity of navigating support systems. 

Many in this cohort own their homes outright and rely on the age pension plus modest savings – asset-rich but cash-poor.

Rising aged-care costs and stricter means-testing create anxiety, particularly when one partner requires residential care while the other remains at home.

Longevity risk is real, but so is cognitive decline, which increases vulnerability to scams and poor financial decisions.

For pre-boomers, financial security is less about returns and more about stability, simplicity and protection. 

Baby boomers (born 1946-63)

Wealthy on paper, worried in practice 

Baby boomers are the richest generation in Australian history.

They benefited from cheap land, long careers, generous wage growth and the enormous uplift in house prices across the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Yet even a wealthy cohort can feel financially vulnerable. 

The first challenge is longevity. Many boomers will spend 25 to 30 years in retirement. That means more years of managing health costs, navigating aged care, and ensuring that savings last as long as they do.

Even asset-rich boomers often describe themselves as income poor.

Many haven’t paid into their super accounts throughout their whole working life. Their wealth is tied up in homes rather than liquid income producing assets.

Boomers are afraid to run out of money before they run out of time. I discussed this dilemma in my column on the “Die with Zero” concept.  

The second challenge is the awkward but unavoidable conversation about........

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