The global financial crisis has not dampened the ambitions of Australia's Generation Ys (Gen Ys) but it has brought about greater maturity in how they plan to fund their futures, research by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has revealed.
The need for informed decision making and the right advice had become more important than ever before, but alarmingly 41 per cent of those surveyed said they had didn't know where to go when it came to information on money and how to manage it, CBA retail bank group executive Ross McEwan said.
Providing the right information and driving sustainable levels of financial literacy among Gen Ys so they can make the right decisions was one of the most important responsibilities the industry had, he said.
The study, which surveyed over 800 people aged 18 to 24 about their attitudes towards money, showed Gen Ys had a more mature outlook in terms of savings, debt and investments.
Significantly, 92 per cent of respondents in 2009 said they were saving to fund their aspirations, compared to only 76 per cent in 2006, with 74 per cent now budgeting for day to day expenditure - well ahead of the 54 per cent budgeting three years ago.
With only 28 per cent claiming to be debt free, respondents said the global economic crisis had encouraged greater awareness of savings and borrowing.
"They [Gen Ys] still want to buy property, buy a car and move out of home, but they're thinking about what they need to do to get there and are perhaps wanting to avoid any of the impacts that many Gen Xers or baby boomers around them are experiencing," McEwan said.
The national Y Money Matters survey was conducted on behalf of the CBA in April 2009.
