Hey, Kia, here. Some legal and general research has highlighted that an estimated 6. 5 million people are reaching key life events like getting married, becoming parents, or buying a home later in life. By delaying key life milestones, people are putting off important money decisions which might impact their longer-
term financial wellbeing. Welcome to another episode of a Little Bit Richer, brought to you by my friends at Legal &; General. Here to talk about how younger generations are redefining key life milestones and the impact this has is a friend of the show, Koren Byrne, from Legal &; General, who talks about the path she's taking as an independent 30 something woman. Thank you for joining us, Koren.
Thank you for having me.
I'm really excited because I need to get into nitty gritty of what this means. So before I get too into it, can you talk us through these issues and the social changes that we are seeing in society now?
Yeah, of course. So when I started working in financial services, it must have been about six years, and it wasn't until I got into the industry and I was hearing about these products, especially around protection insurance, income protection, life insurance, critical illness, and I was like, these seem really good products to have and I had that light bulb moment. I
was like oh, they actually could be for me. But the way that they're spoken about and how they're marketed and positioned, it's the when you get married, you might want to look at taking out a life insurance policy. When you buy a home, you might want to look at getting a life insurance policy or some income protection
and things like that. The average age for people buying their first home is 34, which is the highest that it's been in decades. And marriage, the average age is 32, which again is gradually increased from 2000 as well. So there are around 4. 1 million households that would count as a single income, no kids, SINC, or a dual income, no kids. So we are definitely on the rise.
Those numbers that you put there are not the numbers I think people would jump to when you think to an average first time buyer. 34, that's a lot older than what you think it's going to be. So I'm in my mid 20s, I have friends who are doing and achieving all these things and I'm like oh my gosh, I'm way behind. When you look at the numbers, you're actually not, and it is increasing. It's probably going to
get even higher when I get to that point. But you mentioned the term milestones there.
Yeah.
So what do you actually mean when you say milestones?
So when I am talking about a milestone, I'm talking about those more traditional life key milestones. If you look to your parents, your grandparents, school, uni maybe, if that's for you, work and then you get married, you buy
a home, you have children, and then you retire. And so especially looking at that mid- life point, which is probably what we're discussing most, which is buying a home, getting married, having children, in no particular order, of course, people are either choosing to not do those things for a variety of reason or that they're just doing them
later in life. None of my close friends in a similar age have children, so we're redefining what family looks like. And so it's not necessarily a bad thing at all. I think it's great because we're breaking the mold and carving our own paths, focusing on careers and things
like that. But what could be happening is that if we're delaying some of these key milestones or not reaching them at all, a lot of these key milestones, are what trigger conversations about protection insurance, if you're looking at
mortgages, investments, savings, your pension as well. So if we're not hitting these milestones or we are delaying them, could this be delaying our financial engagement as well and could we be doing ourselves a little bit of a disservice in not engaging with our finances? It's really common to put something off until you get to a certain point.
But if we're not buying a home until we're 34, getting married until we're 32, does that mean we shouldn't look at income protection, look at critical illness, think about what we're doing with our pension? And I just think it's really interesting to see how those family units are changing and what impact that might be having on financial
engagement as well. And I do call myself a family even though I'm single, I have a cat.
It's your family, I mean.
That's my family. It's me and my cat. We are family.
I love the way that you described just different family units and I think it takes off the pressure from people who may think, " Okay, I'm behind in life. I'm not doing well. I'm not married or I'm not in a couple," because we have different priorities from my parents or grandparents, and that does impact what that looks like for us. I know there's an issue here, so what exactly is the issue?
Yeah, so what's happening is we are missing out on important conversations about certain financial products because as a group we're doing quite well, but you're also really vulnerable if you haven't had a conversation with someone about how to protect your income or saving for retirement. We're so focused on that enjoyment and that financial engagement piece is really important I think for this group.
Yeah, I think it is just understanding how these products work so you can make an informed decision as to when best to maybe implement them in your life. So absolutely, 100%, I'm behind you on that. I've had many conversations with friends, right, and a lot of them have this idea that, you know what? Life's my enjoyment. I'm going to live for today and I worry about tomorrow if and
when I get there. If I don't. I've had a good today. So I want to ask you, what are your thoughts on that idea?
I would probably class myself as one of those people. No, I think it's a really interesting point, especially with how things are at the moment, the cost of living
and stuff like that. I think, yes, it's one thing to be enjoying and doing the day- to- day by choice, but I think it's also really important that actually managing your day- to- day while also thinking about the future and being able to do things for your future
is quite a privilege at the moment. But I think when you are in a position where you can do something towards future self that you'll look back and give yourself a pat on the back for when it comes to your finances, do it. If you can, do it. Because you will thank yourself in the future.
You will.
While you can think about maybe putting a little bit more away, not just that rainy day fund because I think some of the research that we've done showed that especially with the SINCs and the DINCs, they're much more confident with their money. But that overconfidence can come at a price because they put money away in a rainy day fund, but
they're not thinking about pensions or savings. Because they haven't got those maybe natural triggers where they might be speaking to mortgage advisors where someone would just say, " Oh, have you thought about life insurance and what are you going to do? How are you going to protect your income if you get ill and stuff?" So I think it's a balancing act, but definitely don't do what I have been guilty
of. Don't bury your head in the sand. Do take a breath-
Take a breath. I'm outside. There's a lot going on up here.
... and just think, " Oh, can I put a little bit more aside? Have I looked at what my pension's doing recently? What am I savings saying? Yep, that instant account is fine, but maybe I can lock some money away and something for a fixed term and things like that." It's probably not as fun as brunch, but future you, when you're having brunch in your 80s will definitely thank you.
Absolutely. I don't plan on retiring with no money. I plan on chilling on a beach and having a great retirement. I'm not thinking about where the next money's coming from because I've already done that in my younger years.
Absolutely.
You spoke about it earlier and that's life insurance. And I think often there's certain words, life insurance is one of them. Retirement's another one, pension's another one where people automatically think about being old and they also think about dependents. So if someone or a couple isn't planning on having kids, is life insurance still something that they should consider taking out and looking at?
Yeah, short answer is yes. The longer answer is having children, life changing in a number of ways and also it gets you thinking about how do I protect this person that is solely reliant on me? And so it's a natural trigger and if you look at any adverts, it's very easy to look at that and think, " Oh, it's not for me to worry about because I don't
have children, I don't need life insurance." But you might because if you don't have any dependents, it doesn't mean that you don't have what we'd call beneficiaries. So people who you would like to leave some money for as much as my brother annoys me, it might be quite nice.
Well, I mean that's the two of us in the room.
Yeah, no, we're still really close and if anything should happen to me, I'm sure he would be really pleased if it was a beneficiary of some sort from a life insurance policy for me so I could make sure that he was looked after. Same for my mum. Also, getting a life insurance policy, oftentimes when you're younger, it's
cheaper. So life insurance can absolutely be for you if you don't have children, but it might not be. It's worth exploring. So I've already touched on income protection before, which for someone in my position, if I was to be off ill for a significant period of time or injured, I'm the only person that pays my rent. Daisy can try, but we've tried to get her Instagram famous-
We've tried, and she's not doing it.
... and she's too much of a diva for that. So she's never going to be an influencer and pay the bills. I've asked, she's not put a penny of rent up yet.
No, she put her paws up, she said no.
Absolutely. So it would give me that sense of financial security if I can't work, and it would just give me a bit of a buffer. And also a critical illness policy. If you do end up with a critical illness, it gives you a lump sum and it doesn't have to go towards your mortgage, it can go to the cost of anything for you. But again, it's a buffer for you and it's how you look after yourself.
So, yes, life insurance, protecttion insurance could absolutely be for you. Don't write it off just because you don't have children.
That's amazing. I think the general theme is just have it on your mind and do the research. So, if we come back to the topic of renting then, if someone's renting in a couple, is it less important for them to have protection if they have a partner who they know can cover the bills and the rent? If something were to happen, is it not a priority to them because they know they can fall back on someone?
I think this is a really interesting one because obviously if you are both covering bills, rent, you've got two
streams of income coming into that home. And yes, you might be fine if you've got a planned break in work or a planned drop in salary for one or both of you because together you can calculate it and you can plan for it. If something comes up that you weren't planning for and if the unexpected does happen, it's a very, very different scenario. It just gives you security.
If you were to fall ill, and from my own experience with my health when I was diagnosed with MS a few years ago, it's not just one appointment. You get your diagnosis and you trot off and go, " Okay." You are in and out of hospital. Depending on where you're at with your health, you might not be able
to drive yourself to appointments. So, yes, you might be relying on someone's income and they might still be working, but they also might need to take time off to care for you too. And then you end up in a dynamic where you've got the stress of being unwell and then you've got the financial strain and a rainy day fund and with as much planning as you want, if something
unexpected happens, those costs drain really, really quickly. So it's just one stress that you can take off someone and take that burden of keeping up with the bills. But unexpected things happen all the time and they-
All the time.
... don't all have to be completely catastrophic to make a real impact on your financial status as well.
Yeah, it's true.
It's just that freedom of choice then. If your situation changes, you might have stopped work, but your partner might want to go part- time and having something to fall back on, like critical illness just means you get that sum of money, which maybe makes those choices a little bit easier to make and you just take a lot of stress off yourself. So I think it's definitely worth looking into.
Very much so important. Another thing that's important though is pension savings. Why is it important to save as early as possible when retirement can feel like a lifetime away?
So when you have a pension, it's an investment. So the earlier you start, the more chance you have of that investment growing. So ultimately, do it early. Start early, don't put it off. Remember that this life that you're creating now, you probably want to keep up, if not maybe a little bit better.
That would be nice.
A few more holidays once you remove the work element, so start early and just watch that build.
Amazing. I think, yes, start early is the thing that we want everyone to remember when it comes to all your protections, thinking about your future, have that on your mind and start early. Before we round off then I want to ask you, what are your three top tips that you think our listeners should consider when it comes to planning for their future and just getting their finance in check?
I think the first one is that it's all well and good putting off or breaking the mold and not going down traditional milestones, that's absolutely fine, but delaying key life milestones shouldn't delay you engaging with your finances. And I wouldn't be true to myself if I didn't say something about protection insurance either. Just because you're not having children and you're not getting married, doesn't mean that you
shouldn't have any protection insurance in place. I am my sole dependent and if I can't work or something unexpected happens to me, there are still bills that need to be paid and I am the one that's responsible for them. So critical illness, income protection, life insurance, explore them, read up on them, have conversations about them and just
see if they're right for you. And you can also have access to things like wellbeing benefits, private diagnostics, counseling, private GPs, and these are the services that you can access right now, which again saves you money. So there are benefits to having these products now, not just looking into the future as well. And yeah, and the third one, I'm definitely of that generation of millennial that's very
much YOLO. That I've just really aged myself there in saying that, I know I'm definitely not Gen Z. However, I think it's a really great attitude to have sometimes, but don't do it at the cost of your financial security for now and in the future. By all means,
enjoy life. Enjoy the choices that you've made, enjoy the family that you've built, whether that's you and your cat or you, two dogs, three goldfish and a hamster, or whether that's you married with children, don't stick your head in the sand. Don't put things off waiting to do other things. So just be really mindful and don't disengage from your finances just because you're enjoying your disposable income.
I feel like this has given our listeners a lot of encouragement, but it is just important to consider the finances so you can protect yourself and cover yourself for the future.
Absolutely.
Koren, this has been an incredible episode as per, because you're a friend of the podcast, so thank you so, so much.
Thank you for having me.
Next time we'll be joined by Ben Levett from TikTok to talk to us all about the cost of having a pet. I'd love it if you could review the podcast, spread the word, and help others get a little bit richer too. Keep up with the show on TikTok and Instagram at Legal &; General. A Little Bit Richer is brought to you by Legal &; General. Thank you for listening. See you soon.