‘I FEEL READY TO HAVE KIDS BUT I CAN’T SEE HOW I’LL BE ABLE TO AFFORD THEM’
“But there were premises in place where it was possible to make that money work.
“I’m quite lucky in the sense that I talk about it with my friends and we have never stopped talking openly about finances – and these days it does turn into, how are we going to afford a girls’ holiday if we’ve got nursery fees to pay.
“It does make you wonder how you are ever going to afford that home improvement project, or God forbid, buy a nice car – or anything that other generations were able to do a little bit easier.”
Sarah Pennells, consumer finance specialist at Royal London, said: “We’ve been tracking how people have been responding to the financial challenges of the rising cost-ofliving for more than two years and it’s clear we’re now starting to see that people are making changes to their longer-term life plans.
“When prices for food and energy were increasing, we saw people cut back and make changes to their spending and shopping habits, but now we’re seeing that some major life decisions are being delayed as people are weighing up whether or not they can afford to act on the plans they’d made.”
Findings in the report also showed that, of people aged between 35 and 49 years old, one in five (20%) admitted they were close to falling into, or were unable to pay major household bills, compared to just 13% on average for the sample as a whole.
High interest rates and rising mortgages have also hugely impacted people in this age group, with average monthly outgoings rising by £588 per month since February 2023, leaving 34% overdrawn regularly or occasionally or having to borrow money to cover monthly expenses, and almost a quarter (23%) with no savings at all.
Hannah thought wider issues such as low levels of maternity pay for new mothers could also often play a part in when young people are financially ready to start a family.
Hannah added: “I know none of my male friends will be worried about going for a promotion in case it impacts their maternity leave.
“There is no way that they are having to think about this, whereas it is something which many women do think about, and constantly play in the back of their minds when it comes to making decisions about work and career timelines.
“This anxiety about motherhood, its financial and emotional impact, are central themes in my debut novel, The Mapmaker’s Wife, which I hope can inspire conversations between friends and families about the pressure we put on women in this day and age.”