The four money mistakes young people need to avoid

Sunday, 9 November 2025

The world can look daunting when you are in your late teens and early 20s, but there have been tougher times.

Senior business reporter Rob Stock answers your money questions. Got a question for Sunday magazine? Email it to sundaymagazine@stuff.co.nz

QUESTION: What is a money mistake most Kiwis make without realising?

ANSWER: Last week I answered that question with a few competing suggestions. But over the weekend, I found myself pondering what young me might have thought of my sage wisdom.

“Yeah, but you don’t get the problems my generation faces”, is probably what he’d have said.

Today’s young people might say something similar.

High youth unemployment, student debt and unaffordable homes are their current lot. Then there are the dual terrifiers of climate change, and big predictions for how artificial intelligence will take all the jobs.

But while now is tough and scary, there have been tough and scary times before. I would have young people remember this, not to minimise their experiences, or to deflect their political action, but to give them perspective, and a bit of hope.

I’ve been doing evening classes at AUT, and in a recent edition of the student magazine Debate, a young author claimed unemployment had never been this bad.

It has, both here and overseas in living memory (in the 1980s, the 1990s and the 2000s), and it’s important young people know this.

When I left university in England, immediately after Margaret Thatcher’s short-sighted, decade-long reign, unemployment was over 9%, and youth unemployment was still higher. Japanese robots were going to take the jobs that weren’t being outsourced to Asia.

Today, the New Zealand unemployment rate is 5.2%, though youth unemployment has a 1991 British feeling about it.

The British Prime Minister of 1979 to 1990 Margaret Thatcher is barely mentioned these days as the country seeks to forget her short-sighted economic policies. (AP Photo/Bob Dear)

Even the political rhetoric was similar. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says: “ If you want a job you go where the jobs are.” That’s spookily similar to the unempathetic British Conservative mantra of the 1980s and early 1990s, encapsulated by Norman Tebbit’s unforgiving: “Get on Your Bike”.

But here’s the thing. Japanese robots didn’t take all the jobs. Unemployment fell. Young people built careers, bought houses, had children.

So what money mistakes does my experience lead me to think young people should try to avoid?

Don’t give in to scary statistics: 15% unemployment does not mean you. Seek a career job. Work to be good at what you do, but don’t be ashamed to take jobs that are not for the long term. Keep learning, keep striving.
Look widely for opportunities: At risk of sounding like a Tebbit or a Luxon, I did a year in South America straight out of university, and I’m convinced it was the making of me. Some young New Zealanders are doing the same today.
Live frugally: Steer clear of consumer debt. Avoid running a money-sucking car, unless you really have to. The day I sold my unreliable Renault 5 and bought a bike was a financial turning point. I could save. One car per adult, and other modern lifestyle choices, can be ruinous.
Take all the savings help you can get: KiwiSaver, with its employer contributions, is a route to a first home. Remember a dollar invested at 21 or 22 is worth a lot more to you than a dollar saved at 51 or 52. That’s compound interest at work. I know several young people who moved back in with their folks to accelerate their route to home ownership. They are in their own homes now.

Back yourself, and treat every dollar you earn with the respect your labour and efforts deserve.