Millennials struggle to invest, but property top priority

I think most millennials see fund managers are superfluous and would rather just invest in a diversified low fee index tracker which is proven to outperform investment funds in the long run. Unfortunately there’s not much you can do to appeal when you’re seen as a middleman that ought to be cut out to maximise returns

Aussie fixation with property continues for another generation. Is it our culture or tax system, because European countries are not like this.

A bit of both, but I think it starts with how us Gen Y'ers (I refuse to use the cringey term 'Millenial') were raised.

We're the children of the Boomers, and the Boomers, like a lot of people, love a good asset bubble. It's an easy 'get rich quick' scheme which requires little work or effort to benefit from. Stocks used to be all the rage through the '80s until the early 2000s when stupid Boomers over-leveraged and got burnt for a second time in the tech wreck; the first being in 1987. They then started to fear the sharemarket and see it is dangerous, and never went back to 'investing' in it at the same levels they used to. Then they turned to property as it was an investment class outside the sharemarket and they saw it as a 'safe' investment. Constant buying, coupled with the original 'Australian dream' of home ownership, greed, stupidity, increasing immigration, falling interest rates and so on caused another bubble. This property bubble, however, is constantly inflating which pushes house prices higher, which creates a 'you can't lose' attitude, which causes more buying and selling and a feedback loop is created.

Now, all the while since 1987 the Boomers have been having children. Their children (like myself) are then taught the distorted teachings of the Boomers; the sharemarket is evil and bad, and property is the only good investment. They started to (and still do) trot out the same inane and idiotic dribble; "Property always goes up," "you can't go wrong with property," "don't invest in shares because you'll lose all your money." etc. This creates a new generation worshipping The Cult of Property, which fosters tunnel-vision towards only one class of investing at the detriment of all others, and the buying and selling of this one asset class causes prices to continually rise, which strengthens the belief in The Cult.

European countries face a situation in which most land is owned by 'old money', made from feudal and other systems that didn't allow the home ownership aspiration that a young country (at least in Western terms) has been able to support.

So I guess it's cultural, at the core of what Australia offered to get people to come here (once the penal colony days ended, at least). The fact that it's been possible for everyone to aspire to own their own 'quarter acre block' has in turn resulted in a poor landlord-renter relationship structure so that most people would prefer not to rent.

I hope this never changes. I don't want most land to be in the hands of only those who own it because their family owned it 200 years ago!

It's easy for the finance industry to engage. Shift your focus from the boomers to Gen-X and start from there. The time to build wealth and engage with these people is when they are young, not when they are older and "might" have been able to do so. There is also no guarantee (especially for me, who has two parents in 24hr care and the family home just got sold to pay their medical bills) that we will inherit the boomer's money. In fact, some of us - like myself - don't and never did expect it.

Unfortunately, it's hard to find a financial planner, even as a Gen-X because most that I've seen ARE boomers and hence, more interested in servicing and relating to their own demographic. You can't have it both ways.

As an example, the amount of questions in the financial media (esp. in the AFR Q+A section on the weekend in Smart Money) are all about SMSFs, retirees, "what pension I can get because I earn X and my wife earns Y but we have A, B and C in shares, property and super" etc. Yawn, not relevant to me as a Gen-X.

Most also look like the cookie cutter corporate - white, male, grey suit. That's not necessarily something that younger demographics (born into the internet age of no ties and polo shirts) or even female investors relate to.

So for now, I think I'll keep on keeping on with my DIY approach (which has done quite well, thank you) and maybe when I get closer to retirement, I'll ask a financial planner then, who would be Gen-X.