At 15, Cauê Lachi dreamed of studying Medicine at a public university, having a girlfriend, achieving financial independence, and building a wealth of life experiences. Now 19, he studies Law, spends his entire salary on shopping and clothes, feels anxious every month when his credit card bill arrives, and, after all that, still doesn’t have a girlfriend.
Like Cauê, many young people grew up believing adulthood would bring autonomy and stability, but today they face a reality that falls short of their expectations. What happens when the future they imagined becomes financially out of reach?
I wish I were planning to live on my own and move out of my parents’ house. My greatest difficulty is saving money that I don’t even have. I often compare myself to other people’s achievements.
Cauê, 19 — Intern
The Economics Behind Uncertainty
The disillusionment of planning for adulthood based on previous generations’ experiences, only to face today’s reality, isn’t simply individual delusion; it reflects structural and economic changes over the past few decades.
According to Deloitte’s 2026 Gen Z and Millennial Survey, 55% of Gen Z respondents and 52% of Millennial respondents worldwide say they have postponed major life decisions because of their financial situation. These decisions include getting married, having children, starting their own business, or buying property.
One of the main challenges is the gap between housing costs and income. Speculation and inflation have contributed to rents and property prices rising faster than wages. The traditional rule of spending no more than 30% of monthly income on housing has become increasingly difficult to follow in major cities. According to IBGE’s Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD Contínua), young people starting their careers in metropolitan areas such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro may spend 50% to 70% of their salaries on housing. With rent, condominium fees, and property taxes (IPTU) adding to the cost, saving and investing for the future becomes even harder.
The labor market has also changed in recent years. The growth of the gig economy and flexible contracts has increased income uncertainty. Even among those with a college degree, overqualification and wage stagnation in entry-level positions have become increasingly common. The cost of higher education and professional qualifications has risen, and not everyone can keep up with these increases, while the immediate financial returns offered by the job market have diminished.
Inflation affects necessities such as food, energy, and transportation, disproportionately impacting those who are just beginning their journey toward financial independence. As essential expenses consume a large share of entry-level incomes, building wealth becomes more difficult, and reliance on credit cards or student loans may increase.
The economist Thomas Piketty explains that housing prices in major cities have become a “scarcity trap.” It is as if you were playing Monopoly, where all your friends had already acquired almost every street and house before you even had a chance to roll the dice—or, in real life, before you were even born.
Every time you roll the dice and move around the board, you have to pay rent to someone else.
Imagine the scene: the monthly salary you receive in the game is completely drained by paying rent to those who got there first, and sometimes it is difficult to save enough money to buy properties of your own.
When Money (or the Lack of It) Takes Over Our Lives
These economic obstacles also affect even young people’s educational and career choices. Many young adults find their aspirations and life plans giving way to the pursuit of more “secure” incomes or financial stability at any cost. University degrees are put on hold or replaced with shorter programs, and career changes are postponed out of fear of losing the income needed to make ends meet.
This dynamic raises an important question: to what extent are young people choosing the lives they truly want, rather than simply the lives they can afford? Or are they choosing degrees based on which ones offer the greatest financial returns?
One example in contemporary literature that reflects the uncertainty surrounding academic and professional life is Elle Kennedy’s novel The Deal, part of the Off-Campus series. Its protagonist, Hannah Wells, struggles to cover her college tuition and living expenses through scholarships and campus jobs. When her financial aid is cut off, she explores her remaining options but is ultimately forced to ask her parents for help, despite feeling like a burden and struggling with her lack of financial independence. Outside fiction, the absence of family support makes this socioeconomic divide even more apparent among young people who, despite working and studying, cannot afford the high cost of living in urban areas.
The Checkpoints of Adulthood We Strive to Reach
Moving out of their parents’ homes at 18, owning a home, getting married in their early or mid-twenties, having children, taking their first big trip, or achieving financial independence have traditionally been seen as milestones of adulthood. Today, however, these goals are being pushed further into the future.
When limited resources restrict autonomy, this can be understood through the capability approach developed by Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen, who defines poverty as the deprivation of an individual’s fundamental freedoms and choices. Research in behavioral economics, including the work of Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir, also suggests that financial insecurity can make long-term planning more difficult, trapping people in a cycle of immediate financial concerns that delays major life milestones.
Money determines how much I get to live; adulthood means realizing that even when you have autonomy, you don’t always have the freedom to do what you want.
Mariana, 21 — Student
Oh! The Costs, the Costs: Housing Costs, Transportation Costs, and Emotional Costs
The postponement of goals and aspirations comes with a significant psychological burden. Feelings of stagnation and being left behind, the constant fear of being unable to support oneself and losing what one has built, and the social pressure to have life “figured out” and feel financially “comfortable” can contribute to episodes of anxiety and panic among young people.
This impact is amplified by social media, where the constant display of successful routines and achievements creates an environment conducive to comparison.
In Consuming Life (2008), sociologist Zygmunt Bauman examines how consumer society shapes individual identity and social expectations. This perspective can help explain how the pressure to appear successful and happy may turn periods of uncertainty or stagnation into feelings of inadequacy.
Cry, Smile, and Accept: How We Can Reframe the Future
Even under these new economic conditions, young people are not necessarily giving up on their goals; they are recalculating what a successful future means. The pursuit of quality time and rest, work-life balance, and the development of new forms of independence are gaining ground over traditional models of success.
The question that remains is not whether this generation has lost hope, but how it is rebuilding its expectations to live in a world different from the one it imagined.
Finding people who are also worried about this and want to do something about it gives me a certain sense of hope.
Pedro, 22 — Marketing Assistant
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The article above was edited by Isabella Simões.
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