Brad Olsen, principal economist at Infometrics and proud member of Gen Z. Photo / Tania Whyte
Brad Olsen, principal economist at Infometrics and proud member of Gen Z. Photo / Tania Whyte
"I wear my zoomer badge with pride," says Gen Z economist Brad Olsen.
Olsen has become something of a media star in the past couple of years with rapid-fire analysis and hot takes on inflation, unemployment and all things economic.
Unsurprisingly, he has a lot to say about housing inequalityon the latest episode of the Money Talks podcast.
"I don't know if working hard gets you a house these days," he says.
"I'd certainly like to think I live in a country where working hard gets you a house, but when we see that every step forward you take with your income, house prices have moved 12 steps ahead."
The reality for his generation is that owning a house will only come with the passing of grandparents and parents as wealth is inherited, he says.
"It's not a nice conversation to have, but for a lot of young people that's realistic," he says. "And there's plenty of young people whose parents don't own homes.
Olsen has just turned 25 (he was still 24 when we recorded the podcast).
That puts him just inside the cut-off to be a member of Generation Z (the zoomers).
"I haven't had 25 years experience in and out of banks and institutions, I've barely had 25 years on Earth," he says.
Then again, he makes the point that age doesn't matter much so much when it comes to the economics of Covid, because nobody in the industry has any experience to compare it with.
The last time the world dealt with a pandemic on this scale was in 1918.
He also argues that his age means he doesn't carry any of the political baggage - which still divides older economists - around the dramatic reforms of the 1980s.
He describes his view of the world as being shaped in real time.
Already a director and principal economist with consultancy Infometrics, Olsen's career has been on a fast track.
He's been working with the Wellington-based economics firm since he was 18.
But he's been thinking about finance and economics for much longer than that.
He recalls being just 10 or 11 years old when he started obsessing about the stock market - not actually investing, just writing down price movements in his notebook.
"My focus was always trying to understand the world around me," says Olsen, who was born and grew up in Whangārei.
"I found economics gave me a pretty good basis for that."
And yes, he admits, "I was a bit of a nerd."
He spent a lot of time reading but also developed a passion for community service.
"Look, I come from Whangārei and there are some pretty entrenched social issues, and that spurred me to go: how do we change things?
"What was very apparent very early on in life was that the dollar talks. It makes people sit up and listen and it is also often a more persuasive argument because numbers are a lot more hard and fast.
"Tugging on the heartstrings is important but having those dollar figures is important and often critical to help shape those decisions."
Olsen was so busy volunteering for community organisations that he didn't even have a part-time job until he got to university and Infometrics.
Studying economics on a scholarship at Victoria University of Wellington, he found his way to a part-time job working with Infometrics - initially just inputting data but always learning and intent on working his way up.
He has stuck with the economics consultancy ever since
It's meant he has had some financial security through his 20s. "I was never a fan of living on baked beans," he says.
But he is still not on the property ladder and the huge challenge that buying a house presents to young people is central to his thinking about economics.
"The house is no longer the be-all and end-all of personal finance for young people, because of the extent to which prices have outstripped wages," he says.
"For a first-home buyer wanting to buy an average house, across the country, you're talking a quarter of a million dollars just in a deposit."
That had resulted in younger people paying more attention to riskier and more sophisticated investments than they had in the past.
"The fact of the matter is just relying on KiwiSaver and savings and working hard ... I don't know if working hard gets you a house these days," Olsen says.
"You have to take some more risks, you've got to get lucky. And I think people are using the stock market to get a deposit but it all takes longer and all of this is shaping what our lives look like."
For example, all the research here and overseas suggests people are getting into relationships later, getting married later and having a child later in life.
"I think a lot of that is because you don't have that social security of housing that previous generations did."
Although Olsen has never let his youth hold him back, he admits it sometimes takes people by surprise.
"I often ask people how old they think I am," he says.
"'I'm getting an average of about 31, which I think is a good number.
Dream on: Buying a house remains a dream for many young people. Photo / Ted Baghurst
"We can't kid ourselves that we're not leaving a ticking time bomb that means the young people of tomorrow are not going to have the same opportunities.
"I think there are going to be some real challenging conversations that might well divide different generations.
"That sort of driving divide in wealth will be exacerbated, particularly for zoomers and those who come after us."
Money Talks is a podcast run by the NZ Herald. It isn't about personal finance and isn't about economics - it's just well-known New Zealanders talking about money and sharing some stories about the impact it's had on their lives and how it has shaped them.
Money Talks is available on IHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes come out every second Wednesday.
