8 in 10 UK millennials not on top of their finances

• 4 in 10 millennials feel stressed, agitated or overwhelmed when not on top of financial tasks
• In comparison, only 15% of over 55s have the same feelings about their financial admin
• 6 in 10 Brits use a mobile banking app to manage their finances

Eight in ten millennials in Britain say they’re not consistently on top of financial tasks, according to a new study from HSBC, Bitesize Banking: Effective time management to reduce financial anxiety.¹

This is affecting other areas of their lives with millennials (18-34 year olds) being the most likely (41%) to feel stressed, agitated or overwhelmed when they aren’t in control of their financial tasks, compared with 32% of 35-54 year olds and just 15% of over 55s.

Financial admin can feel like yet another demand in the daily grind and our research shows that 60% of Brits say they have limited or no time for doing things they enjoy. However, the average UK adult has many smaller unused pockets of time during the week, that are spent commuting, queuing, or waiting for food to cook, which add up to five hours and 15 minutes. Over a year this adds up to 273 hours, which equates to almost eight full working weeks².

Habits & productivity: what the experts say

HSBC partnered with Behavioural scientist Professor Nick Chater of Warwick University to help identify how our brains cope with multiple demands and what learnings can be applied to help people make better use of their time to reduce the emotional impact of living busy lives.

Professor Chater commented: “The challenges facing the younger generation are amplified by the way in which humans judge the world around us. We tend to compare upwards to people in a better position than our own.

“We make our lives more manageable by doing the same things in the same circumstances, so we don’t have to think over every single decision we make from scratch. If you make banking a habit that you don’t need to think too much about, you are much more likely to get a lot more done, in a shorter space of time.”

Banking 2.0: Taking advantage of new technology

Josh Bottomley, Global head of digital, RBWM at HSBC commented: “HSBC is utilising technology to help reduce the amount of time people spend sorting out every day financial tasks. Platforms that house everything you need in once place, machine learning that offers timely reminders when you’re like to spend too much and a host of other advancements that aim to bring people back in control of their precious time, meaning they’ll have more of it to spend doing the things they love.

“It can take as little as 10 minutes to open an account, and once it is up and running most daily or regular banking tasks can be completed in a few minutes, whether checking your balance to see how much you have left before pay day, making sure a payment has gone through, or cancelling a direct debit to that gym you never use.”

HSBC’s Top Five Tips to stay on top of your finances

1. Use a financial services app – most financial tasks can now be done via a mobile banking app, any time, anywhere in a matter minutes. For example, HSBC’s Connected Money³ app allows users to see various accounts held across up to 21 different banks, including non HSBC accounts.
2. Use your ‘dead’ time – make the most of waiting time like commuting or queuing to keep on top of your finances.
3. Break things into ‘bitesize chunks’ – it is easy to become overwhelmed by financial tasks but breaking them down can make them less daunting.
4. Get into the habit – use your regularly recurring pockets of time for your finances so that they become part of overall routine rather than something that sits at the bottom of your to do list.
5. Sign up to notifications – get timely reminders when payments are due and tips on how to make the most of your money to help you stay on track.

Media enquiries to:

Aurora Bonin
HSBC UK
Tel: 07438 850 833
Email: aurora.f.bonin@hsbc.com

8 in 10 UK millennials not on top of their finances (3-page PDF 568KB)