Preparing Young Australians for Work, But What About Life?

Why Financial Literacy Isn’t Enough for Young Australians

James Wilson wrote a piece on financial wellbeing that mentioned Not Another Textbook as part of a much broader conversation about how we prepare young Australians for adult life.

James made an important point: financial wellbeing is a wellbeing issue.

And that conversation is still very much alive.

We need to be talking about why financial wellbeing belongs in the same conversation as mental health, resilience, and life readiness.

Here's why I keep coming back to the term life readiness instead of financial literacy. Financial literacy sounds like a subject. Life readiness is a stage, the point where life starts handing you real responsibility and nobody hands you a manual.

It starts earlier than we sometimes realise.

A teenager gets their first casual job. Suddenly they need to understand a payslip, tax, superannuation and what happens to the money arriving in their bank account. They need to know whether they're being paid correctly, why tax has been taken out and why some of their earnings are disappearing into a superannuation account they may not access for decades.

Then they finish school and start university, TAFE or full-time work. Now there may be HECS-HELP, employment contracts, budgeting, saving and decisions about further study.

Then come bigger commitments: moving into a share house, signing a rental agreement, buying a car, taking out credit, paying bills and trying to build some financial independence.

None of these decisions happens neatly or in isolation. They often arrive within a relatively short period of time, just as a young person is also trying to work out who they are, what they want to do and how to navigate adulthood.

The gap between education and independence

We aren't teaching enough of these topics in school, and I understand part of the reason why. The curriculum is already crowded and simply adding another subject isn't necessarily the answer.

But something needs to change.

Young people are thrust into the world and expected to deal with these issues, often with very little practical guidance. We teach them subjects that help them gain qualifications and enter the workforce, but the practical knowledge required to manage the income they earn, the contracts they sign and the financial decisions they make can be left largely to chance.

And not every young person has someone at home who can fill that gap.

Parents and other adults may assume certain things are covered at school. Schools may reasonably assume some life skills will be taught at home. Employers understandably focus on preparing someone to do their job.

The result can be a gap where everyone assumes somebody else is having the conversation.

That's why the 2025 Australian Youth Barometer finding that 85% (as of 2026) of young Australians experienced financial difficulties in the previous 12 months deserves attention.

Financial insecurity isn't simply a question of whether someone knows how to create a budget.

Financial wellbeing is about more than money

When we hear the words financial literacy, our minds often go straight to budgeting, saving and perhaps understanding interest rates.

Those things matter. But financial wellbeing reaches much further.

Financial stress can affect how people sleep, study, work, make decisions and cope when something unexpected happens. It can influence relationships and confidence. It can make relatively small problems feel overwhelming because someone doesn't know what their options are or where to start.

A young person who understands their finances isn't protected from every setback. Knowing how money works doesn't prevent an unexpected bill, a job loss or the car breaking down.

But knowledge can change how they respond.

If they understand their options, know what questions to ask and have some confidence navigating financial systems, they are better equipped to make informed decisions and recover when things don't go to plan.

That's where financial wellbeing, resilience and life readiness begin to overlap.

Resilience isn't only about coping emotionally when something goes wrong. It can also come from having the practical knowledge to work out what to do next.

The questions adulthood suddenly expects you to answer

There are some very practical questions young people encounter along the way:

What does superannuation actually do?
What should you check before signing an employment contract?
How much does moving out really cost?
What's the difference between being able to make a loan repayment and actually being able to afford the debt?
What happens to your take-home pay when your salary increases?
When should you start thinking about insurance?
Why should I compare mobile phone, car and utility providers?
Why do I need health insurance or ambulance cover?
Can I have my own Medicare card?

These aren't specialist financial questions. They're everyday life questions.

And there are dozens more.

What happens if I don't pay a bill on time? What is a credit score? What does an excess mean on an insurance policy? How much should I have saved before moving out? What does a real estate agent expect when I apply for a rental? What happens if I leave a job? What should I do with my superannuation when I change employers?

None of this knowledge is particularly complicated once someone explains it.

The problem is when we explain it.

Too often, we expect young people to find the answer at exactly the same time they're expected to make the decision.

Why Learning Through Experience Can Be Expensive

Some young people will learn from their parents. Some from teachers, employers, coaches or other trusted adults. Some will search online. And some will work it out themselves through trial and error.

The problem is that learning through experience can become expensive very quickly, and it can erode confidence.

A poor financial decision at 18 or 20 doesn't necessarily come from irresponsibility. Sometimes it's simply the result of never having been shown how something works.

That's why life readiness shouldn't be about telling young people what decisions to make.

It should be about giving them enough knowledge to make their own informed decisions.

That's an important distinction.

The goal isn't to tell a 20-year-old which car to buy, whether they should move out or how they should spend every dollar they earn. It's to make sure they understand the consequences, costs, choices and questions they should be considering before they decide.

That's part of why I wrote Not Another Textbook. It's one resource for helping young people and the adults around them start these conversations earlier. But the bigger issue goes well beyond one book.

It's about recognising that life readiness is something we can teach.

And it doesn't necessarily require another formal school subject.

It can start with conversations.

We can explain a payslip before the first one arrives. We can talk about super before someone has accumulated years of contributions. We can explain credit before someone is offered it. We can discuss the real costs of moving out before a lease is signed.

Parents can talk about why they compare electricity providers rather than simply paying the renewal notice. Employers can explain the components of a payslip to a teenager starting their first job. Schools can incorporate real-world financial decisions into existing learning. Coaches, mentors and other trusted adults can help young people understand where to find reliable information when they don't know the answer.

No single person or institution needs to teach everything.

But we do need to stop assuming young people will somehow pick it all up along the way.

And we need to make financial wellbeing part of a broader conversation about confidence, resilience, mental health and independence.

Because preparing a young person for employment shouldn't finish with helping them get their first job.

Getting the job is only the beginning.

Then comes earning money, managing it, making decisions, signing contracts, dealing with setbacks and gradually taking responsibility for an independent life.

We spend a lot of time preparing young Australians to pass exams and enter the workforce. We need to spend more time preparing them for life.