Life my parents lived is one I will never be able to have

But while being able to eat food from far flung destinations at home in my kitchen in Coleraine, choosing whatever entertainment I want at the click of a button or having fancy coffee on tap nearby whenever I want it are all the hallmarks of luxury, like most people my age — and most age brackets in fact — I’m worried about the rising cost of living.

The things older generations took for granted, being able to afford to have the amount of children they wanted and childcare to help them go to work, a pension to keep them going in old age or the ability to go on nice holidays for two weeks each year are beginning to feel increasingly out of reach.

I’m starting to think the life my parents lived is one I’ll never be able to have no matter what I do.

Yet what they wanted at the age of 30 is exactly the same as what I want now. Life has changed, but our plans for it have not. And so my ambitions too are completely ordinary.

But the difference is those ambitions, like owning a home and perhaps swapping it for a bigger or improved one as I grow older or to be able to buy a new car when I need to, now require means that are above average.

At the start of the current energy crisis, I was perhaps naive to think that while the cost of gas and electricity would mean less disposable income, it was a storm that most of us could weather. But the question now is where will it all end?

Relatively young people, whether millennial or Gen Z, are trying to lay the foundations for a somewhat comfortable life while coping with all the expense of perhaps a wedding, buying their first home, eventually becoming first time parents.

But it seems those older than us think we’re frivolous, too focused on paying for subscription streaming services or brunch according to opinion pieces in some national newspapers or what’s said about us over the airwaves.

It’s something that really sticks in my throat when I hear that we spend too much on the little things or fritter our money away on things that are meaningless, when all the wealth that was hoarded by older generations means there’s so little left for us, or when so little of the attention of our politicians seems to be focused on positive change for people trying to get their lives under way and contribute to the economy.

It’s resulted in a situation that means young people increasingly feel that they have little stake in how society is wrong and no say in our future, a worrying situation for any political party hoping for our vote.

If there’s one saving grace it’s that young people where I live are able to avail of more affordable homes than in other parts of the country like in Dublin, where I grew up.

However frustrating it is to work hard and feel your hard-earned salary is eaten up with the bare essentials, I can’t imagine how frustrating it would be not to be able to afford to own my own home, or even feel it is within reach.

There, they have the socially liberal policies so many of us here covet but it’s meaningless without a roof over your head.

The system is failing some more than others, for example those who are increasingly having to choose between heat or eat.

As well as that, the affordability crisis has moved most things out of our reach and it now appears the system is failing more than it ever has before. If there’s one saving grace, it’s that owning a home is more within reach where I live than other parts of the island.

Instead we’re spending our very hard earned cash on flying to London or Lisbon for a short break, taking advance of that Disney subscription or taking out one to Amazon Prime.

What else is there to do when we can’t afford the milestone purchases of the generations that came before us? Life itself is so unaffordable.