For generations, brand marketers have mapped their campaigns around predictable life stages: graduation, first job, engagement, marriage, first home, parenthood. But those assumptions no longer hold. Today’s under-40s are reordering, delaying or outright skipping major life milestones - not because values have shifted, but because affordability has collapsed.
According to a recent Financial Times report, over half of 18- to 34-year-olds in the UK have either delayed or reconsidered major life events due to financial pressure. Weddings, house moves, even divorce proceedings are being postponed, while others are deferring higher education or parenthood altogether in a bid to stay financially afloat (FT, 2025)
Source: https://www.ft.com/content/7879fd4d-8f9d-4ee0-afc6-a86bc030f24d
This financial reshaping of early adulthood has profound implications for how brands understand and engage with younger audiences.
What’s Working: Adaptability and Financial Literacy on the Rise
Despite the squeeze, younger consumers are adapting fast. More than half of young adults are actively reviewing their spending and looking for smarter financial solutions, including switching savings accounts, claiming childcare support, and using budgeting tools. As Alexandra Loydon of St James’s Place points out, this shows a “proactive” approach to financial planning that didn’t exist to the same extent in previous generations.
Brands in fintech, education, and wellness sectors are already responding, with increased focus on budgeting tools, flexible payment options, and mental health support for financial stress.
What’s At Risk: Traditional Life-Cycle Marketing
Brand narratives built around traditional milestones are rapidly losing cultural and commercial relevance. Wedding-centric ad campaigns, home-buying promotions, or "starting a family" product bundles now risk alienating or excluding a large swathe of the under-40s. The assumption that adulthood progresses in a linear, milestone-driven fashion is increasingly out of touch.
With nearly 10% delaying weddings and 8% reconsidering having children, the very foundations of many long-term brand strategies are being eroded (FT, 2025).
Opportunities: New Milestones, New Messaging
Marketers have the chance to reshape milestone marketing around moments of agency, not fixed timelines. This includes:
First time achieving debt freedom
Moving out of shared housing
Reaching personal savings goals
Starting a side hustle or portfolio career
Taking mental health breaks or sabbaticals
Brands that champion autonomy and flexible success metrics will resonate more authentically than those that reinforce outdated life scripts.
There is also room for bold action: product ranges, services, and loyalty schemes that align with this shift - such as fractional home ownership, rent-to-own models, or non-traditional celebrations - can address emerging needs while earning cultural credibility.
Challenges: Inheritance Isn’t a Strategy
One concerning trend from the FT report is a reliance on future inheritance to cover retirement or milestone costs. Nearly a quarter of Gen Z and millennials are not saving for retirement because they expect to receive money or property later in life. But this expectation is highly uncertain, and brands must avoid building messaging around wealth transfer assumptions that may never materialise.
Instead, there is a role for brands to support sustainable financial independence, particularly through education, transparent pricing, and inclusive product design.
Key Takeouts:
56% of young UK adults are delaying or reconsidering life milestones due to financial pressure (FT, 2025).
Traditional milestones like weddings and home purchases are no longer guaranteed markers of adulthood.
Brands must shift focus from age-based assumptions to behaviour-based insights.
Financial optimism is growing through budgeting, planning, and alternative paths to success.
Messaging that relies on milestone rituals may be losing relevance with younger audiences.
Next Steps for Brand Marketers:
Audit your audience assumptions: Are you still marketing to a life path that no longer exists?
Embrace modular storytelling: Tailor your campaigns to reflect diverse paths, not fixed timelines.
Design for financial flexibility: Offer products and services that adapt to inconsistent income, delayed milestones, or non-linear life journeys.
Rethink rituals: Help audiences celebrate alternative victories - financial stability, community building, or self-care investments.
Speak to agency, not aspiration: Make your audience feel in control, not behind schedule.
The story isn’t that young people have stopped growing up. It’s that the rules of adulthood have changed - and brand strategies need to change with them.