Australia's inflation has just reached levels not seen in 21 years and younger members of our workforce have been some of the hardest hit.
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The Australian Bureau of Statistics announced on Wednesday that inflation has risen by 6.1 per cent since the start of the year, a level unseen since June 2001.
Mature-age CSU Vet Tech student Ricki-Sue King, 30, works at McDonalds and said price increases have been a real challenge.
"My rent went up by $40 this year," she said.
"When I first moved into the place in 2020 the rent was $210. It went up to $220 last year and now it's $260.
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Ms King said the rent cost increases almost forced her onto the streets and played a significant role in her deciding to switch to part-time studies.
The increased costs have also forced her to consider buying home-brands at the supermarket.
"I used to be a bit of a snob about that and I'm also lactose intolerant, so the food I buy already costs more [than average]," Ms King said.
There were also a number of times she could only afford the bare minimum of groceries.
Fortunately she has recently secured a full-time position at McDonalds, which has taken away some of the pressure.
Despite this, she remains concerned about the possibility of a further rent increase.
"I hope for the best but prepare for the worst," Ms King said.
Meanwhile, aged care worker Thea Knoble, 21, has postponed plans to buy a house thanks to rising inflation.
"With the cost of everything rising, it's made things a bit more difficult to buy a house, because you're not really getting your money's worth," she said.
"It's also a bit harder because you have to save more now.
"There is a lot of talk about how the interest rates are going to rise.
"This makes it hard to apply for a loan because you don't know what the interest rate will be by the time it all goes through."
With up to half the workforce never having seen inflation as high as it is now, Navigate Advisors financial planner Emily Butt has explained what it's all about and how it will impact people going forward.
"Inflation is what we use to measure the cost of goods and services," she said.
"At the moment there is a lot of talk about inflation rising and affecting the cost of goods and services.
"For example, we are seeing grocery prices rise quite significantly, because there is a high demand but not enough supply. That is causing inflation to rise quite rapidly."
Ms Butt said a number of factors are at play with rising inflation, including COVID disruptions to supply chains and the Ukraine war.
"Because all these prices are rising, there is now a lot of uncertainty, because the Reserve Bank of Australia are raising interest rates which affect how much people can borrow.
"This is not such good news for those who need to borrow or have a loan, because their borrowing costs are increasing, tightening their budget.
"But it's good for investors, because as inflation increases, the RBA is trying to soften that and bring it back in line with its targets by increasing interest rates.
"This then means those investing have the ability to get some higher returns, but there will be a lot of volatility in between."
Next Tuesday the Reserve Bank of Australia will meet to determine whether to raise interest rates by up to a further 0.75 points.
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