Multiple income streams, side hustles, moonlighting, portfolio careers, AI disruption, and remote work. Why are more professionals working two jobs, building side businesses and preparing for an increasingly uncertain economy?This week on It's All Relative, I explore the end of the one-salary life and the rise of the moonlighting middle-class professional.For years, we've associated multiple jobs with financial hardship. But something has changed.Increasingly, it's not just gig workers or low-income households juggling multiple sources of income. It's lawyers, teachers, doctors, consultants, creatives, and knowledge workers. It's the professional middle class.

And that tells us something important.

In this episode, I unpack why more people are hedging their bets, diversifying their income and questioning whether a single employer can still provide the security it once did.00:00 Intro01:53 Middle class moonlighting03:48 Multi income data surge05:04 AI enables overemployment05:53 Portfolio career benefits08:32 Employers and distrust11:11 Side hustle openness14:48 Public sector moonlighting17:05 Platform capitalism risks20:57 Community questionsFollow this ChannelA weekly show exploring generational change, work, wealth, technology, and the forces shaping modern life.

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This week on It’s All Relative, I sit down with Financial Times columnist Clare Barrett to unpack one of the defining generational questions of our time:What happens when an entire generation grows up expecting economic instability?Unlike millennials, who came of age during a consumer boom, Gen Z were shaped by the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, stagnant wages, unaffordable housing, and the collapse of the old promise that hard work guarantees security.And it’s changed how they think about money completely.In this episode, we explore:

00:00 Intro02:34 Meet Clare Barrett03:40 Student Debt Reality Check05:15 Savvy Workplace Power06:19 Side Hustles New Normal08:44 Tuition Fees And Career ROI10:27 Deposit Versus Debt13:19 Happiness Curve Flattening14:20 Is University Still Worth It16:43 Gen Z Investing Boom22:15 Trading Apps And FinTok Risks23:44 Finance Influencers Rules24:21 Brands Chase Gen Z25:32 How Gen Z Learns Investing26:29 Frictionless Spending Debt28:07 Buy Now Pay Later Reality30:04 Housing Dream Slips Away31:11 Renting Landlord Ethics31:54 Help To Rent Debate33:49 Shared Ownership Pitfalls36:45 Money Talks Relationships38:10 Protect Yourself Legally40:59 Gen Z Money Openness43:50 Savvy Or Screwed Finale44:29 Episode Wrap And Outro

🔔 Follow this ChannelA weekly show unpacking generational change, money, work, technology, and modern life.Follow so you don’t miss the next episode.🌍 Find Claer Barrett hereWebsiteFinancial Times ColumnInstagramLinkedIn📚 Buy InheritocracyMy book on inheritance, wealth and the Bank of Mum and Dad🌍 Find Me HereWebsiteInstagramLinkedIn

This week on It’s All Relative, I explore one of the defining cultural questions of the 2020s: Who gets to be creative anymore?Because increasingly, traditional creative careers are becoming the preserve of the financially secure.The children of affluent families. The beneficiaries of the Bank of Mum and Dad. Those who can afford unpaid internships, unstable income and years of uncertainty. And that raises a bigger question:What has happened to working class creativity?In this episode, I explore:00:00 Intro00:53 Premise Explained02:05 Romanticising Struggling Artist03:52 Postwar Meritocracy in the Arts05:46 Access to Arts Closing07:57 Creative Industry Cuts And Class Data08:53 Creator Economy Shift12:34 Monetising Is A Slog14:12 Keep Creativity Private16:46 Arts Culture Beyond The West22:05 Community Questions

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This week on It’s All Relative, I unpack exclusive polling data from OnePoll, looking at how under-45s in Britain are really coping financially.And the findings are stark.38% of respondents said they felt worse off after receiving a pay rise.Not because pay rises don’t matter.But because rising wages are being immediately absorbed by housing costs, childcare, debt repayments, tax, and the general cost of living.Which raises a much bigger question:What happens when work no longer feels like a reliable route to financial stability?In this episode, I explore:00:00 Intro01:54 Why Raises Feel Useless03:52 Patchwork Household Income05:20 Side Hustles Reality Check07:49 Two-Income Economy Trap09:08 Lone Parents Under Pressure11:07 Bank of Mum and Dad12:12 Luxury Redefined Today14:04 Three Ways People Adapt14:40 Community Q&A31:19 Wrap Up and Next Episode
📩 Subscribe to My SubstackRead the full essay this episode is based on:👉 https://drelizafilby.substack.com/p/britains-under-45s-no-longer-runs📚 Buy InheritocracyMy book on inheritance, family wealth and the Bank of Mum and Dad:👉 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inheritocracy-Time-Talk-Bank-Mum/dp/1911709809🌍 Find Me HereWebsite: https://www.elizafilby.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/drelizafilbyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizafilby

This week on It’s All Relative, I unpack my recent conversation with Simon Sinek and explore why AI is transforming work and exposing everything that was already broken about it.

The collapse of stable careers.The erosion of loyalty between employer and employee.

The rise of individualism.The breakdown of the old life script. For decades, we sold people a very clear promise:

Work hard. Get a degree. Build a career. Buy a house. Build stability.

And increasingly, that promise hasn’t been delivered in the way many people expected. Especially for millennials and Gen Z.

In this episode, I explore:🔔 Subscribe to the ChannelA weekly show unpacking generational change, AI, work, culture, and the forces shaping modern life.

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Are you actually rich? Middle class wealth, income vs wealth, cost of living, generational wealth and inequality, why so many people feel poor in a rich country.If you earn £50k… you’re in the top 30% of earners in the UK.And yet most people on that salary would not describe themselves as rich.So what’s going on?In this episode of It’s All Relative, I unpack one of the biggest misconceptions shaping our politics and our sense of self:the idea that “the rich” are always someone else.The billionaire.The hedge fund manager.The 1%.But what if that’s not the full picture?What if wealth isn’t just concentrated at the very top… but spread more widely across what we might call the mass affluent?And what if many of us are both feeling squeezed… and sitting in wealth at the same time?In this episode, I explore:00:00 Intro03:30 Dinner Party Politics06:03 Advert Break Art Print06:57 Greens and Middle Class Squeeze10:03 Defining Who Is Rich11:20 Mass Affluent Hidden Wealth13:52 Britain Poorer Than We Think16:52 Expectations and Feeling Poor21:17 Community Questions29:11 Behind the Scenes Chat🔔 Subscribe to the ChannelA weekly show unpacking generational change, wealth, work and the forces shaping modern life.Subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode.📩 Subscribe to My SubstackRead the full essay this episode is based on:👉 https://drelizafilby.substack.com/p/you-are-probably-rich-you-just-dont📚 Buy InheritocracyMy book on inheritance, class and the Bank of Mum and Dad:👉 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inheritocracy-Time-Talk-Bank-Mum/dp/1911709809🌍 Find Me HereWebsite: https://www.elizafilby.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/drelizafilbyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizafilby

Are women becoming more “materialistic”… or just more realistic? In this episode of It’s All Relative, I unpack one of the most controversial conversations happening right now around dating, relationships, and money. Because increasingly, we’re hearing that women are becoming more selective, more financially focused, even “gold diggers”.I don’t think that’s what’s happening.

I think we’re seeing the rise of something else entirely: financial compatibility. And it reflects the economic reality of the 2020s...

• Stagnant wages.
• Unaffordable housing.
• Student debt.
• Expensive childcare.

And the growing importance of the Bank of Mum and Dad.

In this episode, I explore:

00:00 Intro

00:53

Gen Z Money Reality

03:32 Gold Digger Myth

06:33 Class Matching in Love

10:27 Seesaw Marriages

12:10 Algorithms, Dating Apps and Money

13:58 Inheritance and Dynasties

15:22 Quickfire Questions

17:00 Community Questions

19:47 Breadwinner Resentment

21:09 Talk Money Before Kids

21:42 Final Thoughts and Outro

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AI in universities, ChatGPT students, is a degree still worth it? Future of education, student debt, and assessment — is AI exposing a deeper problem with higher education?Are universities facing an AI crisis… or is AI simply revealing a crisis that was already there?In this episode of It’s All Relative, I explore how AI is transforming university education — and why the real issue may not be students using ChatGPT, but the way we assess learning in the first place.Because here’s the reality:Around 88% of UK students are now using AI in their work.Detection software isn’t reliable.Essay writing is increasingly automatable.And universities are struggling to keep up.But I don’t think this is just about cheating.I think AI is exposing something much deeper.A system that has, for years, been drifting towards credentialism, grade inflation and a “customer model” of education.In this episode, I explore:00:00 Intro03:22 Fees Customers Credentialism04:29 Vivas and Oral Exams06:10 Break06:48 Quickfire Questions09:44 Work Skills and Inequality11:48 Book Plug Interlude13:02 Community Questions19:14 Lecturers Under Pressure20:39 Will Universities Change?22:41 Advice for Students Parents Employers🔔 Subscribe to the ChannelA weekly show unpacking generational change, work, education and the forces shaping modern life.Subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode.📩 Subscribe to My SubstackRead the full essay this episode is based on:👉 https://drelizafilby.substack.com/p/universities-dont-have-an-ai-problem📚 Buy InheritocracyMy book on inheritance, class and generational change:👉 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inheritocracy-Time-Talk-Bank-Mum/dp/1911709809🌍 Find Me HereWebsite: https://www.elizafilby.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/drelizafilbyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizafilby

Friendship and money, class differences, millennials, Gen Z, social mobility, and the Bank of Mum and Dad. How money is reshaping our friendships.We don’t like to talk about money when it comes to friendship.It feels uncomfortable. Slightly taboo. Almost… inappropriate.Friendship is supposed to be the one space where money doesn’t matter.And yet, increasingly, I think it does.In this episode of It’s All Relative, I explore how money is infiltrating our friendships and why this feels particularly pronounced for millennials and Gen Z.One event can wipe out your disposable income for months.And beneath that sits something deeper.A growing divide between those who are financially supported by the Bank of Mum and Dad… and those who are not.In this episode:00:00 Intro03:29 Celebrating Friends Milestones04:08 Bank of Mum and Dad05:51 Money Divides by Generations08:03 Cross-Class Friendships10:28 Friends as Comparison11:31 Well-being and Ranking12:54 Gender Status Differences15:08 Community Questions17:49 Competition and Networking22:39 New Status Games24:56 Friendship Above Status28:29 Work Friends and Decline🔔 Subscribe to the ChannelA weekly show exploring generational change, work, wealth, family and the forces shaping modern life.Subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode.📩 Subscribe to My SubstackRead the full essay this episode is based on:👉 https://drelizafilby.substack.com/p/how-money-infiltrates-your-friendship📚 Buy InheritocracyMy book on inheritance, class and the Bank of Mum and Dad:👉 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inheritocracy-Time-Talk-Bank-Mum/dp/1911709809🌍 Find Me HereWebsiteInstagramLinkedIn

Pensions, retirement planning, millennials, Gen X, and money. Why ignoring your pension could cost you hundreds of thousands.At 28, I made what I now think is one of the most expensive decisions of my life.I opted out of my pension.At the time, it didn’t feel reckless. It felt… rational. I needed cash. I was freelancing. I was living month to month. Retirement felt abstract, distant, irrelevant.But looking back, that one decision likely cost me hundreds of thousands of pounds.And I know I’m not alone.In this episode of It’s All Relative, I unpack why so many people, particularly older millennials and younger Gen X, have under-saved for retirement, and why pensions have become one of the most overlooked (and misunderstood) financial issues of our time.Too young for the gold-plated pensions our parents had.Too early for auto-enrolment.And navigating careers that were anything but linear.In this episode, I explore:

00:00 Intro02:19 Why I Opted Out of my Pension05:12 Family Money Lessons07:01 Millennial Money Squeeze09:09 The Pension Crisis Data10:55 Renting in Retirement11:59 Ant and Grasshopper Wakeup Call16:06 Preventive Wealth Mindset19:38 Community Questions28:59 What Does This Mean For Me?

👇 SUBSCRIBE & STAY IN THE CONVERSATIONSubscribe to the channel for weekly episodes of It’s All Relative with Dr Eliza FilbyRead the full essay on Substack & subscribe to the newsletter: https://drelizafilby.substack.comFollow Eliza on socials:InstagramLinkedInExplore Eliza’s work, speaking, and research: https://www.elizafilby.comBuy Inheritocracy: It’s Time to Talk About the Bank of Mum and Dad:https://www.elizafilby.com/books