Millennials aren't as smart about money as they think

[Knaar]

Random tought, what if there was a financial class in school to learn all about money? Maybe that would help!
Crazy idea, i know.

[HardlyWaken]

It really comes down to poor planning. People still feel “young” in their 20s and have no rush to set up a good 401k plan, or IRA if they don’t have that luxury. Hell, a lot go as far as not withholding taxes, or very little, because they feel the money is better used in the “now”, which leads to bad habits and constant “unexpected” debt events. I see it all the time, as I’m 26 and still interact commonly with people 20-30 in the work force.

The thing is though, it’s perfectly do-able. People get themselves in a rut and assume there’s nothing they can do about their situation. I can say, that’s often a problem in the mind. My family, growing up, was quite poor, I graduated college with a 4 year business degree and had a kid to take care of so I had like no experience. However, I’ve had a faithful and healthy relationship (controllable), ambition (controllable), and researched REALISTIC opportunities and took advantage as they came along, and made sure my bills were paid at the very least, and for quite a while lived just to meet my needs. A year and a half after college I make a little more over 50k a year (not bad for Kentucky, we have one of the lower costs of living in the US and cheap housing), “Excellent” credit, will have my first home next year, and a solid direction for growth.

Now, I’m not saying that to brag, because I’m sure to most people here that will sound like nothing. But the point I’m trying to make is that most of the people I’ve come across within each of my groups of friends COULD have done the same thing, most chose not to, with decisions I could explicitly point out, or didn’t have the ambition or drive to actually move around and seek better jobs.

It seems like people don’t start considering careers and retirement a serious conversation until 30+ and you can lose out on hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of growth in a 401k in that time, ruin your credit, and limit your time-frame of tenureship and experience if you wait that long to get serious.

It’s not as hard as people make it out to be. Making good decisions is vastly the difficulty people run into.

[Khaza-R]

Sounds about right.

Only 31% of millenials contribute to any sort of retirement savings account. That’s rather staggering when you think about it

[A dot Ham]

Random tought, what if there was a financial class in school to learn all about money? Maybe that would help!
Crazy idea, i know.

Pretty sure it was baby boomers and gen x that thought removing these classes from the curriculum was a good idea.

[unbound]

Wow this is too bad. Maybe millenials should get more financial education before leaving highschool. It might help them to avoid financial issues in the future.

lol

The vast majority of twenty-somethings throughout history didn't know what they were doing. Millennials are no different than any other group of young adults.

As for giving themselves high marks...of course they did. It's called the Dunning-Kruger effect and it affects absolutely any group you care to name.



Absolutely everyone, no matter how bad they are at something, thinks they are above average, and only the people that are really good at something under-estimate themselves. While John Cleese ends up poking fun at a couple of groups, his description of Dunning-Kruger is a great summary.

[Queen of Hamsters]

They really aren't. In my group of friends maybe like 2 others than myself actually save or invest properly. Constantly when people are like "Wait how did you save so much money" I just tell them I'm not an impulse buyer that buys worthless shit 24/7.

You join the horrible attention spans and idiots "needs" to stay relevant and you basically figure out why millennials have no money.

I've found that my Female Friends are also far worse at managing Money than my Male Friends.

Funny.

My experiences are the opposite. The few people my age I've had contact with whom were crap at managing their finances (mostly males), were also trying to "borrow" money and got angry enough when denied (ego) that we parted ways.

[Rukario]

Bah...again with that millennials vs X, i think we have more ppl aware that they need to save and invest to have a better future...and that includes ppl from different generations.

That being said, most ppl love to just spend all they have on stuff they don't need.

[taliey]

Sometimes, I think everyone's favorite past time involving the millennial label is to blame them for the economy when they're starting to enter the labor market.

[Super Kami Dende]

Funny.

My experiences are the opposite. The few people my age I've had contact with whom were crap at managing their finances (mostly males), were also trying to "borrow" money and got angry enough when denied (ego) that we parted ways.

Tbf I have a few Male friends that are atrocious at it. But it was by and large my Female friends. Hell at least 30% of my Male friends already have house and steady finances and we aren't even in our 30's, whereas 0 of my Female friends own houses. Most live with Parents still. Majority don't even own a Car.

[Khaza-R]

Sometimes, I think everyone's favorite past time involving the millennial label is to blame them for the economy when they're starting to enter the labor market.

Starting? The top end of the millennial demographic is 37-40 years old. They’ve been in the job market for while

[A dot Ham]

And how did previous generations handle the monies? Many millennials became adults in the middle of a financial crisis caused by previous generations, FYI.

Previous generations could buy a home, and support a family of 4 by delivering milk door to door.

[Tinykong]

I fully understand how to manage money, the sad reality is that it's simply not possible for most people to do it because it's so expensive just to be alive.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Tbf I have a few Male friends that are atrocious at it. But it was by and large my Female friends. Hell at least 30% of my Male friends already have house and steady finances and we aren't even in our 30's, whereas 0 of my Female friends own houses. Most live with Parents still. Majority don't even own a Car.

While I don't think having stable finances must necessarily involve "owning" a house, I've got 5 female IRL friends (out of 8) whom got education, worked and purchased a house before the age of 40. The other 3 have stable finances and don't live at home. Cars seem to be the bigger priority among the guys though, many owned a car before they even got an education and a steady job/their own place. Most adults people at home/with a parent that I encounter, tend to be males.

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Previous generations could buy a home, and support a family of 4 by delivering milk door to door.

And it got fucked up, just in time for millennials to come along to "take the blame".

[Super Kami Dende]

While I don't think having stable finances must necessarily involve "owning" a house, I've got 5 female IRL friends (out of 8) whom got education, worked and purchased a house before the age of 40. The other 3 have stable finances and don't live at home. Cars seem to be the bigger priority among the guys though, many owned a car before they even got an education and a steady job/their own place. Most adults people at home/with a parent that I encounter, tend to be males.

Maybe its a difference between Countries. Since nearly every Woman I know below 30 lives with their Parents unless they had a Partner to move in with. Whereas most the guys left home and lived together as soon as High School finished.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Maybe its a difference between Countries. Since nearly every Woman I know below 30 lives with their Parents unless they had a Partner to move in with. Whereas most the guys left home and lived together as soon as High School finished.

I don't think it's a country thing, apart maybe from Italy, nor a gender thing. It just happens to be our anecdotal experiences.

[Sunseeker]

I work in debt collection, plenty of people of all ages don't know jack about money and credit.

[Dr Assbandit]

Must be a truly sad existence to have to resort to finding articles about the fuckups of younger generations for the sole reason of wanting to feel validated and good about yourself .

[JohnBrown1917]

Sounds about right.

Only 31% of millenials contribute to any sort of retirement savings account. That’s rather staggering when you think about it

Does the US not have any funding for retirees when they hit a certain age?

[Manabomb]

Can't really control what other people do.

Sounds like a shitty excuse to continue objectively horrible behavior just because 'other people do it'.

[The Stormbringer]

If being in debt is a sign of being bad with money then hooo boy, an absolute metric fuckton of people young and old are teeeerrible with money. Especially if they ever went to any form of university or had any medical problems without insurance!