Comments on: Are Twenty Somethings Not Saving Money?

By: MLR

MLR — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:54:06 +0000

Studenomist –

But those options are available to every generation. My parents use direct deposit, have atm and debit cards, online bill paying, etc etc…

I am confused in which direction you are heading with this reasoning, I guess. Forgive me if I am misreading something!

By: thomas

thomas — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:09:46 +0000

Before we get into saying that our whole generation doesn’t save, there is something far more important.

The idea of savings or any goal is that there must be a motivation behind. Why should I save?

Perhaps because I don’t want to go into debt when an emergency happens. Or I want to have enough money when something unexpected happens.
So i can have money without relying on others.

As I said, there needs to be a strong backing to these goals, if there isn’t there is no point of doing it.

By: Studenomist

Studenomist — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:17:57 +0000

Thanks everyone for your insights thus far!

@MLR I was referring to the fact that our generation has the advantage of direct deposit payments from work, online savings accounts, and automation. Not trying to insinuate that every 20 something will take advantage of these opportunities but they are definitely available to us.

Of course learning to say no to the many options that we have is near impossible. Not a week goes by where I find something new I want to purchase.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:57:22 +0000

I think there is no doubt that young people are wasteful when it comes to spending. You only need to go as far as the nearest coffee shop to prove it. I’m not sure how much that matters though, because a lot of young people in school don’t have much to save to begin with.

Does cutting a few dollars of spending a month and saving it still help when you have thousand of dollars of loans to pay off? Absolutely. A penny saved is a penny earned after all. Whether or not it seems to make a dent in the proverbial bucket is another issue entirely, and I think this leads a lot of people just to forget about saving at all.

By: Jeff @ Sustainablelife blog

Jeff @ Sustainablelife blog — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:34:51 +0000

I think the most important tip is the one you give at the very end “make sure how to say no to all the crap you get bombarded with”.
There is just so many easy ways to spend money and everyone’s doing it, plus the fact that after college and into your first “real” job, you’ve got more money than you know what to do with.

By: MLR

MLR — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:18:31 +0000

You summarize with: “The money that we do save is held in high yield savings accounts. Many facets of our personal finance system are automated. We have access to our financial information from home. Many of us earn money online.”

But do you have any data that suggests that Gen Y does this moreso than other generations? Or even on a wide-scale basis?

It seems a lot of the examples are things that each generation encounters (convenience increasing, fees increasing, etc).