Millennials and Wealth 

By Berfin Anil

Millennials also known as generation Y or if the baby boomers like to say lazy, entitled, and irresponsible have known to become the luckiest society to be known. Besides the positives of having so many opportunities in life with education, accessibilities, hobbies, technology being at its best stage and being able to earn or have easy access to money. It comes with the negatives for example us millennials have so many expenses with prices and money factors rising for what we buy wether its needs or wants you have to pay for them. This results in money being spent way more than needed and at a much quicker pace. 

With generations changing so does the norms and values we hold towards life change. Materials around us millennials have become much bigger and the envy to own them has as well for example items seen as “luxury goods”  such as cars and clothes are known or seen to be important to us. Is this true? Does this stand for everyone in this generation?. What is luxury, the definition is often the assurance of quality or something that is an indulgence rather than a necessity. This is a showing that we are largely indulged to having ‘luxury’ products this could be a negative as our savings are not being saved. The funny thing is we millennials have always been seen to have better and higher living standards which we can agree is  partly true however do we agree with the higher standards, not everyone is born into what is the 21st century stereotype lifestyle and is having a better style of living to what our parents had, enough?. Prices having going up immensely show house value is going to be the biggest issue for us! Trends are also showing moving or living outside of family homes seem to have a psychological impact on millennials who have already started moving out. Could this be because life is showing to be uncertain towards us for the first time!

Furthermore, if you are a millennial you know that money spending is one of our favourite thing we do over and over again with the walk of shame even if it means not having 90p left at the end. We may like to recklessly spend, but it does not all go towards wanting something, we have essentials, this may surprise a few. TalkLoans a website talking on the topic “Are today’s youth wasteful with money” say student debts have been rising and the loans we are given are showing to be not enough, this results in us saving large amounts of money but than it all being spent again this is a priority we all take that may affect our future. 

Transport has also become an importance in our teenage lives, remembering turning 17 and saying you were going to start driving straight away well majority never get round to it or spend the money that was saved supposedly to learn to drive, this then becomes the biggest regret ever because you are stuck with getting public transport everywhere you go. Want your own quiet time to travel without a screaming baby or young children? Who are screaming wide awake going to school, when you can barely open an eye, sorry to be a spoiler but no your not going to get that. Wanting to get somewhere quickly without stopping to pick up someone.. not going to happen, wanting a ride where you don’t have to pay everyday, that’s also a no. Overall, you may get used to those factors by putting in your only lifesavers which are headphones,  but having to spend your money on a bus or train to take you somewhere is so annoying! With each journey on the distance being more expensive your money is being spent more. 

Us millennials also have a bad habit on take outs or fast food a guilty pleasure that isn’t really filled with guilt. I mean who doesn’t love a good chinese or dominos whether it’s after a alcohol filled night or for a cosy night in. Even though it tastes like the heavens the price we pay for it everytime we buy it which can be up to twice a week or more has an effect on how much money actually stays saved. 

Coming to the biggest problem once you turn 18 is online shopping, everyone has experienced the shock and excitement when we found out that you can purchase your most wanted clothing items sat at home including a next day delivery just in case you forgot to plan an outfit the night before!. It has become the most popular way in fact some people have stopped traditional shopping where you actually go in store. This has caused teenagers to spend more money on clothing than before as they don’t have to plan when to buy it and which shops to go, you can buy it whenever and wherever you want.

Further to the point, money management is something we are stereotyped to be not so good at but does this come from the fact we have never been given the chance to broaden our knowledge on it rather having kept a limited idea on personal finance.It has been said by World Report News a U.S Media Company that publishes and analysis news around the world, that millennials may not be putting enough aside for retirement. Should we be worried about saving for retirement from such a young age, isn’t living in the moment more spontaneous and fun, to not worry about materialism but instead live your life to its best enjoy the people around you and be able to experience what you can with what you are given. 

CNBC a news channel  is showing that young people have less than a 1,000 in their savings account and a significant have none at all. 

But the real question is why do we spend this much money I had conducted a questionnaire asking different age groups questions on wealth with one of my questions being “Are millennials or yourself encouraged/ influenced to spend money or buy luxury goods to look a certain way?”. When I received my questionnaires back the results showed that 7 out of 7 people think as millennials we do in in fact indulge on luxury and goods to look a certain way. However, I also then went on to ask why they think we do. These were some of my replies I received “ To keep up with trends and wear expensive clothes”, “Because they want to impress others”, “Because of the media and what they show”.  These answers are proving that millennials are shown to all have similar thought processes towards wealth and that most of our spending habits are actually influenced because of society’s values. 

I also asked this question “ Is being wealthy for your own something you desire?” responses I got back really varied. Two people said not sure, four said yes and one said no. Is this arguing with the secondary research that even though teenagers spend money do they all want to even have the wealth that is being pushed on to them for the future, or even though we spend, in the back of our heads we are still thinking of the future and are in disguise working for it. 

If you are struggling with saving money financially or need help choosing on how to spend it efficiently than you can go to a website that is perfect for helping you. “The Money Advice Service” that is UK based is a great website on how to save for various different reasons and ways. The most useful part is they give free impartial money service, this includes a web chat with an advisor to ask any questions you enquire. Or if you prefer phone calls they also have a telephone number shown on their website that is free of charge.

Here is the link below.

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/tools/savings-calculator

Berfin Anil.                                    

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