Just cause were just starting in life doesn’t mean its a rationalization for doing the wrong thing. This stereotype makes me sick. Get your baggage together now so you can live better in the future…

Great post, Adam!

@TaxRascal, Regardless of how much you are able to save, the basics of financial management still apply, and there is always room to save money, even if it is only $10/month. By understanding the basics of financial management and making sure that you apply them no matter what your financial situation is, you can make sure that proper saving techniques are employed. Is it that people in their 20’s and 30’s don’t make enough money and they need to become net borrowers just to survive, or is it that their expectations of living standards are eschew from their salary – they want to live the lifestyle they grew up with, when their parents who were at their maximum earning power in their 40’s and 50’s were able to treat them to things they could not afford on a $50,000/year salary?

@RB, I was in the same situation, I never fully understood what my starting salary could and could not afford – a lesson I had to learn the hard way.

@Kris, you’re right, kids don’t care about what they don’t know – that’s why it’s important for them to understand why they need to learn about it – if you never went to the dentist, and no one ever told you to floss your teeth, chances are you wouldn’t do it, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it – if you don’t know about it, you can’t understand why you need it.

@Della, thanks for the link!

@Danielle, you are spot on, you need to talk to kids about money – if you don’t talk to them about it, they will never know that they _need_ to understand it!

@Mike – A $60 haircut is not an impulse buy. It is an easily forseen and planned for expense! Maybe if you approached it from the perspective of trying to document the spending that is already taking place first? This is the approach I had to use with my husband when I was getting our joint finances in order after we got married.

@TaxRascal – I never thought about why the US savings rate has been consistently decreasing. Giving it a few moments I think it would be related to the US Citizens expectations that our standard of living should always increase. Even if we couldn’t afford it.

@Kris – 12 sounds like a great age to start talking about more complex financial concepts! My husband and I were just talking about allowances last night (our first child is due in June) and how we agree that allowance should not be tied to chores or behavior. That way they can learn some of the savings and when to splurge lessons on much smaller amounts of money.

I’d take it a step further and ask: who is making the large financial decisions for many GenY adults right now? The media? College recruiters? Parents? Or the individuals themselves?

I am not sure that it’s reasonable to pay what people do for college when so few actually go onto jobs related to their shiny degrees….

Thankfully, my father introduced me to personal finance when I was about 12, and I was interested. Parents who try to talk to their children will probably end up pleasantly surprised. Children, just as much as adults, like money and want to have more.

http://mymoneyshrugged.blogspo.....-grow.html

Thanks goodness I came to my senses!

I thought I would be making 40k+ a year, so a few thousand in debt would be no big deal to pay off. Unfortunately a few thousand turned into many thousand and a 40k+ salary just doesn’t go that far, especially when living in a city that has a high cost of living.

I may not be totally oblivious when it comes to my finances now, but my head is still focused on today more than it is tomorrow. I’m only 32 years old – I have no idea what being a 70 year old is like. Yet, everything I’m doing right now – what I eat, what I read, how much I do or don’t exercise – all of it will effect me later in life. At some point when I’m an older man, I am going to wish I did things differently b/c I will be paying for the mistakes that my 32 year old self made.

Hindsight is 20/20 – whether it’s with finances or your cholesterol levels or something else.

BUT It really is because parents don’t teach their kids. Because they have no clue, look at all the ARMs!

Kids start to get expensive about when they start being able to learn stuff effectively, and there is nothing wrong with parents in their late 20’s and early 30’s being net borrowers who will pay it back as their income peaks in their 40’s and 50’s. But it does mean that kids are going to learn about proper financial discipline at a time when their parents’ savings rate is at a low ebb.

This is not done in a way to scare them. I assure them that we’ll be alright. But I hope that by sharing, they’ll understand how to deal with finances.

Thanks,
Nate

I mean think about it, growing up you learn the most of your knowledge from two sources. Parents, and school. If neither of them care to provide you with financial skills, then you won’t develop them. Most people won’t even start until they are out on their own, and that’s when they learn from trial and error (most of us anyway).

I had to take a class in High School on money but all it really taught was how to fill out a check and simple things like that, nothing ever about savings, compound interest, the dangers of credit.

Students should be educated on what a credit score is, debt to income ratios, benefits of savings and more. Hopefully we can get there, until then posts like this and others can help and move society forward.