Today’s article is from Foxbusiness.com, and is titled Growing Up Financially Is Hard to Do by: Gail Buckner. It’s some interesting commentary on how the Gen Y-ers are responding to the recent economic turmoil!
Generation Y is a term applied to those people currently 22 to 33 years old, of which, I am a member. These people are typically the offspring of Baby Boomers, and according to many in the work force, are nothing like their parents, especially in how they view their jobs. In the past, this (my) generation has been characterized as a bunch of job-hoppers. But now that they and their friends are experiencing layoffs and financial problems, the number of those surveyed that had changed jobs in the last 2 years dropped from 40% to almost half of that, and almost a quarter of them plan to stay with their employer until they retire…now there’s some surprising information!
Another interesting thing of note, however, is that the economy and higher rates of unemployment have changed the optimism and confidence typically displayed by this group of people, and they are becoming more financially conservative…all I have to say is that it’s about time!
Apparently, a new survey shows that 41% of Gen Y-ers have become more fiscally conservative in the last year, and nearly 2/3 say they’re “trying to save more now than a year ago”. I think that is incredible! To know that a lot of people from my generation are waking up and saving is great. And as far as retirement, in the last year the number of Gen Y-ers that are saving for retirement rose from 18% to 53%, but the majority of them are only focused on an emergency fund (which is a good start!). Considering that more than 30% of Gen Y-ers owe more than $5,000 in credit card debt, saving for an emergency and/or retirement is a nice change of pace.
No matter what their motives, the Generation Y group has started to notice the benefits of saving money and job security. I have feared that my fellow Gen Y-ers would never learn this lesson, but I am happily wrong. Maybe it was the economy, maybe it was the fact that it became cool to be a “recessionista”…or maybe it was that we got tired of hearing the word “recessionista”, and started watching our money to get people to quit using that word…either way, it happened, and hopefully it’s here to stay!
Tags: accountability, Budgeting, Debt, economy, Financial planning, Personal responsibility
