A study was conducted revealing the fact that 18-34-years-old, or people who are known as millennials, are suffering from severe stress. The major reason for their stress is money. Experts say that compared to people from previous generations, most millennials don’t really use their minds when it comes to money, of course not everyone, but mostly. One of the main reasons is that millennial students don’t prioritize savings and budgeting.
Millennials are known to be materialistic, because of the rise of social media, more and more people are into each other’s business wherein they share almost everything, to the fact that they are doing everything to get liked and praised, and most of the time, it cost them money. According to a survey conducted by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, over three-quarters of Millennials in the United States have the same clothes, cars, and other gadgets as their friends, and almost fifty percent of that use a credit card to pay for their luxuries and to pay their bills.
MILLENNIALS ON SAVING AND BUDGETING
According to the latest statistics from GOBankRates, most millennials are doing so badly when it comes to saving.
• 72% of Young Millennials or those who are aged 18-25 have less than $1,000 in their savings account and 31% of them actually have $0.
• 67% of Old Millennials or those who are aged 25-34 have less than $1,000 in their savings account and 33% of them actually have $0.
One of the major reasons why they couldn’t save that much is that most of them are still paying off their student loans. This is indeed true, but then again, this is also one of the most common excuses that they use when it comes to not being able to save.
FOMO PHENOMENON
When you ask millennials about this, they would most likely deny it. FOMO stands for the “Fear Of Missing Out”. This has got to be the worst thing about this generation. With the power of social media, people could share almost everything, that is why people could also see almost everything that other people share. Millennials are simply afraid that they will miss out on something. For instance, a new iPhone has been released and most of your friends just go it, since you’re afraid to miss that out, even if you don’t really need a new phone, you would get it even if it means you might go broke. Another example is that you would see photos of your friends having a good time out of the country, you wouldn’t, of course, want to be left out so you would do anything to have the same experience.
YOLO WAY OF THINKING
The term YOLO was of course invented by millennials since they are usually the ones who are doing it. YOLO stands for “You Only Live Once”, it is similar to FOMO, however, when it comes to YOLO, you are basically not giving yourself a choice but to actually get on with it. This way of thinking is simply letting yourself loose, thinking that you deserve to treat yourself, that you wouldn’t really care about the aftermath because life is short. It is a fact that it is fun, but if it means going broke, then you must start thinking and acting like an adult to be able to sort out your priorities.
SHORT-TERM vs LONG-TERM GOALS
Financial experts say that Millennials must acknowledge the difference between short-term and long-term goals. According to the survey, 70% of millennial are aware of the difference between the two but most of them just choose not to act on what they know is right because of the FOMO phenomenon and the YOLO way of thinking.
Money has always been a problem for almost everyone, it just so happens that there are people who choose to be wise when it comes to their money. We all know that you must work hard to be able to earn it, there might be difficult times but that is just simply part of life. If you don’t use your mind on how to make things work, then you will be stuck at the bottom for the rest of your life. You must find ways to make things work, and there will always be a way. Millennial or not, managing and earning money is hard, so it will always come down to how you are going to get through it.
