Gen Yers are money conscious and better savers than their Boomer parents. Or so claims a recent piece in Time, which reported that Gen Y is more optimistic about its financial future and taking steps to ensure post-career prosperity than those approaching retirement.<\/p>\n
Sensing the survey numbers might not tell the whole story, I set out to talk to other Millennials about their saving habits and those of their peers to confirm whether fiscal prudence is a generational virtue and to determine what kind of influence Mom and Dad were when it comes to money.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what they told me:<\/strong><\/p>\n What motivates you to save?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d call it a product of my upbringing. My parents both had blue collar jobs and didn\u2019t make a lot of money. They did what they could, but I learned to live with \u2018needs\u2019 instead of \u2018wants,\u2019 as my mother always put it. I probably wouldn\u2019t have become the person I am without such an upbringing, and I\u2019m very thankful for it. I have excellent credit and after recently selling my home, my only debt is about $7000 in student loans. I have no credit card debt and I\u2019m satisfied with a trusty Jeep that paid off a few years ago that now has over 160 000 miles.\u201d<\/p>\n Tim Russell, 29 Are members of Gen Y better savers than their parents?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think so, no. We\u2019re a generation that works hard and plays hard. I think if you\u2019re raised in a household where being smart about money is not an objective, that you may in the long run actually inherit those traits. If Gen Y is raised by a spendthrift Boomer population, it might actually stand that the system continues unless someone does something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Mehnaz Thawer, 29<\/p>\n Vancouver<\/p>\n How has the recession affected your money habits?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a little hard to factor in how the recession affected my attitude towards money \u2013 I was a poor college student when the recession first started and I think my attitude towards money really hasn\u2019t changed much. I\u2019m always minimizing my spending, justifying purchases, and trying to do my best to maximize what I get for what I spend. I think the recession just solidified my already existing belief that money is meant to be earned, saved and spent carefully. Watching my husband \u2013 five years older \u2013 and his peers I think they\u2019ve loosened up a bit recently. When the recession first started, they all joined right in on my meager ways and now things are a bit more stable \u2013 and they seem more secure in their jobs \u2013 so they are more likely to eat out, treat themselves to a movie or new toy, etc. This still makes me uneasy, but I can feel myself joining them now and again. So maybe that means it\u2019s a short term thing. They certainly are approaching this recession as a blip \u2013 something for them to get through before life gets back to normal.\u201d<\/p>\n Laura Jane Schaefer, 26 How do your saving and spending habits compare to those of your peers?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cSometimes, I feel like I can\u2019t even relate to my peers. They spend like drunken sailors. Cars, TVs, iPhones, eating out, you name it. I once had a friend with two kids, three cars, a mortgage, and a stay at home wife mind you pull me aside and lecture me on the need to put away that extra $200 each month. $200 a month? That\u2019s only saving $2400 a year! That will pay two years of college for one of your kids if you\u2019re lucky. Another couple we know eats out almost every day. It\u2019s excessive.<\/p>\n I love living frugally. I live in a one-bedroom apartment in Pittsburgh with my wife, we bus\/bike to work, buy locally, and enjoy the little things in life. There\u2019s no need to spend money just because you can.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrew Fournaridis, 25 http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/jmaureenhenderson\/2011\/12\/31\/does-money-matter-more-to-millennials\/2\/ Gen Yers are money conscious and better savers than their Boomer parents. Or so claims a recent piece in Time,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":72448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-highlighted-post":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-small":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x90.jpg","colormag-featured-image":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-default-news":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","colormag-featured-image-large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-block-extra-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-small-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-medium-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"njaiyo","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/255e26fc52858afad234c2c1d44c946e16c565fd0ef5615b0c1caa793897759d?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"Gen Yers are money conscious and better savers than their Boomer parents. Or so claims a recent piece in Time,","magazineBlocksPostCategories":[],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":136,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":4,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"medium":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg",113,150,true]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"njaiyo","author_link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?author=6"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/255e26fc52858afad234c2c1d44c946e16c565fd0ef5615b0c1caa793897759d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPittsburgh<\/p>\n
\nPortland<\/p>\n
\nPittsburgh<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"