Generations of Spenders

Posted by: Meredith K. | Dec 13,2007


A lot of talk this week about the Me Generation – Boomers who are materialistic at the expense of saving for tomorrow.  Gene even goes so far as to compare Baby Boomers to college students, in that they’re very shortsighted about how they spend money.  In some sense, the Boomer generation act like overgrown teenagers.  Which means that the actual teenagers, or those who are recent graduates, probably have even worse spending habits.  It’s been said that the 20’s are now like an extended adolescence.  30 today is what 20 used to be.  

Young people today have been raised in a much different world than their parents’ generation.  While Boomers might be adapting to using the Internet, iPods, and the like, the younger generation knows nothing but the current technology.  Crazy to think that many teens today don’t know life before the Internet.  

As a result, this may explain why so many younger adults are so frivolous with their credit card spending – they cannot imagine a world with iPods, iPhones, new laptops, new software, new games, you name it.  It’s a part of the lifestyle.  Educating younger people about credit card usage isn’t so much about APR’s, finance charges, long-term interest, etc. but about financial priorities.  Younger people just don’t want to be without their gadgets.  

It’s all well and good for a person to want an iPhone, but just because you’ve got room on your credit card doesn’t mean that you should automatically make the purchase.  Unfortunately, that’s the opposite of how teens and 20’s use cards: if there’s space on the limit, the purchase is going to be made.  It’s a pretty hard cycle to break, especially when everyone around them is brandishing the latest gizmo.  

So what’s the antidote?  Really, if students are totally abusing the luxury of credit, they should have the card ripped out from under the them.  That’s your job, parents.  Otherwise, they have to know that they can’t buy things they can’t afford.  There is real value in earning what you own, rather than buying something you cannot afford.  It make take some time to get this idea through, but it’s for their own good both financially and emotionally.

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