Money and millennials
(First of two parts)
Millennials or Gen Y are no longer kids. In fact, most of us are already establishing our careers, starting families, and of course, trying to build wealth. Collectively, we call these things #adulting.
But it’s no secret that our generation has quite a bad reputation. For us to solve these issues, we first need to understand them.
1 They say money and millennials don’t mix [Business Insider]
They say we are heavy spenders so we don’t end up saving anything. In truth, we are not that bad when it comes to managing money. We look beyond traditional banking services. We are not loyal to brands because we look for convenience, ease of access, rewards, cash backs, zero fund transfer fees.
Another way of looking at it is that we are much more savvy when it comes to money because we would like to make the most out of it.
2 They say only 50 percent of millennials are likely to own a home [Bloomberg]
We have been wrongly labeled as a generation who does not see value in real estate investing. We’d love to, but most millennials couldn’t seem to afford it. Yet. What people fail to realize is that the prices of pretty much everything we spend for just to survive have been going through the roof— education, rent and real estate.
Let’s talk about this in the context of supply and demand. When you have more people demanding real estate but there are less available vacant lots, it would naturally jack up property prices.
Before, it’s usual for our parents to have a bungalow built. But today, people go for multilevel structures to make the most out of the lot area. Two-story structures with a functional roofdeck has become a standard these days and condo living has been on the rise. Even the biggest developers in the country are converting bodies of water into reclamation projects. This is all because of the fact that real estate is becoming more scarce, thus making it more expensive.
3 Millennials are lazy [Time]
Because we can make the most out of technology, social media and the internet, we tend to be perceived as lazy. Most people think relying on such requires very little to no effort at all.
We are actually hardworking, but we are in an environment that compensates us for less because society thinks that we are not doing hard labor. Millennials work multiple jobs, have online businesses and side hustles. We made the gig economy and invented the “Hustle Culture.” Millennials work smart and in their terms, that means working hard.
4 Millennials are entitled [Time*]
Millennials may be better skilled, better educated, full of productivity hacks, but we are paid 20 percent less on the average than what Boomers got at the same stage in their lives. Wage has not caught up with the real-world cost of living and inflation, and that’s why for our generation, it’s almost a given for us to be a little bit more creative and look for additional sources of income.
5 Millennials are deep in debt [Fortune]
Even if this were true, borrowing money does not necessarily mean we’re struggling. Not all debts are created equal. It’s okay to borrow if the benefits of the loan can potentially outweigh its cost.
A good kind of “utang” can be a multipurpose loan to finally get you started on investing; a personal loan to buy a laptop to open an online business; a home loan so you can finally have your own home; or any loan that can allow your money to potentially earn via stocks, bonds among other instruments. So never be ashamed to go this route. Remember that money, whether earned or borrowed, can be a powerful weapon.
6 Millennials are impatient [Harvard Business Review]
And, of course, we’re thought to be impatient. If you need to verify something, there’s Google to the rescue. We want on-demand shows on Netflix, on-demand music on Spotify. However, we need to factor in the ever-evolving environment. We may not be able to catch prime time TV because we’re stuck in traffic on the way home or in the office working the graveyard shift.
But because we’re so used to a world where almost anything is just a few clicks away, we’re made to believe that the same is true when it comes to investments. That’s why a lot of millennials fall prey to investment scams.
At the end of the day, it boils down as to how we manage our spending.
Your friend may be earning a lot, but spends practically ev erything on sneakers, junk food and vices and will end up with little to no money at all for saving and investing. You might not be getting paid a lot yet, but you make it a point to invest a portion of your income on a regular basis. This allows you to create multiple sources of income, one small amount at a time.
Saving P20 a day means you get to save P600 a month or P7,200 a year. This might not be a gamechanger but my point is, we seem to take small amounts of saving for granted.
When it comes to spending, say, P100 a day on cigarettes, that will set you back by P3,000 a month or P36,000 a year. The same goes for P140 a day for an Instagrammable signature coffee or milk tea, which will set us back by P4,200 a month or P50,400 a year.
When you keep spending money on unnecessary purchases, you will lose it. But if you can save even just a small amount and invest it on a regular basis, you are not just creating small sources of passive income, you are also creating an investing lifestyle.
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