Younger People (18-25) - Attitudes to money

Hectors_House

MrDT wrote: »

But in a decade you'll be 94! :eek:

I'm a twin so I figure that makes me half my age before I even start counting backwards!

[Deleted User]

mitchaa wrote: »

Its only money, i could keep it in the bank and be knocked down the next day,

Thats a bit pessimisitic lol

My question for you though mitchaa is your sig, im sure you may have been asked before, does it mean you bought your house for £139k and sold it at £162k, if so you made money in the boom, not the crash lol

misskool

I'm just below 30 but I feel inclined to comment as I've just left uni over a year ago.

I've always been slightly spendthrift in that there are ways and means to enjoy life to a certain degree but always thrifty enough to have a savings pot to fall back to. There have been moments of extreme money spending/saving. I spent 4 months in America working up to 70 hours a week and then spent every SINGLE penny I earnt; crossing the states from west to east. It was absolutely unbelievable and the memories (moonlit horseback ride with a Marlboro cowboy, riding a horse bareback in an Indian reservation, kayaking down a river in Florida etc) are worth more than any money I would have saved.

I'm lucky to have a reasonable income now but I'll still happily shop at Lidl, bargain butchers and wheel around a granny trolley. It's about having a healthy attitude and respect towards money. You need it to survive but you can't let it dominate your entire life to the point where you're a pair of misery guts.

moggylover

Gorgeous_George wrote: »

Me too!

I hope to be younger again one day.

GG

Second childhood?;)

SimbaSimon

I must say I think I'm in the minority also, I'm under 25, but managed to get a house at 21, fairly secure job, and although I don't save much can afford a few luxurys like holidays abroad and a few gadgets!

But I also know people that have a similar wage/jobs and have absolutely nothing to show for it. Seems such a waste.

moggylover

I suspect what helps the most is if you don't drink because that seems to be the major expense when going out - and always seemed to be the reason why I had more of my salary left than my friends did of theirs. Not smoking also helps.

Then there is having an "attitude" to what you buy that is a combination of asking oneself whether you actually NEED it or just want it, and then how badly you want it. I find that credit/debit cards make it a little too easy to go with it on impulse (and I can be impulsive:o ) so I tend to shop around without them on me first. Then, if I see something and I want it, I have to go away and draw the cash or get my card to go back and get it, and it is surprising just how many times I don't bother to go back:D . Somehow, once it is not in my hand it is often easier to not buy it, iyswim:o . It also helps if you only go shopping when you actually NEED something and don't wander around town on the off chance.

I don't think you are the only young person who is thrifty: and I certainly don't think you are tight, I just think you have different (and more sensible) priorities than your friends and that they could learn a lot from you. The hard bit is not allowing them to drag you into their "keeping up with the Jones's" culture: but I think you have your head screwed on right.

I don't think it has a lot to do with how much money you have and sometimes not with the way you were raised. Both my sons are treated the same: DS1 always wants to spend more than he has, DS2 just hates spending his dosh:o (we have an accountant or a bank manager on our hands there) unless he has thought about it long and hard and really cannot manage without the item. I say this because I always had the theory (until recently) that it was purely down to how one was raised, but I am now less certain of this seeing the difference in my own two. I think the biggest difference is between whether you are a risk taker or not and much of that appears to be nature rather than nurture.


I was a little worried about DS1 when he first started senior school. He suddenly seemed to want all the so-called "designer" clothes that all his friends parents seem ready to waste vast sums of money on and went through a phase of it having to have the "right" name on it. It did not last long, and he now sees it as the same mass produced (mostly in sweatshops in the developing World) tat whichever "name" is upon it and we no longer have arguments about it.

I doubt it is "easy" to be a thrifty young person these days though: I suspect that the peer pressure to spend is far greater than it was in my own day (simply eons ago:o ) because they have "created" so much rubbish for us to "need".

neverdespairgirl

LillyJ wrote: »

In fact, I remember being really little and asking my sister if I could borrow 50p from her money box to buy sweets. My Dad explained that I could borrow it, but I would have to give her 55p back.

sounds like a horrible APR (-:

neverdespairgirl

Hectors_House wrote: »

I'm a twin so I figure that makes me half my age before I even start counting backwards!

More like double!

Basil_Hume

I graduated with an undergraduate Masters in 2003, which I'd started in 1999.

I'd always worked through A-Levels in a bike shop and had a culture of saving-up for "big-ticket" items like £1k+ mountain bikes. I was one of the first university students to come under the new model of tuition fees and student loans, but was fortunate to have my fees and accommodation paid by my parents.

Between 2000 and 2002 I wasn't especially careful with money (I also had a car) and I left university with £1.5k on my overdraft and about £2k on a credit card - despite working 14 hours a week in a bike shop and then in an office from 2002. By this time, I was fed up with being a poor student and just wanted to start work.

I did an internship with a corporate bank in the summer holiday of 2002 and had a job offer from them, but instead started my career on a well-known public sector grad scheme straight away in 2003. I lived at home until 2004, which allowed me to pay off my debts and save to move in with my eventual wife.

It took me several promotions and until 2006 to start saving in a measured way (i.e not short-term saving for a new mountain bike or holiday!) and since 2007, I've also been investing under the guidance of my now father-in-law; a 64-year-old banker! I'm currently sat at about £15k, although it's taking some guts to continue seeing this as a "cheap" time to buy shares!

So - yes - the typical student can turn their situation around. My two younger brothers were given higher allowances at university and didn't need jobs - but I think I've emerged with a better attitude to money due to being given less!

LillyJ

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

sounds like a horrible APR (-:

I know! My sister has been known to try and charge me interest if I borrow a tenner till I get to the cash point even now. That is why she is in finance and I'm not.