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So, to you, "kids these days" are people two years younger than you.
The OP said why did kids in their 20s spend like they are rich. I was a "kid" in my 20s less than 2 years ago and almost all of my friends (and my wife) are all in their mid to late 20s. My point was not everyone does.
Even if I did agree with all this (and that's debatable), it's all the more reason not to spend $200 - $300 a week on eating out and partying, which is what the OP was describing. $200 a week on eating out, drinking and partying comes to over $10,000 a year - or $52,000 in FIVE YEARS of young adulthood.
Been there, done that, had a blast, doing it again in our 50s just in a different way. Life is too short to take it overly serious. DC was expensive and exciting, DFW ...
If you are using your own money why not?
I care because I am their father and they always complain about being broke and ask for money now and then. When I try to give them advice they tell me all their friends spend that type of money when they go out and it is required to be part of the group.
I am a 26 year old and I own my own condo and a 2012 car that I bought brand new that is almost paid off. I am very well aware of how expensive the world is and I realize how hard it is to support ones self, much less a family. I believe there are people within my generation who are completely out of touch with reality though. I know someone who makes $17/hour and lives in a $2800 studio on the 57th floor of the Aqua Building in Chicago. Guess who pays her rent? Mommy and Daddy of course.
But just because this person's parent's didn't raise her right, doesn't mean you should generalize for all of us millenials. I grew up with a single mother who wouldn't give us kids hand outs. We had to earn the next video game we wanted. Good luck getting ANY money for movie tickets or gas from her.
To be fair, the world has changed since we were children. (Of course, the world has changed between we were children and the time our parents were children.) While older generations have always complained about younger generations in this way, each generation faced different realities. For example, today's older generation, when it was the younger generation, faced a better situation than their parents faced, when their parents were the younger generation. And that had been the case generation after generation for centuries.
It isn't true for today's younger generation. Instead, today's younger generation faces a situation with less promise, less degrees of freedom leading to success, and less overall cause for optimism. And they are the first generation in recent history for which this has been true. That shapes the way they should be expected to see the world in a manner similar to how a terminal diagnosis shapes the way someone would see the world, or how losing one's nest egg to a market downturn shapes the way someone would see the world.
That is almost word for word what my father told me ... in 1978.
I did NOT believe it them nor do I believe it now.
I am a 26 year old and I own my own condo and a 2012 car that I bought brand new that is almost paid off. I am very well aware of how expensive the world is and I realize how hard it is to support ones self, much less a family. I believe there are people within my generation who are completely out of touch with reality though. I know someone who makes $17/hour and lives in a $2800 studio on the 57th floor of the Aqua Building in Chicago. Guess who pays her rent? Mommy and Daddy of course.
Part of the problem are enabling parents. They want to make sure that their little darlings never face any challenges and will swoop in to save their offspring at the first signs of trouble.
Chicago is almost a fantasyland these days. The first thing you realize once you move out is how darned expensive the place is ... and I lived out in the suburbs where the costs were significantly LESS than the city.
Been there, done that, had a blast, doing it again in our 50s just in a different way. Life is too short to take it overly serious.
There is that, too. I have found that there have been just as many people with regrets about their own unnecessary excessive self-imposed deprivation as there are people with regrets about their own unnecessary excessive self-imposed over-indulgence. And that's before factoring in how much things have changed for the worse over the last thirty five years reducing the value of frugality. People who live by either frugality or hedonism are reticent to acknowledge that, like everything in life, the ideal is closer to a moderate position than their extreme position.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jlawrence01
That is almost word for word what my father told me ... in 1978.
I did NOT believe it them nor do I believe it now.
My kids, who are in their 20s, don't think twice about spending $25 for lunch or $50 for dinner on a regular basis. If they go out to lunch they always have to get an appetizer, the main course, a desert and a few mixed drinks or beers. They don't think that is expensive or extravagant. That is just what all their friends spend.
Then if they go out to a bar on Saturday night, they don't think spending $50 on a cover charge and alcohol only is that unusual or extravagant. $12 drinks and a cover charge. That is what all their friends do.
Back when I was their age, we did not have access to credit cards and it was more painful to pull money out of our wallet, so we spent less, adjusted to inflation.
The younger generation is just use to spending lots of money with friends when they leave the house. Agree?
I don't see the problem if they're spending their own money.. if not, cut off your support and they'll soon understand.
Part of the problem are enabling parents. They want to make sure that their little darlings never face any challenges and will swoop in to save their offspring at the first signs of trouble.
Chicago is almost a fantasyland these days. The first thing you realize once you move out is how darned expensive the place is ... and I lived out in the suburbs where the costs were significantly LESS than the city.
Chicago is very expensive of course. I'm curious how expensive Chicago actually is. I've never lived on my own outside of Chicago. All I know is that I make in the upper 10% of folks my age but when I go out with my peers I feel broke. I am the kind of guy that buys Kohls clothing yet my peers are spending more money at bars in one night than I spend all year on those clothes.
However I don't over generalize and say that they don't know what they are spending. They obviously have the money to spend so they are getting it somehow. Either through earning it, or more likely through their rich parents. If parents want to enable their children, then so be it. I think it just means that the older I get the richer I will become and the poorer my peers will become.
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