October 13, 2008
- Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Blackfoot - Idaho
Generation Y Facing Financial Obstacles
By Mary Sturgill
In these tough economic times, It's hard to make ends meet. But one group is finding it especially difficult.
Today people in their 20's or are more educated than ever before, yet statistics show the gen yers knowledge of finances is horrible. And that means they have a lot of debt. So to save you some green, I looked in to why that is so and what you can do to prevent it from happening to you. Shawn Ray is 27 and says he's in debt to the tune of 11 thousand dollars. "I have student loans. I got some credit cards, just your normal expenses, rent, car up keep. Things like that and specially with gas and things, I mean prices keep going up and up and that uh, that makes things difficult." Shawn is not alone according to money central on msn.com The median credit card debt of low and middle income people ages 18 to 32 is 8,200 dollars. The average college debt for recent grads is more than 20,00 and rising. That has Shawn concerned. "My biggest worry is being able to afford everything." So why are so many generation y-ers in debt. Kevin Hermansen is a gen y-er but he's also an accountant. "I think more and more, my generation leaves home and expects to immediately have the same lifestyle, the same standard of living that our parents had and not realizing that it's taken our parents 20-30 years to get to where they are financially." And all those credit card offers you get in the mail are so tempting. It seems the cards are stacked up against you. So, What can you do to clean up your financial house. Kevin Hermansen says, "Ultimately, it comes down to financial discipline. I mean the access to the credit is there, It's almost forced upon you like I said, but you don't have to take it. What you do have to do is to put yourself on a budget and stick to it. Kevin says the key to a good budget is to find one that works for you and check it on a daily or weekly basis; not at the end of the month when you realize you're over budget. The other key is to educate yourself on finances. For more information on financial education check out the state's website on finances. http://finance.idaho.gov/Education/FinancialLiteracy.aspx |
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