"If You Have Savings in Your 20s, You're Doing Something Wrong"

[LDAHL]

I've seen this article mentioned in a few different sites I follow:

http://elitedaily.com/life/savings-2...wrong/1214445/

It sort of takes the "spend money on experiences" thing to an extreme, taking as a premise that you owe it to yourself and others to have the highest quality life possible in your highest quality decade of life.

My thinking was that money doesn't necessarily buy "fun" in anything like an amount proportionate to the expenditure, and that the peak capacity for enjoying life does not necessarily correspond with one's peak physical capabilities. I'm thinking life enjoyment stems more from experience, appreciation and the ability to distinguish between the important and the frivolous that requires most of us some years to develop.

I was never quite like this in my youth, but I would still love the opportunity to set my younger self straight on a number of important points. Not that I would have listened. Is it possible that you need life to punch you in the face a few times before certain lessons sink in?

[ApatheticNoMore]

I think they were maybe trying to live on TOO tight a budget (maybe too little income as well, I don't know) and they rebelled hard. So yea if you live in a cultural center and never enjoy any of it, it does kind of suck. The extra clothes you maybe don't need, but do go out and enjoy some culture or spending time with friends.

She seems very indiscriminate on her spending of money (perhaps again because of the rebellion), spending money = good = living life instead of spending money MAY be living life if it's what you have thoughtfully decided is worth spending on and avoiding it MAY be avoiding life depending .... and at other times spending money may just be a waste of money and rather empty when all is said and done.

This goes back to a piece of advice a very successful friend gave me: “Don’t save money. Make more money,” he nonchalantly stated, pushing me into a taxi.

oh the arrogance or the naivete or the privilege I guess, to assume that is always possible.

When did our 20s start to feel like our 40s?

the youthful assumption that your 40s have to feel this way.

You’d be surprised at how cautious people get with just a few thousand in the bank. This isn’t the time to safeguard — it’s the time to bet all your chips and hope to make it big.

I suppose this depends on personality, you'd be surprised I'd think at how cautious people get WITHOUT a few thousand in the bank, desperate for that paycheck. Does she have a conscious or subconscious belief that her parents ARE her safety net I wonder? Some (not all!) 20 somethings might. Maybe that is what is REALLY going on. Never to be admitted of course .... She may assume a lot of things like she will marry rich or that her career will always be stratospheric, but I really don't want to make those accusations, but the parental backstop is natural for some people to believe in (me meh I kind of didn't rely on my parents for anything at 5 years old (although yes they took care of me economically then), so never mind at 25 years old!)

See I could get with an argument that we should be less cautious and less comfortable, lessen the need for comfort. But with her it seems not an honest acceptance of risk but a lot of super super rosy projections about the ability to always make more and more boatloads of money whenever one wants to (what's this about? ivy league degree? work on wall street?). I mean maybe she is in a pretty lucky position financially, but for most people assuming nothing could go wrong would be a type of denial. While the super super cautious people protect themselves from the world by counting their stash like scrooge mcduck I guess , she protects herself by pretending noting bad can ever happen financially.

[kib]

My motto: While it's beneficial to consider the ideas of others, never take advice verbatim from people who haven't actually seen the results yet. The younger they are and the longer the effects could continue, the more likely this gets.

[Chicken lady]

Lol! We had our kids in our early 20's. Dh was in grad school. We lived on half of my $6/hour job for a year before I got pregnant, then while I was pregnant. Then when dd1 was born, I quit - knowing we had "21 months" saved up and dh would be done in 6. 23 months later ds was born, dh was working on his phd, and I had a part time job where I could take the kids along. We had energy! We had enthusiasm! We had student health insurance and immunizations from the public health nurse. We had a community of people who thought kids were adorable and didn't have any. We had flexible schedules so that somebody could always get up with the baby and catch up on sleep later. And now, we're pushing 50, the kids are mostly out of the house and often a lot of help, and we have money and dh has paid vacation time.

Dd1's s.o. Was raised by parents who are 15+ years older than we were. Neither of them went to college, and they did not save any money during those extra 20 kid free years of minimum wage jobs. He complains that dd never wants to spend any money (she banks 30% of every paycheck) and that they should be having fun while they are young. He remembers his parents as always being old and tired.


Dd has a college degree and a professional job. He also has a college degree but is currently "under-employed.". She thinks $10 "young adult" tickets to the symphony and a $15 bottle of wine are plenty of fun and excellent returns on outlay. Gas and food for a weekend of hiking and camping in her brother's borrowed tent. The kind of things that they can't or might not be able to do at 50 or 60. Free art museums, public parks. He wanted her to put off getting a job and fly to Europe and travel around on a rail pass sleeping in hostels or on trains. She told him she didn't want to do that, she wanted to work now, save money, and see Europe from comfortable hotels and excellent restaurants on her paid vacation time later. Maybe visit some of the friends in other countries she had made through work. (dh has)

He talks about grad school. She told him " if you go to grad school, I get to have a baby." he said " are you insane?" she said "no, it's the perfect schedule."

I'm kind of going to enjoy watching this play out.

[freshstart]

Dd has a college degree and a professional job. He also has a college degree but is currently "under-employed.". She thinks $10 "young adult" tickets to the symphony and a $15 bottle of wine are plenty of fun and excellent returns on outlay. Gas and food for a weekend of hiking and camping in her brother's borrowed tent. The kind of things that they can't or might not be able to do at 50 or 60. Free art museums, public parks. He wanted her to put off getting a job and fly to Europe and travel around on a rail pass sleeping in hostels or on trains. She told him she didn't want to do that, she wanted to work now, save money, and see Europe from comfortable hotels and excellent restaurants on her paid vacation time later. Maybe visit some of the friends in other countries she had made through work. (dh has)

.

DD has a good head on her shoulders, well done, mama!

[ApatheticNoMore]

The girl in the article's lifestyle is fine. If she likes nightclubs or likes cultural events so be it. I'm assuming she lives in NYC, and so the going out to eat a lot to socialize is much the lifestyle there, to a degree it isn't really *ANYWHERE* else in the entire country. Free culture attractions? LOL. I don't think most cultural attractions are free and in fact the costs of doing many leisure activates (like even seeing a ball game which used to be something joe blow could take his kid to) have pushed through the stratosphere far beyond a middle class income (though my preference is nature so much of that is free). I don't think she needs to settle down if she doesn't want to. Just even if she can't throw 10% in the 401k, 5% in a 401k may not be "enough", but it's something and will hardly be missed given the tax savings of deferred tax plans. IF her income is too low it might not allow it but isn't there some kind of happy medium? Oh a happy medium may be neither "enough" savings (according to Fidelity ) or going out every night, but it would allow some of both. And what about a rainy day? How thoughtful is she about spending and about risk taking (risk taking is fine but better if it's honestly acknowledged as such - quitting a job or going for a lower paid career or going free lance etc. - being out of the workforce a long time to raise kids is also risky of course).

and see Europe from comfortable hotels and excellent restaurants on her paid vacation time later.

all two weeks a year of it .... for many of us, of course you can accumulate it over several years - 4 weeks if you save it up 2 years. 2 weeks is not even worth going to Europe for IMO.

I'd go to grad school and make hubby have the baby. Oh wait .... too bad it doesn't work that way.

[Chicken lady]

She has an excellent professional job - when she hits her 1 year in december, she'll have a week of paid vacation. Career possibility of 5.

We sent her to Austria with family friends when she was 12 and she fit plenty into 16 days. The key is not trying to "do Europe" on one trip.

[lessisbest]

My motto: While it's beneficial to consider the ideas of others, never take advice verbatim from people who haven't actually seen the results yet. The younger they are and the longer the effects could continue, the more likely this gets.

Kib - Your motto just made my "Book of Odd Knowledge".

[Teacher Terry]

WE have been to Europe 4x's for 2 weeks at a time & it was definitely worth going for. After 2 weeks I miss home, my doggies, etc so run out of steam to travel. We pick one area of 1 country & see it in-depth. I agree that if you are trying to see 6 countries in 2 weeks that would be crazy.

[jp1]

I didn't consciously make a decision to live like her when I was in my 20's but in hindsight I largely did. Being a young single gay man in NYC was a LOT of fun. Traveling all over and staying in hostels, meeting people and seeing new places and doing different things was a lot of fun. I don't regret it for a moment. And I expected life to continue in that upward, fun, trajectory forever. It didn't. The dot com crash happened and I had to stop spending money, start a new career at the bottom of the ladder, etc. And after 9/11 I became much more aware of the bigger world around me. So my life started going in a new direction. More "serious". More focused on saving and worrying about the future. SO came along about that time and I decided that he was good enough to settle down with. Since then I still do things I enjoy, but I'm not out in clubs at 3am on work nights and I save a good chunk of my income for the future. I'm still happy with life, but I am definitely not carefree anymore.