Fed Up with the "Broke Millennial" Headlines? Learn Better Personal Finance Habits

Personal finance is a huge responsibility that many of us prefer to ignore. According to Huffington Post, we’re all screwed as Millennials. Investopedia notes that many of us have vastly different attitudes to money than previous generations. There’s a specific reason for that, and it’s because the world has changed since those previous generations (no duh, Sherlock). Today’s money management requires understanding a lot more concepts than previously necessary. Ideas like “Housing and Land are good investments’’ no longer make sense to us after witnessing the 2008 financial collapse caused by home loans to subprime borrowers. No, our personal finance habits are not those of earlier generations. But if that’s the case, what are we supposed to do?

Introducing “Take Care of Yourself”

From what I’ve seen in my generation of people, there are two types of money-management paradigms. One is the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement, an extreme take on personal finance. Not that there aren’t good ideas in there (there are), but it feels less like a set of rules you should follow and more of a… cult. People criticize you for spending money on yourself and tell you you’re making bad decisions simply because you want something and you have some saved money to afford it. No one (and I mean NO ONE) should tell you how to spend your money. And if you do spend money, you should make yourself accountable for it.

The other end of the spectrum is the people who don’t manage money at all. These are the typical “broke” millennials that the newspapers love to berate about their coffees and avocado toast. I mean, we all remember when the Washington Post told us that the reason we can’t afford houses is because we are obsessed with Avocado Toast, right? The real problem (aside from the Washington Post being completely disconnected with reality) is that people keep telling millennials they don’t understand economics without making an effort to educate them. So, what do you do if you don’t want to live on a shoestring budget for the rest of your life, and you give a damn about having money to save and paying off your student loans?

Taking Care of Yourself is something I developed when I started to delve into money management. I’ve covered this before on a series of posts I made a few years ago, but the principles are the same, and anyone can follow them:

1) Determine your monthly expenses and meet them

2) If you can’t meet your monthly expenses, start cutting frivolous ones

3) If you STILL can’t meet your expenses, start looking for something as a side hustle that pays at least semi-decent

4) Pay off your debts one by one, starting with the least expensive and moving to the most

5) Consolidate your debt every time you finish paying off a debt, and move the payment into your next most expensive debt

6) Once you start seeing extra money, open an investment account or mutual fund and stick your money in there

7) Rinse and Repeat

Following this stepwise pattern might not completely free you from debt in the short term, but it will give you a better financial base to build on. It will encourage financial responsibility, and in some ways, that’s more important than clearing all your debts. It’s something you can’t lose.

Welcome to?Reality

There’s no easy way to financial responsibility. Your budget apps probably won’t help you save, but they WILL encourage more responsible spending. You’re not doomed, no matter what the gloomy headlines insist. You’re dealing with a unique point in time that no one has ever experienced before. The world has shifted its priorities and given you many opportunities to earn like never before. Unfortunately, it’s also granted you many options to lose your money like it never has before. You don’t HAVE to be the stereotypical Millennial (even if you like Starbucks coffee and avocado toast). You can be smarter with your money, and you should be. Even if you don’t want to retire early, life is much more bearable when you have a financial cushion for your decisions.

If you’re interested in more posts like these, I usually update personal finance releases once a week. Subscribe to my Medium page, or keep an eye out on LinkedIn for more!