Our (Millennial) Spending
If you’re 23 to 38 years of age like we are, people call you lazy, entitled, unmotivated…they call you millennial. Our generation grew up with vast swaths of technology, we have phone addictions that are as bad as the gambling addictions of past generations, and we want to work for companies who value us as people and give us meaning but there aren’t enough jobs like that to go around. We also value experiences and meaningful interaction over big paydays and lavish materialism, yet we are confined to a world where not enough money exists to go around and it is harder for us to obtain money than any generation before.
Sadly, we millennials grew up, overall, with less-than-stellar parenting. For many of us, life has kicked us to the curb because our parents made sure we got trophies for everything we did, whether we excelled or not. And for others, their parents weren’t very involved in their lives at all and would rather watch TV than associate with their children.
As a generation, millennials have a lot of debt, whether it’s student loans, credit cards, auto loans, medical bills, or other debt sources. Worse yet, social security and other retirement programs are not sure things for us. Currently, one-in-four Americans say they will never retire, and that number might get worse if our generation isn’t careful to manage their money. So it’s up to us to save enough money while still doing the things we love.
Our Spending
So, you want to know how my husband and I manage our finances in the face of all of this turmoil? Well, let me do my best to explain.
Henry, 26 years old now, graduated college three years ago with no debt, a blessing bestowed upon him by his hard-working parents who vowed to put him through college. He now makes between $55,000 and $75,000 per year with a bonus of $6,000 each Christmas.
I’m 23 years old and am in school right now, so I only work intermittently when my schedule allows.
Right now, our list of bills looks like this:
- Car payment
- Health insurance
- Phone bill
- Gas
- Food
- My college expenses
- Car insurance
Our bills total out at roughly $2,000 a month, which leaves us room to save a good amount and to enjoy life by travelling and doing other things we love.
The Blessings and the Work
Still though, we have had to work hard to get to this point. Besides school, we have had to plan in advance to pay our car insurance in six-month increments, which saves us about $70 every month. We also pay my school expenses in advance to save on fees and other unnecessary spending. We do all of this by setting aside a portion of the cost every month so that we have enough available when it is time to make the payment. We also avoid spending money on unnecessary things, such as coffee from Starbucks, eating out, and getting my hair and nails done. Instead, we invested in a Ninja Coffee Bar and brew our own coffee at home, we cook most of our meals at home and eat out only sparingly, and I take the time and effort to do my own hair and nails, only needing to invest in good hair irons and nail polish.
We are also blessed to be able to keep our expenses minimal by not paying rent. Henry’s dad had some very serious surgery a while back and we moved in to take care of him. In exchange he opted not to charge us rent. We are also fortunate to live in Texas, one of the most-affordable states in the nation for young couples.
In the very near future, Henry will be starting an MBA program at a top-50 school for the degree. The program will cost $100,000 over two years, but Henry’s dad said he will cover half once Henry graduates. As for the other $50,000, our frugal nature has blessed us with the ability to start paying it down right away, and, hopefully, he can graduate and we will be fully debt-free by then.
It takes a lot of work to run a millennial household and to get / stay debt-free, especially in this world where debt is commonplace and so heavily marketed. But this is what we do to make it happen, and, while we have certainly been blessed along the way, I’m quite certain that anyone can do it who is willing to live life frugally and with a focus on the future.
