Grads Buried in Student Loan Debt, but Unwilling to Give Up Luxuries

Boy, I just don't understand this:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/college-grads-buried-student-loan-072616080.html

"For example, when asked what they’d be willing to give up in exchange for lower student loan payments, this is what the survey revealed:
•Less than half (45 percent) were willing to cut what they spend on eating out.
•Just 46 percent said they’d cut their entertainment and social event expenses.
•A mere 40 percent were willing to limit their housing expenses (rent or mortgage).
•Only half of millennials were willing to slash their spending on clothes, shoes and accessories.

“They are very committed to living their life the way they want to live their life, and as frustrated as they are by student loans, they are not willing to make those lifestyle tradeoffs,” said Brendan Coughlin, president of consumer lending for Citizens Bank".

That's just crazy to me. I have always been a "pay as you go" type of guy.

 

It's one thing to assume student loan debt, then, due to unforeseen vocational circumstances, perhaps a downturn in the economy or temporary loss of employment, etc., yet all the while sacrificing to pay one's obligations. Unfortunately, the standard of living in the USA, coupled with a sense of entitlement, has produced this mindset in so many.

 

Well, some of these are a bit weird...

My first thought is that limiting your housing expense isn't an easy, or cheap, proposition in the first place. And there are a number of circumstances where making such a change would cause other costs to rise.

Even if you rent the idea of "just move to a cheaper apartment" isn't always practical. Sometimes you'd save, at most $100. In the meantime you have the expense of actually moving. During my last move the total cost (just for the actual move itself) at around $1,000 because I drove the U-Haul myself and hired movers to load and unload the truck. Our costs, overall, went down when we went from renting to owning. But it was a lengthy, costly and time consuming process. We were able to save around $250 per month in expenses but only after laying out closing costs up front and having to deal with a two month period of overlap where we still had to pay rent for our old place and had to assume mortgage payments for the new one.

If you live in NYC then moving to a cheaper place might necessitate buying a car and/or adding significantly to your commute time. If you save $500 a month but end up sacrificing 20 hours more per week then you might be better served just getting a part-time job.

Well, shame on those who refuse to cut their spending on these things. But considering how eager the media is to paint ALL millennials (which some idiot decided is basically everyone born after 1980) as lazy, entitled losers who can't hold down a job I think this is actually a pretty fair number of people who are taking responsible steps.

Let's not forget, it wasn't millennials who took out multiple adjustable rate mortgages in the early 2000s and purchased homes they couldn't afford, vacation homes they couldn't afford and then maxed out HELOCs to buy all sorts of toys and goodies.

Don't get me wrong, I think there are incredibly entitled millennials. But I also think there are incredibly entitled, and fiscally irresponsible, Gen Xers and Baby Boomers as well.

I also think that people need to start thinking twice about bringing some of these assumptions into the workplace. I have hired millennial engineers, programmers, welders, project managers and truck drivers. Many have thrived. Trying to paint an entire generation of people as being inferior to the others is not only irresponsible (and inappropriate in the workplace) but also not at all original.

 

Definitely not original - been going on for at least 2,500 years. Socrates on the younger generation of Athenians:
“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.”

אין כל חדש תחת השמש - Ecclesiastes 1:9 - There is nothing new under the sun.

J.