A while ago I read a “Newsweek” article entitled “A penny saved is a penny spent,” in which the 36-year-old author explains her “generation doesn’t know how to be thrifty.” A flaw that could result in disaster, she believes. 

Well if her generation is headed for disaster, mine may be at risk for catastrophic ruin. Like probably a lot of other people my age – I’m 25 – I have a hard time seeing the forest for the trees or in other words, I’m so focused on the present, I don’t stop to consider the future implications of my current spending habits. While older generations started saving early for a comfortable retirement, I’m having trouble putting money away for the vacation I’ll be taking in a couple of weeks.

Like most college graduates my age, I will be paying off student loans for years to come. Thankfully I don’t have any credit card debt (my parents helped me pay it off), but I currently pay too much to rent a drafty house with two roommates. No wonder it’s socially acceptable for my generation to move back in with their parents after college. A lot of people my age are having to rely on that safety net because, though we may try, we generally lack the discipline to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, as older generations have had to do.

Growing up in northern Maine, my grandfather picked potatoes for nickels or maybe it was dimes. My grandparents would pay my cousins and I for picking striped potato bugs - a dime per bug - and would tell us their stories about growing up on a farm. 

But I’m from a generation that eschews coins and cash for plastic. With the oh-so-dangerous debit card in hand, it’s very easy to forget you may not have sufficient funds in your bank account. But in minutes, I can go online and check my account balance and then go back to online shopping. It’s so easy to spend money when you never actually have to see it. 

But I’m not oblivious to recession talk. This is probably the first time my generation is sitting up and listening when talk turns to the economy. Layoffs, skyrocketing gas and oil prices, rampant foreclosures and bankruptcies; my generation has never experienced such a downturn before. People in older generations are cutting back: eating at home rather than going out and foregoing exotic travel plans for day trips. According to a recent news report, my generation is cutting back too. Instead of buying up designer clothes, we’re foregoing names and shopping for bargains at Target. 

I guess there is hope for us yet. 

                                                                – Amanda Estes