Millennial finances: what has worked for me...

There's been a lot of talk lately about how Millennials handle their personal finances. So much so that if you type in the words 'finances' in combination with the word 'millennial' on Google or YouTube, a gazillion of hits show up. Part of the mystique may have to do with what one lady said online about my generation: "This is the brokest generation that ever was." 

We seem to be unable to handle money. Granted, we've had to deal with one of the worse economic crises since The Great Depression but that alone does not account for our overall dismal ability to make money, save it and invest it. Even leaving the nest has become impossible for some Millennials. Solely attributing that to the 2008 recession would be inaccurate. 

We seem to be out of touch in terms of what we expect from our first experience out of the nest and that is actually normal. There was a sitcom back in the 90s that my sisters and I loved to watch: Boy Meets World. The name lived up to the series because we actually got to see a girl and a boy coming of age in the context of...love. The show got to be more and more interesting as they grew older and started tackling more serious issues...such as moving out of the parental home. 

I tried finding this particular episode on YouTube but was unable to. So what I will do here is recount the story to the best of my ability, pardon me if I miss any important details: at one point the two protagonists, Cory and Topanga, moved in together. They moved into a crappy, small apartment that they both couldn't believe they had landed into. The couple had grown up in upper-middle class families and were used to "more". Shawn, Cory's best friend, had always grown up poor, so he was more in touch with real life issues. In fact, when Topanga fell into what would be known as a depression nowadays and as a result pushed Cory to turn to his parents to ask for money, it was Shawn who tried to save the day. Telling them that the home just needed a little tending to. 

This episode - and many others - have always remained engrafted in my psyche. We seem to be out of touch with reality: our generation wants to eat out all the time, live in a 2-3 bedroom apartment, have a car payment on an expensive car, travel at the drop of a hat to luxurious locations and so forth. When I was younger, I used to be an avid hiphophead, now I am more discerning of what I choose to listen to. But even in those so called horrific Hip Hop songs, you could always count on a rapper making a song about yesteryears, when they weren't so wealthy and which friends and loved ones stuck by their side regardless: 

* Jadakiss - K.I.S.S. me

* DMX - Slippin'

* Jay-Z - Anything

Everyone has a struggle story. It seems like my generation wants to skip that important rite of passage and skip to: we good. 

This long introduction just to say: I'm glad I didn't go into life with wide eyes like that. Just the fact that I grew up in a single-parent home was enough to make me wake up to life's struggles. So when I set out to move out on my own 8 years ago, with my mother's blessing, I followed my older sister's advice and moved into a studio apartment. Life is so volatile that up until this day, I really only have but a few major bills. I want to develop the talents that will cover more financial challenges first, before I incur more bills. So without further ado, here are 10 things I've done for nearly a decade that have helped me out: 

1. Barely ever eat out, I cook most of the time and take my lunch to work;
2. Only have three major bills: rent, internet and utilities;
3. Been taking care of my own hair since I was 12 years old, so I barely ever go to get my hair done;
4. Paid off all my debt earlier this year and never really incurred too much of it in the first place;
5. Developed a personal financial plan, meaning: just because a financial guru said it, doesn't automatically mean you should apply it to your life. Think about your deepest desires, goals and dreams and go from there;
6. There are certain garments that I've had for over a decade, including shoes;
7. Adopted a mentality of simplicity and conveying truth in all that I do;
8. Splurge on what matters to me, not to impress others, in this case: books!
9. No is a full answer, if I cannot afford to go to a particular social gathering, I kindly decline; 
10. Building my foundation upon the Lord, He is the rock that will never flunder.

(This post was written in August 2017).