Turning 30 can be a dreadful birthday for some reluctant 20-somethings, but no matter how full of dread you may be there's a way to gracefully enter the next decade in regard to money management. In order to set you up for smooth sailing, MSN Money created a list of six money milestones to reach by the time you're 30. Do you think these milestones are appropriate for most people in their twenties?
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As the government scrambles to prevent our financial system from crumbling to the point of no return, there's a simultaneous effort from the Treasury Department to educate young adults aged 18-24 about the importance of responsibly handling credit. Over the next four to six weeks, video and audio spots will run on donated air time with the warning, "Don’t let your credit put you in a bad place." There's also an online game called The Bad Credit Hotel that is part of the campaign and is meant to teach players about credit scores.
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An MSN Money article asking why Gen Y is broke started out as a typical article, arbitrarily wondering why we're incapable of managing our money (and asking questions like, "Is Gen Y dumb or just lazy?"), but nestled within are a few startling statistics.
This one is particularly striking: According to a recent Pew survey, 68 percent of baby boomers are supporting at least one of their adult children financially. It's hard to believe that only a third of 20- and 30-somethings are financially independent.
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Maybe it's the resurgence of Sex and the City that has prompted all of the profiles of New Yorkers getting by on their salaries in an inflated city, but they seem to be popping up all over The New York Times during the past couple months. The notion of what is fiction and what is reality is written between the lines, though the realities they picture really aren't much different from how 20-somethings around the country try to balance the cost-of-living with having a social life. The most recent piece published in the Times described the money tactics of various NYC newcomers, specifically "those who are neither investment bankers nor being floated by their parents."
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An acronym that comes from the Sunday Telegraph of London, Yawn stands for Young and Wealthy but Normal. CNN describes Yawns as "men and women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who want nothing less than to change the world and save the planet." The profile on various Yawns depicts them as despising waste, excess, and ostentation, and having millions but spend far below their means.
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There have been columns popping up left and right regarding how demanding Gen Y is, and the newest observation is that we need and expect constant praise because our egos were over-stroked as kids. It's an interesting observation, but I'm left wondering whether or not it's true. Most Millennial focused articles I've read set us up as a group that's needy all around, but the praise issue is one that's more difficult to measure than, say, wanting more work perks.
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A Brigham Young study found that 80 percent of parents don't consider their 18- to 25-year-old college students to be adults. They're calling the group that's wrestling between adolescence and adulthood "emerging adults" and that label doesn't quite sit right with me. I do think there's a real gap between identifying as a teen and calling yourself an adult, but I'm not sure why academics are trying so hard to pin down every year of our lives as one thing or another.
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CollegeGrad.com estimates that employers offering entry level positions will up their hiring by 11.8 percent this year, which would be the biggest increase in entry level hiring in three years. The companies and organizations on the site's Top Entry Level Employers for 2008 vary in size and industry focus, and the list even projects the number of entry level hires each company will make this year. Here are the top ten on the list. 
New surveys and conversations among human resources execs make it seem like employees under the age of 29 (also known as Millenials and Gen Y) are a bratty bunch. A new CareerBuilder survey shows that we supposedly expect our employers to provide more benefits and other perks than our older colleagues — namely, better pay, a flexible work schedule and company-provided BlackBerrys and cell phones. Additionally, 87 percent of hiring managers say we exhibit a sense of entitlement that older generations don’t.
I would be mortified if my parents ever called a prospective employer to try and negotiate benefits and salary for me. Some parents of recent grads do this and apparently, some young job hunters actually want parental involvement and ask their parents to accompany them at job fairs. I think weighing where your first job will be is one of the first decisions we make as adults, and that would be undermined if parents jumped in acting like your agent. 
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