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Generation Y defies recession

Posted on November 21, 2008, 9:09am and updated on November 25, 2008 at 9:03 am

Generation Y

Toni Scott and Melissa Phipps say global financial worries have not affected their sales to young people.

Recession. What recession? While families, debt-burdened individuals and pensioners tighten their spending, Mount Gambier’s young people are continuing to live the high life.

Generation Y has shrugged off the global downturn and remains optimistic about the future.

With little debt and higher disposable incomes, most of those born after 1980 have managed to remain relatively protected from adverse economic conditions.

A generation that thinks car, not career, Gen Y chooses to spend its money on things like entertainment, travel and food.

Mortgages, interest rates and superannuation are for older folk to worry about.

Making up 20pc of the population, only 23pc of Gen Y have credit cards, 11pc have personal loans and just 4.9pc have mortgages.

Most of those who spoke to The Border Watch have no plans to curb their spending this Christmas, validating survey results from ING Direct which found Gen Y members are likely to spend far more on Christmas presents than the rest of the population.

Like many of his peers Brett Radley, a 19-year-old labourer, has managed to remain unaffected, and not unaware of the current economic crisis.

“To be honest I don’t really know much about it, so I guess it’s not really affecting me,” Brett said.

“I’ll just keep on going as normal.

“I will be spending more this Christmas, but that’s because I’m getting paid more, not because of any other factors.”

Luke Popovich, 19, who delivers milk for a living, said while the economic crisis had not really affected him so far, he had noticed costs such as petrol rising.

“I still get paid the same, but when I go out and buy things, that’s when it hits me,” he said.

“So I guess at Christmas time I’ll try to cut back on presents.”

Working in the financial industry, 23-year-old James Ackland probably has more idea about the crisis than others of his generation, but said it had yet to touch him personally.

“I’m probably spending about the same, so I haven’t really noticed any changes in my life,” he said.

“From what I’ve seen, younger people just don’t seem to worry about it as much as older people, because they don’t usually have mortgages.

“The younger generation have always remained fairly consistent, still buying cars, TVs and other big items like that.”

The ING survey showed 67pc of young people said they would be shunning credit card purchases this year in favour of cash.

Someone who has been affected by the economic crisis is 22-year-old Bonnie Tiller, who bought a house with her fiance a few months ago.

“Ever since we bought the house we have been worried about rising interest rates,” Bonnie said.

“They seem to be going down now which is good, but it’s certainly still not easy.

“We’ve probably cut back on a lot of things that we’d usually do and I find myself weighing up needs and wants more, so I wouldn’t buy that pair of shoes I don’t really need.”

While Generation Y may not have enough debt to get them worried about global finances, one area the downturn may affect them is employment.

Freshly returned from a European holiday, 19-year-old Naomi Collins is now trying to find a job, but has experienced some difficulty.

“I’ve heard a lot about people being fired and let go recently, so I think it will definitely be hard for me to find a job,” Naomi said.

“I will be spending less this Christmas. It’s not really because of the economic crisis, but because my whole family has been overseas lately and we spent all our money there.”

Melissa Phipps, 19, works at The Spot and said they hadn’t really noticed much of a difference in the spending habits of their mostly Gen Y customers.

“Personally, it hasn’t affected me because my rent hasn’t changed and I don’t really pay attention to the other stuff,” Melissa said.

“All our sales in the store have pretty much stayed the same though.

“I guess if they have the money, unlike older people, there’s no reason for them not to spend it.”

NIKKI MOTT

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Comments

One Response to “Generation Y defies recession”

  1. pete on November 25th, 2008 10:20 am 1

    The reporters off the cuff comments of ‘with little debt’ shows lack of research or objectivity with in regards to this issue. The Gen Y are actually in huge debt and as someoene who works in human services I, and my workmates see the reality. Many Gen Y have no money or savings, massive mobile phone bill debts, credit cards, utility bills and have purchased vehicles out of their means. Many Uni studies and reports have shown just how bad Gen Y is when it comes to debt. They are care free and not worried because there attitude is “what’s a a bit more – it wont hurt” or they only focus on the minimum payment sideof things. While the Govt. is telling people to spend and people begin marketing, my organisation is recieving booklets and posters telling young people to slowdown and stop. Instead of buying a playstation that will be worth $50 to a pawn broker in 8 months, use the money to pay rent in advance, pay off all current utility bills, pay an applicaition fee for a course to help empoyment chances later in life.
    The reporter missed several key points. Gen Y is flat broke in debt with agencies flooded daily across the nation with young people declaring bankrupt at an alarming rate and she also missed the attitudes behind thier comments and action towards debt and materialism. This is the real story, the real exegesis. I suspect the reporter is gen y person herself.

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