I also have to take care not to lean too far one way or another. Like Meg, I like to save and have the potential to buy what I want. Then I decide to go shopping and get excited and end up spending too much. So I have to pay attention to my actions and mind-frame, so that I can stay (here’s that word again) balanced.

That’s probably an accurate way of describing how the unknown future is affecting the psyche of the generation. The problem is, rather than needing to be less concerned about money, such uncertainty requires to be more vigilant.

As for money, maybe it’s not principles we lack, but the ability to conceptualize the future. Everything is so immediate; we are living in a “now” society. It’s becoming more and more difficult to contemplate 5-10 year goals, even 1-year goals, because circumstances outside of our control change so quickly.

How can we plan, when we don’t know what the world will look like in 10 years? I would say that generations of the past didn’t have to deal with this phenomenon in the way this generation does. In many ways, we are going to be the “flexible” generation–having to adapt to whatever comes at us.

What do you think?

We’ve seen our generation drop everything to help natural disaster victims in New Orleans and Haiti. President Obama was elected largely though the efforts of Gen Y volunteers. Social media, the bastion of Gen Y, is rife with examples of altruism and helping others without a second thought.

But when it comes to money, yeah, our generations seems to be not there and not listening. My theory is that, being young, most of us just can’t imagine actually having the kind of expenses in the future that we saw our parents have.