Opinion: 7 real ways for millennials to save money (not by brownbagging and skipping Starbucks)

The real way to take control of your finances is by focusing on the big-ticket items in your life

Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection

Extend parts of that college lifestyle by a few years.

By

BenCarlson

It seems young people get blamed for everything these days. Millennials have been accused of killing marriage, home ownership, chain restaurants, diamonds, department stores, face-to-face interaction and pretty much every long, boring sporting event imaginable.
They’re also being accused of killing their own net worth. Here’s a recent survey from Bankrate.com:
“In particular, younger millennials (ages 18 to 26) are falling victim to vices that may feel good in the moment, but are far from worth it in the long run:
• 54% of people in our age group eat out at least three times per week.
• 30% of millennials say we buy coffee at least three times a week.
• 51% typically go to a bar at least once a week. (Among people ages 21-26)
Bottom line: We’re spending a lot of cash on vices.”
This is pretty standard personal finance advice. If you just stop buying coffee every day or bring a brown bag lunch to work, you’ll be a millionaire in 250 years!
The problem is this advice doesn’t really work. Nickel and diming your way to savings is no way to go through life. You need to prioritize the little things that make you happy and stop wasting money on the little things that don’t.
But the real way to save money as a young person is by focusing on the big-ticket items in your life.
Millennials are constantly being told that student debt it too high, wages are stagnant, the Great Recession made it difficult to find a job and the future is going to be a terrible place. I never liked the idea of blaming macro factors on your own personal situation. All of that stuff is out of your control anyway.
While it’s not easy, here are some ways young people can actually take control of their finances and save a little money:
Live like a college student for a few years. College was the most fun period of my life…and I was basically broke the entire time. I never went out to nice dinners. I rarely purchased new clothes. The houses and apartments I lived in were dumps. If you can simply keep your lifestyle the same for a few years after school that can be a huge head start to getting your finances in order. You can pay off some student loans, develop good saving habits and avoid crippling credit card debt. And you can still have fun when you’re young without spending a ton of money.
Skip the starter home. Buying a house is a huge commitment, requires a lot of work and a consumes a large part of your budget. There’s no reason to rush into buying a house when you’re young just because it seems like the logical next step. There’s nothing wrong with renting for a few years until you’re ready financially to buy a home.
Another easy way to save money in the housing department is to live with roommates. Whether you buy or rent, housing will likely be your biggest line item every month. Splitting that cost is a simple solution to save more.
Skip the new car. A new car is a depreciating asset. It falls in value by something like 20%-30% in the first year. If you can’t save money, you have no business buying a new vehicle.


Focus on your fixed costs. I’ve never been a huge fan of budgeting. I like the idea of understanding what your fixed costs are going to be every month and spending the rest (and yes, saving is a fixed cost). The 50/30/20 rule isn’t a bad place to start. You can also save money by understanding which periodic payments you’re making — gym memberships, Netflix, Apple Music, cable, Internet, phone service — that are worth it and which ones you don’t utilize enough.


Automate. The problem with the latte factor is we all have a limited amount of discipline. Decision fatigue will eventually catch up with you if you’re constantly trying to skimp and save on every minor spending choice. Automate your bills. Automate your savings. Automate your credit card payments. Then spend whatever is leftover. This allows you to avoid late fees and overdraft charges as well.
Read: Young investors aren’t as smart as they think they are
Make more money. The best way to save more money is to make more money. That can be difficult when you’re first starting out in the working world, but here are a few suggestions:

• Become indispensable to your employer. And once they realize they can’t function without you, that’s when you negotiate a higher salary. People hate having that conversation but eventually, you’ll make more money if you’re worth it.
• Invest in yourself. Unless you have superior connections in the working world you absolutely have to be in the mindset of continuous self-improvement. That means reading, getting designations/certifications, taking classes, going to conferences, taking people out to coffee, etc. Your education isn’t done when you get out of college, it’s really just beginning.

Understand yourself. No two people have the same exact situation. You have to figure out what works for you. But delayed gratification is almost always painful. Have fun when you’re young, but develop good financial habits and your future self will thank you.

Culled from yahoo finance

Arewa, Ohanaeze Youths Meet, Northern Coalition Begins Review of Quit Notice to Igbos

By Onyebuchi Ezigbo

But as Nigerian leaders met last night to debate the restructuring question, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council (OYC) met Saturday night with the Northern coalition of youths, with a view to charting a common course for the peaceful co-existence of various groups in all parts of the country.

In the meeting, which took place in Abuja, the northern coalition said it had begun the process of reviewing its demand asking the Igbos to leave the North by October 1, but said it would not back down on its petition to the United Nations asking it to intervene in the affairs of the nation.

While the Northern coalition insisted that the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu be punished for damage done to the psyche of some Nigerians, the Ohanaeze youths dissociated themselves from secessionist agitations, and asked Nigerians to consider such agitations as “perhaps a cry to redress the noticeable imbalance in the composition of the country”.

Speaking with journalists after the meeting, the Chairman of the Coalition of Northern Youths, Yerima Shettima, who along with others issued the ultimatum in June, said the peace meeting between the two groups led to the formation of a six-member committee which would facilitate another meeting in the South-east.

On the Kaduna declaration of his coalition, Shettima said: “Leaving Nnamdi Kanu to go unpunished is totally unacceptable to us because he has so far done much damage on our psyche and our nation.

“So for us, we think the best we can do is to internationalise this struggle. Behind the background of what we are doing today, most likely in the event of anything falling short of what we agreed, of course we are already in the UN reporting this same character (Kanu).

“That does not stop us from discussing to arrive at a particular conclusion where we can have peace for the country.

“On our previous position, we have not officially withdrawn the quit notice given to the Igbos in the North, but we said it a few days ago that we will review our position and part of that step is what we are discussing now.”

While commending the Ohanaeze Youth Council for a fruitful deliberation, Shettima added: “I thank God we are talking with the recognised body of entire youths organisation in the South-east called Ohanaeze Youth Council that is known everywhere.

“This is a welcome development and we are happy that they have actually sought to get our audience to discuss the way forward out of these uprisings.

“We are glad to get some word coming out from the leadership of Ohanaeze Youth Council specifically in the area of seeking to see us to discuss issues; it means they realised that we are very angry and a lot of things are out of place as a result of their short comings in the sense that if they had called the young man to order, we wouldn’t have gone to this extreme.

“The second one is the assurance given by the president of the council. If I quote him very well, he said, ‘Nnamdi Kanu is just looking for self recognition’, and we became more relaxed and comfortable getting that from him, and the third one is him making efforts to bring MASSOB and IPOB together for us to go into a roundtable discussion. I think it is a welcome development.”

In his briefing, the National President of OYC, Okechukwu Isigusoro, thanked the northern coalition for a fruitful deliberation, adding that his council believes in one Nigeria.

“We want to especially thank the Coalition of Northern Groups for accepting to host us in Abuja. Our talks have been very smooth beyond our expectations and we want to appreciate them knowing full well that we thought these talks could have ended in a fiasco or taken a dangerous dimension.

“But the way they have been peacefully handled it shows that they are peaceful people. We commend them for that and also believe that through this dialogue we believe in the future that there will be no boycott of these talks and if followed peacefully, we will bring an end to some of our problems in this county.”

However, in a quick reaction to the statement made by Shettima quoting the Ohanaeze president as stating that Kanu was seeking for recognition, Isigusoro refuted the statement last night, stating that he was quoted out of context.

He said that at no time did he raise any issues on Kanu, IPOB or MASSOB at the meeting.

According to him, his take at the meeting was the positions taken to resolve the issue of quit notice.

He said: “I spoke on the quit notice and how to resolve it for everybody to live in peace. That was all. And a committee was set up. There was never a time I mentioned IPOB or MASSOB in my speech.”

He added that the OYC would never condemn any moves of self-determination by either IPOB or MASSOB and advised the media not to derail the efforts at peace between the Northern coalition of youths and OYC.

Culled from Thisday