Tag Archives: millennials

Millennials Helping Change the Retail World

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Millennials are helping all of us save a bunch of money in vast numbers of industries. They’re getting to being the largest group in the population, so retailers have no choice but to adapt.

One of them is with car repairs. Typically you take in your vehicle and deal with a service advisor whose job is to coordinate the work and to upsell you! Yes, they call it a treasure hunt – where they look for other work that could be done, or might need to be done sometime… The modern way has started at a service shop in San Francisco called Luscious Garage: No service advisor – you deal with the mechanic directly. That’s the person fixing it, and that’s who you communicate with, so it immediately takes out communication problems, the adversarial relationship, and the stress and pressure of being upsold.

The mechanic will text you with what they’re working on. So you might get a text update that they did the breaks, and here’s the picture of the newly installed pads. And there’s a hose leaking – here’s the picture of the leak. Want us to replace this hose for $30, and half hour labour cost? Customer love it – and that’s the wave of the future!

Online mattress purchases are only around 15% but that’s enough to drastically shake up the industry right now. The same is true for Gillette, which is in massive upheaval with an online retailer called Dollar Shave Club. It just take someone to find a better, cheaper, and more convenient way to shop. And it’s a great thing for an industry with massive markups. The industry has always been thought of as being right up there with buying a used car! Any upheaval will be your financial gain. The industry upheaval is to the point where Mattress Firm, the largest seller in the U.S., has filed for bankruptcy.

The changes are for two reasons: Firstly, Amazon has now gone into the mattress business. Look at the companies that also sell them and their massive decline in stock prices when that was announced late last year. The other one is a company called Casper. They’re way cheaper and compress a mattress so it can be shipped via courier. And, from what I’ve heard, they’re supposed to be great. You can also go to Costco and buy one in a box. And they’re all compressed to be able to fit into the back of a Honda Civic – that seems to be the industry rule for shipping size. Plus, now you have upwards of three months to return it – try that with a traditional mattress purchase!

Virgin Hotels caters to millennials. One of the biggest pet peeves of customers on every survey is the quadruple priced stuff in the minibar. That $2 package of nuts for $9! Their hotels price it at exactly the same as stores in their area – period. Managers send a staff member to the nearest Macs and Walmart to get the price that they’ll use in the minibars!

George Boelcke – Money Tools & Rules book – yourmoneybook.com

Understanding Millennials Financial Stress

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1/15 Understanding Millennials  

Hi George: We spoke for a minute after your radio show with Phil Johnson today and you asked me to email you.

I am a 23 year old full time university student and I am on a full ride scholarship. I also work a part-time job and am lucky that it pays well. I have lived with my girlfriend, who is also a full time university student that serves on her weekends and volunteers once a week at KGH, in a modest apartment in downtown Kelowna. I am a millennial and I understand a lot of the frustration pertaining to the “zombies” of my generation.

I guess the issue I have is that I, like many other people my age, can only tread water and hope not to drown in financial debt. There is no way you can go to school today without access to a computer and internet. On top of paying for schooling, you have rent, utilities, food, insurance, gas, cellphone bills (another necessity in today’s world – and not the millennial’s fault) and so on.

If you do the math; a full time student spends 15 hours in class and is recommended to spend an additional 3 hours studying outside of the classroom which adds up to 45 hours/week of studying time. In addition, to keep a roof over your head, your belly full, and your vehicle that is required to transport you throughout your erratic schedule, you will have to work at least a 40 hours/week at minimum wage.

It is also recommended the average person gets 8 hours of sleep per day, or 56 hours/week. So we are now at 141 hours of our week dedicated solely to studying, working and sleeping while we only have 27 hours left to kill.

Hopefully you can fit all your driving, grocery shopping, cooking, eating, exercising, banking, personal hygiene, volunteer work, and maybe, just maybe, you will have the time to put your feet up and prey you don’t have any emergency expenditures. 

Now I cannot speak for all millennial’s, but the fact that I am on a full ride scholarship and still contemplating taking out a student loan frustrates me, and when I hear people on the radio commenting on how spoiled and lazy all of us millennial’s are, it frustrates me even more.

If you have any financial advice I would appreciate hearing it, and again, I apologize for the breadth of this email, but I thought you may be intrigued by a 23 year old’s perspective on why the majority of us millennial’s are broke.

A BIG thanks for your note. It’s so well written and thought out AND accurate! Sure wish I could magically insert your email into my book today!

You’re right that millennials get labeled. It’s mostly off US surveys of various degrees of quality and accuracy. In the next year or two, “you” will outnumber baby boomers so the world, including myself, really ought to be a little more careful in the generalizations. Thank you thank you! For every stereotypical millennial there are vast numbers of superstars and future leaders such as you.

Not sure when you’re done or if you read the Money Tools chapter If you’re about 25 or younger, but DO start thinking about the critical year after grad as outlined in there.

Nope, you can’t save right now. Reality sucks but it’s about financially treading water – of surviving and not thriving. And that’s you with a full scholarship, never mind the 90% or so that don’t have that “luxury.”

Do NOT let the need for some student loans depress  you! I know there’s really no such thing as “good” debt, but there is “better” debt on the proviso it’s not around for a decade. Everything in life is a trade-off and you’re not looking to use it for a three week Europe holiday. Just knowing that you hate doing it makes you more financially responsible than the vast majority of the world. Better sleep, less stress, a small cushion “in case” is worth using some student loan money!

The BIG goal, even if it’s funded with student loan money, as reasoned above, is to have a month of expenses in a savings account for any emergency. It’s fine if that’s half your savings, half your girlfriend’s for the time being. It’s worth the reduced stress and just knowing the next “emergency” will then be more of an inconvenience…

George Boelcke – Money Tools & Rules book – yourmoneybook.com

Financial Worries Are Literally Making Young People Sick

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A study of millennials, those around 18 to 35 years old by Northwestern Mutual, found them to be anxious, worried, sick, and often depressed about their debts and finances.

The study found about 70% of this generation experienced anxiety because of their incomes, and 53% because of worries in losing their jobs. More than a quarter of them admit that their financial stress impacts their job performance. Of course it would! Imagine a lot of debt and barely being able to make it through the month. Now your boss wants to see you. What do you think is one of the first things to flash through their mind? Oh boy – I might lose my job. And what do you think the odds are that someone in financial stress will every stick their head above the crowd or would ever make any suggestions for fear of being targeted? No chance.

Their cell bill gets paid on their credit card, one paycheque is wiped out with rent, the other will their car payment, utilities, and other necessities. Then the credit card for spending money to keep up appearances while they’re sinking further into the hole.

It’s not a fun way to go through life – whether it’s older adults, or those just out of school and now working. That kind of stress leaks out. It’ll manifest itself in physical sickness or depression. But that happens when nobody is around. I’ve been there – I’m not making this up! To the world, and most often to their parents, they continue to put on their happy face as if everything is great.

There are solutions. They’re not complicated and won’t take all that long to implement – honestly.

First, get down to Mosaic, or go to Amazon, and invest the $20 in the Money Tools and Rules book. No, it’s not a cop-out for me to make a net of $4 from you. One-third of the book is literally targeted to millennials. Three chapters in there will give you the tools and confidence to change your life around. You may not do it – but that’s up to you. Here are a few steps that will decrease your financial stress in a hurry:

Pay out your cell contract and switch to a 2nd tier carrier like Koodoo or Fido for around half of what you’re paying. There’s $60 a month

If you have a credit card balance, switch it to one that’s 11% not 20% and no annual fee. On a $4,000 balance, there’s $150 or so a month

No more lunch, snacks, or coffee out until you get your finances under control: Your work has coffee – no it’s not the same, but it’s free! There’s probably $200 if you were to be honest with yourself.

$400 saved right there is the same as a $600 raise. Now get a no fee savings account and put at least $75 a paycheque in there. Within six months you’ll have $1,000 in emergency savings and $2,400 less spent that’ll show up in your lower credit card balance or chequing account.

There’s more – but just do this for a six month test drive. If you’re overwhelmed, email me off the back of the book at yourmoneybook.com

Love This: Young Millennials Don’t Use Credit Cards

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Well, finally some good news…sort of. This is based on U.S. stats, but let’s hope some of it applies here in Canada.

Credit card issuers are very stressed out: Millennials, those around 18 to 35 really don’t want, and don’t use credit cards. Only one in three even have them, they use the sparingly, and don’t carry much of a credit card balance.

Since they’re over 65 million people, it’s going to impact the future profits of card issuers. But why such a drastic change from their parents? It’s actually easy to explain. The U.S. had a massive financial meltdown from 2008 to at least 2010. So the vast majority of millenials would have lived at home at that time. They saw a parent, or relatives lose their job. Millions were home when the sheriff knocked on the door with a foreclosure notice, or had to move when their parents turned in the keys. They saw entire neighbourhoods wiped out, vehicles get repossessed, and felt the tension, fights, and stress at home.

Just like the students from Stoneman Douglas school in Florida will never be the same again when it comes to their view on guns. For a generation that’s labeled as having literally an 8 second attention span, their focus on gun regulations will last a lot longer. In that same way, the kids who saw the financial meltdown first hand will remember that for a lifetime.

Sadly, we don’t learn the horrific lessons of others. These things generally have to hit us personally, before we take notice. That’s generally the most frustrating thing for parents to realize when teaching their kids, even giving their adult kids feedback and advice. People don’t move until they’ve been moved. But when we’ve had that near-death financial experience, we generally get really smart, really soon, and it tends to last.

That’s the big picture, and the positive. On the reality side, 41% of them are buried in student loan debt and their income isn’t close to what their parents made. However, card issuers don’t really have to worry: Sadly, after age 30, credit card balances, even for millennials double, according to FICO, the company that creates credit scores.