Money: The Taboo Topic for Millennials

Money Shouldn’t Be A Taboo Subject For Millennials

It’s shocking how little millennials talk about money — we talk about sex, entertainment, beauty — but never money. Maybe some of us feel money is a completely personal and private matter. But I’d argue that a great deal of us just don’t really understand it, so we kind of brush it under the rug thinking if we ignore it long enough maybe it’ll go away. But that’s the thing, the “money issue” never goes away. We will always need it, and we will always hate how dependent we are on it.

The Millennial Life Attitude

We struggle with the choice: Should we work to make a living or work to make a life? Undoubtably these two things are closely intertwined. I believe somewhere along in out upbringing our generation started to believe that doing what we love is what’s most important. Perhaps this is a product of seeing our parents’ generation working such taxing jobs they had no passion for to make sure we had better. This leads us to assume that jobs we are not passionate about are not good enough for us. You see, our parents worked so hard to ensure we had this “better life” that we cannot help but crave more.

I participated in a #millennialtalk on Twitter where the subject was money and most people agreed that they had no idea how to handle finances and didn’t like to talk or write about it. They didn’t want to read articles on “budgeting” or “financial planning” because they were too busy reading inspirational pieces, DIY advice, and travel articles. While that’s all fine and dandy, it’s difficult for me to understand how and why money is such a taboo topic for our generation.

Here’s why talking about and understanding money should be highly important to millennials:

We are seen as “dreamers” — well that’s great, but our dreams will never become a reality without funds. Our imaginative mentality is a huge asset for us to carry and is what sets us apart from generations before us. And as a millennial myself I don’t believe this is a negative quality in the least bit. But a vast majority of these dreams are wasted because someone didn’t want to budget properly.

Learning how to budget is a life-long process — no one has it perfectly figured out. I see people saying they’ll learn about financials when they launch their start-up — Really? Why not learn now? What harm will it do to sit down and face the money facts? We’ve grown up in a society where money is the enemy: everything is far too expensive for us to accomplish our fulfilling goals. You need to start planning way before launching your business in order to be successful.

Yes, we crave a meaningful life and want to do what we love. I’m not saying you have to work for corporate America before making this a reality, but you will need a financial plan you are going to stick to. Work all the fun and worthwhile jobs you want, don’t sit in a cubicle if you hate your job — but please budget. Bring up the topic of money when necessary and start to read, write, and learn about it all. And hold yourself accountable. Ultimately it’s our millennial dreams that money can crush, but only if we keep the topic hidden.