I am an undergraduate student, single, and unemployed. Honestly, I’ve been concerned more about realizing my genuine intentions and skills that can be beneficial for me in the future in terms of education, professional career, and personal life rather than about making money. I am sure that generation Y including me has less financial commitment than the older one had. When I make a purchase, I mostly use a debit card though I am aware of the numerous benefits of using a credit card.
The thing is that I hesitate to use a credit card because I can potentially forget the due day to make payment which involves different fees and an increase of the sum of payment. Since I spend most of my time at school or being engaged in group work and homework, I do not have much time to cook at home. So, I dine and have lunch outside and spend a great share of my money on buying food. I like meeting people and communicating with them; thus, I love to go out and enjoy meals and visit different events with friends. Therefore, if I were to have to cut on spending, I would rather buy fewer clothes and cut down several times taking a cab.
I remember my mother taking me to the bank with her when I was little to start keeping an account of my own with a bank. Now, I think that my mom wanted to teach me how to save money. From then, I take some share of the allowance I receive from my mom for living expenses and put that in my savings account for emergency cases. Last year, the financial crisis was very serious and I needed to cut down my spending and it certainly affected my daily expenses.
I started paying attention to coupons delivered to my apartment, which I barely checked and I tried to reduce the shopping list. As I am a student, price always matters for me but I am concerned about the quality of the product or service. Furthermore, ever since I took the “Sustainable Design” class, I started thinking about the way my action/spending habit affects the environment. So, now I am paying more attention to buying local food and goods made of recycled material.
I believe that money should be categorized by the rules established in the society people live in. For instance, if social norms suggest that wages should be categorized as entitlements, this should be so for a particular society. Another issue arises when talking about the categorization of money for a particular family where planning should be the key aspect to the explanation of categorization and earmarking issues. In this respect, members of the family can plan their expenditures and earmark money that should be spent either on rent or food. This principle can also be applied to companies that operate in different fields of industry and science.
For example, if certain sums of money are intended to be given for development and reconstruction while fixed amounts are to be spent on wages for employees, this cannot be considered entitlements or compensation. In other words, planning in finance should not be labeled as categorization. I think that lending money, in my case, is possible only if I am sure that the person would give it back or if the sum is insignificant and I can afford to give this sum as a gift without expecting a person to return it.