How Spending In Your 30’s Has Changed Over The Years

October 02, 2018

A recent article in AXIOS highlighted the difference in how 30-year olds today spend their money verses 30- year olds 27 years ago. This interested me because I was in the 25 – 34 age group 27 years ago and now have a child who is in the 25 – 34 age group. It’s clear to me that we have different priorities at this age, but I was never sure if it was because she’s a girl and I was a guy, so I had to check the stats.

How we are different

According to this, my child and her peers spend more on education, health care, rent and contribute more to Social Security than I did, and they supposedly spend less on reading materials and alcohol (I never smoked and rarely have bought new clothes), which seems to make sense to me (and makes them sound a lot more responsible than I remember being at that age!). The cost of items that have increased is greater than the cost decrease from items that have gone down, so her net cost is higher.

These are interesting facts that Cliff Clavin from “Cheers” would gladly quote while drinking beer (sorry I don’t have a reference for the 30’ish crowd), but how can we use this information?

The real takeaway

The thing I get from this is that while you have extremely little control over the economic environment you are in, you do have control over what you spend your money on. Don’t be discouraged because the economic environment you are in is different than before — it is always changing.

To cope with that reality, your spending plan must:

Reflect the environment that you are in
Always be cash flow positive (i.e. you have to spend less than you make)

To create a spending plan

Use our Easy Spending Plan as a template and modify it to make it your own. If this doesn’t work for you, no problem, find one that does.
(Mostly) Painless Ways to Save Money is one of our recent blogs that can help you find ways to save money.
Schedule a 30-minute money meeting with yourself at least once a month (ideally every time you get paid).

Remember, current trends and economic realities don’t HAVE to dictate how you spend your money. As Cliff would say, “It’s a little known fact that the tan became popular in what is known as the Bronze Age.” Now I need to see if I can binge watch “Cheers” on Netflix.