I grabbed a coffee from the little cafe next door to work just now, and while I waited for my order, I read the Courier-Mail. I know it's a total rag and a waste of time, but it was the only paper they had, and I figured it'd be more interesting than studying the wall. A few pages in I ran into a fairly judgemental article about Gen Y's spending habits. Judgemental "damn kids" articles are typical of the Courier-Mail. That paper should bear the slogan: "Just The Opinions, Ma'am."

Gen Y, sometimes called "The Millennials", is the term for those born between the early 1980's to the early 1990's. We have a reputation for being ambitious, impatient, technologically-savvy, prone to job-hopping, and less subsceptible to advertising than most - ironically, because we're the generation advertising has targeted the hardest.

The article's thrust was that, despite the economic downturn in Australia, with a possible recession looming and people in general cutting back their spending like whoa, us naughty Millenials are still throwing our money around as much as ever; new mobile phones, iPods, eating out and impulse purchases. Apparently we're not feeling the pinch of the hiked-up interest rates.

To the writer of the article I say: no duh. Gen Y is spending big on overpriced trinkets because we don't own homes; aside from what we pay in rent - a low cost for the large number of us who still share-house - the rest of our income is disposable, where our parents at this age would already have locked that money into mortgage repayments. We can't afford to do the same... and that's not because we're buying trinkets. The gap between what it costs to rent, and what it costs to live frugally and pay a mortgage, is currently so massive here that even the most dedicated of us can't bridge it (unless we're on an exceptionally high wage). So if we're forced to rent or share, then heck, we've got loads of money left over. Not enough for a mortgage, but a lot. So what else is there to do with it? We buy expensive toys because that's all most of us believe we'll ever own. Apparently 4 out of 10 Millenials are certain that they will never own their own home.

Interestingly, I know a lot of smart, hardworking people my own age, but the very few I know who have mortgages were all helped there in some way by their parents. I'm not deriding that at all; I think it's fantastic that the earlier generations are helping the new in some cases. But it stands as an example of how difficult it is to Go It Alone now when it comes to home ownership.

On the other side of the generous-earlier-generations coin, many of the people I've seen 'tsk'ing over Millenial spending habits are baby boomer property investors, whose greed and purchasing power has limited the number of available properties, and consequently driven up the prices, both factors that make it harder yet for Millenials to break into the locked-up, overinflated market.

It's all rather interesting. I'm not one of the defeatist 40% mentioned above, though. As it stands now, no, I wouldn't be able to afford the repayments on even a low-priced home in the greater Brisbane area, even if I could convince a bank to lend me the money in the first place. But I know that markets, and fortunes, can change. Also, what a single can't do, a partnership potentially can. I refuse to rely on the "marriage = combined income = white picket fence" formula though, hence the block of land... if I have to creep my way into the property market literally from the ground (or "earthy block of land") up, that's how I'll do it.

In other news, and on the topic of changing fortunes, Joe and I were made a very generous offer from a friend the other day. It's a bit of a what-if at this point, but it could really give me a boost toward my goal of paying off the block of land in >3 years. No point in writing about it in any detail before we know more, though, and that won't be for a couple of months.

Last night Hammond and Adders popped around, and Joey and I had natural yoghurt and chopped strawberries for dinner. Then (speaking of expensive trinkets) I played way too much SSBB, catching up with Joe's Subspace Emissary game and unlocking a few new characters and trophies.

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