young adults + financial responsibity[split] from 250 a month for years Lisa on youtube with Bob

[maki2]

Of course if you are trying to make a point basing it on someone being able to live on $250 a month you did not go to Lisa's website where you will find out that she was not able to live on that. That she had to ask for donations to help her when she had unexpected expenses.

Young people often get those kinds of donations from parents. There was a recent video of a young couple who took off in an older van for a round the country trip. They had numerous breakdowns. Could not bring in enough money. Had to borrow money from parents when the engine blew. Then they went back home and moved in with the parents to save money so they could pay them back. Of course that was costing the parents even more money in utilities and food too than they were being paid back. Some young persons wear blinders, the kind horses wear so they can only see straight ahead and don't get spooked by stuff on other sides of them. This is not all that uncommon.

I was recently helping a young person do a few changes inside his truck cap so that he could live in it more comfortably. He was proud of how he was financially independent, working jobs here and there, living cheaply. I asked him did he have health care and he said oh I am covered by my Mom until I am 27. Never once did he consider that she had to shell out her income to pay for his living expenses and that it likely was more money per month than what he was earning with his little drip of unskilled labor. Some young people wear blinders.

 

[Elbear1]

She did live on it. What she didnt have was an emergency fund. Nobody said $250 and nothing saved for major work.

All this is discussing can you budget $250 a month for food, fuel and basics for people not on a regular income.

$50-75 a month is doable. *gasp*

 

[WanderingRose]

Actually, this thread has been split from the $250/month thread.

 

[cyndi]

Also, we have a good number of young people, here, on the forum, that are not living on their parents generosity.

 

[Elbear1]

Also, we have a good number of young people, here, on the forum, that are not living on their parents generosity.

Thank you. I spent well over $4k this year setting up my moms RV for fulltiming.

 

[Keolablue22]

I’m 28 now. I may be what some call an example of this privileged type of kid, who has always had parental support. I hold a lot of guilt over it still.
But after years of subconsciously avoiding the working world , and fighting chronic illness, I got a full time job this summer , my first permanent one.
Ironically it was at a hospital. But also in the basement with no sunlight. My depression deepened to another level. I didn’t even realize how dead inside I was. And when I was waking out of it I had many suicidal thoughts.

My days and years where I wasn’t working in the traditional sense were more valuable to me than getting paid to do needless things on a computer all day..
Right Before I got sick, I painted a mural in downtown Los Angeles, and I had agreed to do it unpaid for the ‘exposure’. I was naieve back then and didn’t believe in my worth. I still am struggling to believe that I’m worth something in this world.
I felt like a victim for a long time but I know too that it’s what I attracted. Because my parents supported me, I got unpaid internships in unusual places , volunteered with a homeless program, volunteered with galleries as part of a a city art nonprofit..
I felt like I could have a meaningful life without having to worry about the crushing world of money. In the process I got crushed by everyone around me it seemed.

Since that pain, I tried to focus on money in a new way. I look back on the last couple of years focusing too much on money, freelancing and spending days doing mindless stuff, and I consider them a waste of time.
I know I can work really hard but I also need there to be meaning in it.

That’s why I’m here.
I’m a young person with more years ahead (unless I die tomorrow) and I had a taste of the 9-5 life and wanted to kill myself because I wasn’t living.

I want to so desperately know why, in this society, we truly believe that people are worthless when they aren’t ‘working for money’; being part of a system that none of us really ever elected, but continue to decide that it’s ok..

I’ve stood in line at the labs and the pharmacy with the elderly. I felt like I was one of them. I was so ill at one point that I had a day bed, and a night bed, and I’d be too exhausted to do anything more than move between the two.
I applied for disability and went through a lengthly process just to be denied. I didn’t fight it.
A ER doctor thought I was a drug addict because I ended up in the hospital so much. One night he denied me pain medication when I needed it the most. Since that trauma I have had difficulty trusting anyone.

And maybe society and older generations to me is like this doctor who withheld compassion and understanding because of some strangely reinforced belief he had that I didn’t deserve what I asked for.
(He also simply didn’t believe that I had the medical condition that I legitimately had).

We all ask for freedom, comfort and happiness in this life. Why is it not a human right? Why does it have to be ‘worked for’ and ‘deserved’?

I don’t even like to call myself an artist, or anything, because it carries so many connotations that I don’t personally own. One of the more toxic ones: ego.

We all have different lives but end up in the same old mortal situations with different currents of time and luck.

And I was conditioned to believe that I am worthless as when I can’t contribute anything of monetary utility to our society. Which as a larger entity doesn’t care about me. It’s a faceless current. It’s robotic and impersonal. It’s not wild or intelligent.
I’m done with that world, I’ve died to that world, because I have to. Otherwise I won’t be able to live my life.

 

[Firebuild]

I grew up as one of 5 kids in a lower middle class family, with parents who worked 3 jobs between the 2 of them, all relatively menial. At times we drank powdered milk, and got cheap knock offs of the toys we asked for for Christmas, but we had food and presents.  Somehow on very limited income my parents were able to plan a week long family vacation for us every year. 

Unfortunately, they never shared any information on how they accomplished it. As a result, I, and to as lesser extent my siblings, have never really been very good with money.When I got my first credit card I called it my "allowance" and spent the maximum every month. I'm lucky I ruined my score early and no one would give me much credit, which is the only reason I'm not in serious debt today. Education is the key, and it was missing in my case. But I think, beyond the money piece, there is another element.

I have a niece who  is 24 and still has not learned to drive a car. Just refuses to learn. We don't live in a no-car area, so this means her parents have to drive her anywhere she goes. I was chomping at the bit to get my license at 16, and moved out of the house at 17. I was dying to be independent. Today's kids, not so much. She has never had a job, while I worked 2 at once throughout high school. That's not because I'm so ambitious - it's what everybody did. We couldn't wait to be out in the world! Today, that seems to be the opposite of what kids want. 

I chalk that up to the fact that we developed independence and got a taste for it throughout our childhood. We rode our bikes and walked places without supervision. We were "latchkey kids." I was babysitting other people's infants when I was 12; now 12 year olds have babysitters. There's a billboard in California urging parents to help their kids get 30 minutes of outdoor time a day. 30 minutes?? We got like, 4 hours every day, because we played outside from the time school ended until the streetlights came on. 

I'm not saying everything was perfect then, but there is a lot that was better. Kids have no way to learn independence if they never do anything that doesn't involve a calendar and a car ride. Luckily, some just hav that kind of spirit where it comes naturally. But most don't. 

Boy, I sound like a crotchety old lady. "When I was your age..."

 

[maki2]

I really just wanted to be a trust fund baby when I grew up. I finally had my dream come true when I turned 62

 

[crofter]

They get into unmanageable debt 

Sounds like student loans. 

I know a couple of 30 somethings in NYC, one is in the law and the other computers. Not borrowing from Pop those two.    ~crofter

 

[C-Cat]

I hate generalizations and I hear it often from the older generation. If you're only seeing negatives, you're not looking hard enough... I know plenty of younger people who support themselves. Truth is though, the world is getting smaller; when I was born, there were half as many people on this planet... there is a war (silent and openly) over resources going on already and though over here we're largely shielded from it, there are ripple effects: Rents / mortgages / housing costs in general are insane these days, wages are too low and stagnant to keep up... I am not surprised that there are some younger people who are very depressed or hopeless about what's going on and if mom and dad (or the social services) support them, they might choose to just go with the flow. But on the other hand as I said I also know quite a number of young people who are doing great and building a good life for themselves... I'm 51 btw.

 

[StarliteRambler]

"A lot of people don't know this, but Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, is probably the first example of this. He pretended he was out living in the wilderness all on his own, when really he was only a couple of miles outside of town and his mom brought him muffins and did his laundry. And people have been trying to live up to that false ideal ever since."

Yeah, and didn't he have free use of the land which was owned by Emerson?

 

[1shemp]

Made a post about my sorry brother but it disappeared.I guess talking about family is one of many things not allowed here.

 

[highdesertranger]

you never mentioned in your post that it was about your brother. I deleted your post because the way it was worded sounded like a broad generalization railing against the older generation. highdesertranger

 

[1shemp]

HDR,you are right.I should have been more specific.My apologies.(picture me genuflecting).

 

[Firebuild]

"A lot of people don't know this, but Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, is probably the first example of this. He pretended he was out living in the wilderness all on his own, when really he was only a couple of miles outside of town and his mom brought him muffins and did his laundry. And people have been trying to live up to that false ideal ever since."

Yeah, and didn't he have free use of the land which was owned by Emerson?

He also lived most of the time in his parents' attic.