Branded spending.

I think I have heard enough of complaints from the older generation regarding the way the 'younger generation’ spend their money. Words like ‘splurging’ and ‘materialistic’ have been quoted countless times on the newspaper forums, and such remarks are usually followed by a reminder for a need to ‘educate the young of today on financial planning and healthy spending habits.’
So, are the youngsters of today really spending more than they ought to? How much is too much, and what should be the limit? Is there really a restriction we ought to set for these children, especially since they mostly have not started earning an income of their own?

Today, the younger generation is caught in an environment where spending money is more than just buying an item itself. In modern times, money spent on a shoe goes not just into the manufacturing and transportation cost, but also into the goodwill and branding of the manufacturing company or the designer. Cotton on a shirt cannot cost $100, but you see such prices in many shops in cities all around the world. We have moved into an era where branding has become such a widely-recognized concept, and brand-recognition is taught to all the young of today. There is no running away from names like Nike, Adidas, Nokia, Sony, etc. To add to your financial troubles, seeing a Nike shoe on 50% discount sometimes seems like an offer you simply cannot decline, and out comes your card again.

We are victims of our own capitalism, of our own brands, of our own marketing concepts.

How much blame can we push to our children for all the wastage of money? We always label the young people as being materialistic and brand-conscious, and that they are over-spending. We cringe whenever we see school children queuing up at Starbucks, because we see a coffee shop across the street that offers coffee at a fraction of the cost ($0.70 compared to $7.00). We condemn the children, claiming that they do not recognize the need to save money, or that they are wasting hard-earned money their parents earn. We go on talking about how we used to have very little money to spend, without considering the fact that society has become more affluent.

I am not encouraging your children to spend $7 on a cuppa, but perhaps we ought to take comfort in the fact that the young of today are enjoying a higher standard of living – what are we working so hard for anyway, a better life, right?