Haelin Roberts
Professor Emerson
9/18/17
Emerging Adulthood
Less Money, More Problems: A Look into the Economic Struggles Facing the Modern Young Adult
Life is a very intimidating and long journey that can seem impossible to take on even to the most prepared and well rounded adolescents. There seems to be no real transition from the life of a student to that of a young adult. Much of life is spent attempting to make money and improve the quality of life through material purchases that often don’t have any positive effect on your life. Many twenty-somethings are just starting to support themselves and have no experience or guidance in the decisions they make with their newly found freedom. With the addition of emerging adulthood as a life stage, twenty-somethings would be able to make better decisions with their money as they wouldn’t be forced into making unnecessary purchases. They would be given an opportunity to figure out what they really need in life and make more educated decisions with their money. On the other hand, the U.S. economy would need to adapt to the immediate economic downturn caused by emerging adults not making the large purchases typically made by a young adult.
Becoming an adult is a complicated and frankly, terrifying process. Much of the guidance adolescents receive from their parents and elders only gets you to college, but then what? Many college graduates have no clue how to survive as an adult. The way our culture is currently set up we are told that we need all these material things to be happy. We are told we need a bigger house, a fancier car, nicer clothes, and that those things will make us happy. According to Robin Marantz Henig, author of “What is it about 20-somethings?,” most sociologists define the transition to adulthood as being marked by “five milestones: completing school, leaving home, becoming financially independent, marrying, and having a child” (200). Many twenty-somethings are recent college graduates who are neck deep in debt due to expensive student loans. Although going to college allows them to have more chances at high-paying jobs, these recent graduates are nowhere near rich. While those who didn’t attend college don’t have to pay off expensive student loan debts, they are also much less likely to be making as much money as those who did attend college. All of these are monumental events for life, but not everyone has the funds necessary to accomplish these tasks. Many of these twenty-somethings then turn to loans to help pay for college debt, housing payments, and children which are incredibly expensive. These loans put them further into debt and also ruin their credit score, setting them back for the rest of their life and creating stress in their lives. Many of the costs that come with these milestones are unreasonable when compared to how necessary they are. Henig states in her essay that “One-third of people in their 20s move to a new residence every year. Forty-percent move back home with their parents at least once” (199). When considering how expensive it is to buy a home, and how frequently they are changing homes, it is ridiculous to expect twenty-somethings to make such life altering purchases. Emerging adulthood would prevent twenty-somethings from both instability at home and economic instability. Becoming an adult is expensive, and twenty-somethings aren’t ready for it.
Emerging adulthood would allow twenty-somethings not only to find a purpose, but to be able to better plan out their lives financially so they can have the best of both worlds with both material goods and a purposeful life. With emerging adulthood twenty-somethings can focus on finding purpose which will lead them to not only wait on these purchases, but to make more informed decisions which will truly benefit their life. An emerging adulthood stage would allow twenty-somethings to plan out their future, while also not damaging it with large purchases. In Henig’s essay she mentions an essay in the 20 Something Manifesto a comment made by a 25-year-old female, “to think about all the things I’m supposed to be doing in order to ‘get somewhere’ successful: ‘Follow your passions, live your dreams, take risks, network with the right people, find mentors, be financially responsible, volunteer, work, think about or go to grad school, fall in love, and maintain personal well-being, mental health and nutrition.’ When is there time to just be and enjoy?”(206). Twenty-somethings would be able to take the time and figure all of these things out at their own pace, allowing them to be much more financially stable in the long run. However, this sets up twenty-somethings to take advantage of the free time they are given and use it to be lazy and unmotivated. In Thomas King’s TEDx talk “Adults We Need to Have the Talk” he jokes that “not all young people are set on changing the world. Some of us are trying to find purpose in gaining 10,000 instagram followers, but for many of us, it’s about sticking to discover our passions and live a life that makes us excited to get up each morning.” (3) Many twenty-somethings are mature enough to take this seriously and use their time to plan out their lives and find their purpose. For those who are not, this only further proves they aren’t ready to be adults and contribute to the world. The time to plan and search for purpose will still benefit twenty-somethings and their financial status.
Emerging adulthood would also have a detrimental effect on the economy, particularly the housing market. With twenty-somethings not purchasing houses, prices everywhere could skyrocket, also meaning that once they are out of the emerging adulthood stage, houses would be more expensive than if they had never entered it. But, due to the time to plan out their financial decisions they would still be better equipped to buy a house even if it were more expensive. Many twenty-somethings end up living in multiple residences throughout their twenties. According to Henig “One-third of people in their 20s move to a new residence every year.” (199) When you consider this, it seems irresponsible to have the standard that twenty-somethings should be making a monumental purchase like a house. Their lives are far too inconsistent to be taking on such a large purchase that isn’t necessary to their changing needs. The disadvantage to this life stage is that these twenty-somethings do have to live somewhere whether it be on their own or with a parent. Since many would choose to live with their parents or to rent cheap apartments, the housing market would take a large hit due to the gap created by emerging adults. Since they typically are living in so many different places a year, this stimulates the housing market as more mortgages and housing loans are taken out. Without this, the housing market would need to adjust to fact that twenty-somethings are no longer purchasing houses, many of the purchases would be for the long term. Though, by not pressuring them to get their life started immediately, they may choose the much more temporary and economically sound option of renting a house or apartment, where they can live there for as long as they need until they are ready to take that next step into adulthood.
With the emerging adulthood stage in place, twenty-somethings would not have the immediate pressure of having to get a job and be self sufficient. Noting that the average person has “thirteen jobs in four different industries”(2) in their lifetime it seems illogical for a young adult to be so consumed with getting a job that they will likely not even stay with for an extended amount of time. With the emerging adulthood phase, people would be allowed to look for a job that truly suits their purpose, causing them to be both better workers and also have a stable job. With more stable jobs that allow people to spend their money more freely without fear of losing their job or having to start all over in another industry. With this increased sense of security it would allow people to become both happier and economically stable. The only way for adults to find a job with a purpose that suits them, is to give them time to find this purpose through the emerging adulthood stage. Conversely, it would cause a momentary period of economic instability nationally as the jobs that are typically taken by twenty-somethings would suddenly have to be taken by either those younger or more experienced and overqualified workers. These are the challenges that come with the stage of emerging adulthood, but in the long run it would be much more economically beneficial to have adults that can make informed and conscious decisions about their future careers rather than facing a revolving door of jobs just to make ends meet.
In a world that is constantly changing, we must not remain stuck in our old ways of thinking., tThere is no one true life path. Some life events that are crucial to some, may be completely irrelevant to others. The current state of the journey to adulthood can be likened to that of a high school student’s schedule, you have to take a certain amount of classes, at a certain time, without much choice to be left to the student that actually has to take the classes. Much like how the journey to adulthood requires you to get to these five milestones before you can be considered an adult. The way it should be viewed is as a college class schedule, where it is determined by the student what classes they need to take and when, allowing for much more flexibility and personalization. With college being considered a step above high school, it’s time we take adulthood a step higher and make the change to emerging adulthood.
