I don’t think they can conceive of a future, of being older, or less capable. It may be more about a lack of perspective than of belief. We were all there at one time.

The other side of this too is that a lack of belief in the future feeds the natural hedonism of youth. It’s helped along by the advertising culture that knows how to play into it–ever notice how most advertising is aimed at the youth market–it’s no accident!

The growth of credit in the past few decades has played into this as well. It isn’t a moral breakdown of youth, but a confluence of events working on them. And as one of the commentors above notes, it isn’t all young people who aren’t saving these days. The national statistics on saving are quite dismal. At least the young will have time to adjust and prepare.

The reason I started saving was that I realized that savings could be invested and used to make money much easier than going to work every day. I started when I was 25. If I had realized it earlier, I would have started earlier. If I had realized it later, I’d probably still be working all day long.

See, that’s not what I’m saying here. It isn’t that people who were adults in the 30s, 40s and 50s were somehow more pure or smarter than adults nowadays. They made the choices they did in large part because they were *scared*. Seeing what they or their parents lived through made them cautious, sometimes to a fault. In addition to saving money they also often saved vast quantities of plastic bags, pieces of string, empty margarine containers, etc. My own mother (who was born in the early 20s) complained bitterly in her last couple of years about the mountains of “perfectly good dishes” I threw out from her place. They were *margarine containers* from the late 1960s and early 1970s that we had used as cereal bowls and for food storage for 30 odd years! A senior living with one adult grandchild did not need 30 or 40 empty containers taking up an entire cupboard; half a dozen in the best shape were plenty.

But this woman also kept her 1950 Ford until 1968 and her 1968 Chevelle until 1982. She kept a budget book and wrote down every expense. And she and my dad went from a little house to a bigger house and, after my dad passed away, my mother was able to buy her condo for cash!

Being scared of the consequences resulted in a bunch of good financial decisions.

I started saving as soon as I started making real money, because I had a natural inclination towards saving and was the type who spent a lot of time thinking about the future.

But there’s another aspect to this. The real savers aren’t people over 40. They’re the people who are already senior citizens (and who may not be saving any longer). Many, many people who lived through the Depression found the experience changed them dramatically.

They’re the ones who walked home from work to save the carfare. They’re the ones who spent $20/week feeding their families and grew a vegetable garden to add to it. They’re the ones who scrimped and saved to buy an 800 square foot single family home. They’re the ones who bought a car (one car for the whole family) and kept it for 15 or 20 years before trading it in. They had a party line because it was cheaper, even though it meant your neighbour might hear your phone conversation.

They also weren’t the first ones in line when new things came out like TV, cable, satellite, computers, cell phones, etc. etc. That’s not to say that they didn’t eventually buy some of these things but they were way behind the curve because they felt saving and paying down the mortgage were more important than having the first colour TV on the block.

Somewhere along the way we’ve lost that mentality and switched it to the entitlement mentality. “I deserve all those pretty, shiny things so I must go out and buy them.” The problem is, there are new pretty, shiny things every week. If you just chase them you’re obviously not going to be able to save.

Were there spendthrifts back then and are there savers now? Of course, but the percentages have changed. That’s what the bank teller was telling JD!

As Annie Dillard so eloquently put it in her wonderful book, For the Time Being:
“There were no formerly heroic times and there was no formerly pure generation. There is no one here but us chickens, and so it has always been: a people busy and powerful, knowledgeable, ambivalent, important, fearful, and self-aware; a people who scheme, promote, deceive, and conquer; who pray for their loved ones, and long to flee misery and skip death. It is weakening and discoloring idea that rustic people knew God personally once upon a time – or even knew selflessness or courage or literature [or how to save money - come on, it kinda fits here] – but that it is too late for us. In fact, the absolute is available to everyone in every age. There was never a more holy age than ours, and never a less.”

Dillard was speaking about people’s relationship with God, of course. However, I find it astounding in how many different arenas of thought her words ring true to me.

Younger folks do go out often with friends or on dates while movies cost $12.50 now. There won’t be much marriage in the future without dating first, which is today, dates can cost $50 easily. Yes, I’m sure there are cheaper avenues for dating but for first dates with someone, even something small like a movie can cost a lot.

The real lesson is that older people with MONEY started saving when they were young, not when they aged!

Are you investing too much emotional energy in worrying, protecting & guarding that when in 10 years from now you will look back and regret the choices you made in life just like you look back today and regret the choices you made in your 20’s?

It’s now 16 years later and BOY am I glad I did that. I’ll be able to retire at 50 or 55 with a sizable investment portfolio, paid off house, and yearly travel (we’re starting some modest trips overseas now, in fact with the idea that it’s better to travel when you’re still healthy).

To anyone who is putting off saving until later, QUIT IT. STart now, and your future self will thank you.