Personal finance and economic literacy experts usually focus on the issues facing college students, adults with families, and those facing retirement.  But what about those single twenty-somethings who seem to dominate Washington, D.C. and other major cities?  Welcome to your quarter-life crisis.  This article by Kate Carraway looks into the problems facing urban, middle class twenty- and thirty- year-olds trying to figure out which life path to navigate.

One of those problems is money management.  Whether it’s European and South American adventures, the high price of urban renting, feeling pressured to show your face at the bar every weekend, or going back to grad school, today’s quarter-life crises means a lot more money goes out the door than in past generations:

“Anya Kamenetz, who is a 29-year-old staff writer at Fast Company magazine and the author of the book Generation Debt: Why Now is a Terrible Time to be Young, says “As recently as the early 1990s, Americans had less than $10,000 of student loans on average. Now the average is over $20,000. As of about 2006, young people had $4,000 of credit-card debt on average, and those with debt were spending a quarter of their income on debt payments.”

Most people that fit this demographic come from upper-middle class families and grew up wanting for nothing.  So making the tough choices that come with responsible money management is not something they are used to. And according to the American Sociological Association nearly two-thirds of young adults in their early 20s receive economic support from their parents, while 40 percent still receive assistance in their late 20s, making it harder to cut the financial responsibility umbilical cord.

The economy makes it harder still. Today’s twenty-somethings may be the first American generation who won’t earn more than their parents.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2008 younger workers saw a higher rise in unemployment than any other age bracket.

So the current recession offers a chance for this current batch of twenty-somethings to learn first-hand the importance of budgeting, staying out of debt, and buying only what they can afford.  Because a generation concerned with personal branding should be wary of what debt and foreclosures do to your image.

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