If You Have These 3 Money Situations In Your 20s, A Financial Educator Says You’re Doing Better Off Financially Than You Think
Try not to compare your situation to other people's. That's where a lot of twentysomethings get tripped up.
Xavier Lorenzo | Shutterstock It’s easy to feel like you’re off pace in your 20s. Everyone seems to be getting ahead of you, and you just can’t keep up. Michela, a financial educator known as @breakyourbudget on TikTok, wants you to know that despite what you think, you’re doing just fine. She clarified that what’s normal looks different to everybody. “Just to be clear, normal is subjective,” she said. “But these are patterns and things that I see as a financial educator, content creator, and author, and I’ve been doing this for over five years.”
Michela shared three money situations that may make you think you’re behind but are actually totally normal (at least subjectively) and signs that you’re doing better than you think you are financially.
Here are three money situations that signify you’re doing better financially than you think you are in your 20s:
1. Being in debt
As you start your adult life, you may think the best way to do so is by being debt-free. And while that would technically be ideal, it just isn’t feasible in the world we live in. “It is normal to have some type of debt in your 20s, whether that be a student loan or a car loan,” Michela explained. In fact, according to the Education Data Initiative, “34% of adults aged 18 to 29 have student loan debt, making them more likely than adults in any other age group to have student debt.”
However, Michela said that there is one form of debt that’s not so normal to have. “It is not normal to have thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars of credit card debt,” she revealed. “That doesn’t mean credit card debt is shameful, but it’s not something that the majority of people have. It’s also something that I’ve noticed we have normalized, and I personally think that perpetuates the problem.”
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Unfortunately, CNBC Select pointed out that many Gen Zers who are in debt can attribute at least part of that to credit cards. While it’s normal to be in debt, having control over that debt and not letting it control you instead is essential.
2. Not receiving financial assistance from your parents
We all have that friend whose parents still help them out with everything. While it’s really not our place to judge as that’s a private family matter, and we don’t know the whole story, it can still sting if you’re in the exact opposite situation.
But Michela assured twentysomethings that it’s completely “normal to not have any financial help from your parents. Most people, like I mentioned earlier, graduate college with loans and have some type of debt in their 20s, and their parents are not paying their rent and supporting them financially.”
What’s not so typical, Michela said, is having the ability to live luxuriously at such a young age. “It is not normal to be living alone in a really fancy high-rise apartment at any point in time in your 20s, but particularly your early-to-mid-20s,” she said. “Most people have roommates, and it’s actually a financial necessity.”
While it’s easy to look at social media influencers’ posts and think that you should have a nice, spacious apartment all to yourself, data from Bowling Green State University proved this is not the norm. They said most adults between 18 and 24 lived with a roommate, while one-third of adults 25 to 29 did.
3. Sticking to a strict budget
You may think that having to budget is a sign that you're struggling, but most twentysomethings don’t have a large amount of expendable income. “It is normal to need to follow a very strict budget in order to make ends meet every month and still have money to put towards financial goals,” Michela said.
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On the other hand, making a large amount of money at such a young age is not typical. “It is not normal, especially in your early 20s, to be making significantly more than $100,000 a year,” she added. “I would even say it’s not normal to be making $100,000 a year. There are very few corporate jobs that you can get in your 20s where you’re making a six-figure salary, and most people are making significantly less.”
This is another example of social media distorting people’s views, Michela said. Influencers and other prominent people could easily make six figures, but the average person in their 20s doesn’t. In fact, Smart Asset said that most people between the ages of 20 and 24 make about $40,768 a year. This increases to $59,072 a year for people aged 25 to 34.
There’s always a good chance that you’re doing better than you think you are, and social media is just messing with your perspective.
Michela’s video holds an important lesson — comparison truly is the thief of joy. If you compare your life to those you see on social media, you’ll always think you’re behind and need more. But, if you take the time to center yourself in the present, you’ll realize that you’re actually doing pretty great. There’s no reason to stress about it.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.