Meet The New Breed Of Millennials: The Urban Smarts

I met Rikesh at the neighborhood gym. He works as production support for an IT company and he swears he loves traveling. Last week, he showed some fantastic pics on his phone from his latest solo trip to Bali while we were alternating between sets at the
barbell stand. If you’re wondering, he’s just 24 and has been working for less than 2 years. He’s no CEO.

My best friend’s younger brother got a gold ring from his girlfriend as a gift to celebrate their 4 years of togetherness. Her name is Anshita and she’s currently pursuing acting classes under Actor Prepares (Anupam Kher’s acting institute in Mumbai). Her age: 25, her father’s profession: retired college professor. She’s no Ambani’s daughter. While young people are cribbing about being broke, what are twentysomethings doing differently?

Meet the new breed of millennials who are exactly like their peers; only a little smarter (not by birth, but by knowledge). Let’s call them the ‘Urban Smarts’.

So what exactly do they ‘know’, that a majority of twentysomethings don’t?

Urban smarts go by a cheat sheet.

1. Save 10% of your salary

Manisha, who works as a freelance journalist earns around ₹ 20,000 per month and her expenses are ₹ 15,000. She transfers around ₹ 16,000 to her secondary bank account and save ₹ 4,000 every month. That’s a whopping 20% saving every month. Experts suggest that a minimum of 10 to 15% saving every month is enough to make awesome financial decisions. The hack is to never touch your salary account. You must calculate your monthly expenses (+buffer) and transfer it to another account.

Always have 2 bank accounts. Save 10% of your monthly income.

 

2. Millennials are letting apps do the thinking

Do you know when you’ve maxed out your ATM withdrawal limits? Do you always remember the last day to clear your credit card debt? Probably yes, but probably not always. Twenty-somethings are way more app-savvy than the previous generation and the beauty is you need not open it to get ‘smart’. Say hello to push notifications at the right time & the right place!

 

3. Making a habit of putting X amount of money every month into MF/Equity market (through SIP)

X can be any amount. Urban smarts follow the simple rule of invest first, spend later. SIP forces you into the healthy habit of putting small tokens into Mutual Funds/Equity every month. It’s always good to keep your money where you can’t see it. And the best part: it compounds as you sleep. Awesome!

 

4. Why buy a car when you can OLA?

Getting a shiny (costly) car just to make your neighbor jealous is a thing of the past. Youngsters these days, who can easily afford a hatchback or a sedan are opting for the smarter option: Sit comfortably at the backseat, work on your next presentation on your laptop, and get off without worrying about tendering change (hello, Ola Money). And even if you have a car, why take it out for every purpose? Peace of mind of not honking around the city, constantly looking out for pedestrians and rowdy drivers.

If time is money, we just saved and made money at the same time.

 

5. Why pay taxes when you can SAVE it?

Investing in tax-saving instruments is no rocket science. There are tax-saving mutual funds, PPF, FDs and a whole lot of things in between. Young people, these days don’t wait till January to invest in haste, they are making smart financial decisions right
from day one.

 

6. Urban smarts are taking overseas vacations too. How? Here’s how.

Got a yearly bonus? Got some money by selling your bike? Planning to turn it into a fixed deposit and not see it for the next 5 years? STOP. Don’t. Youngsters are putting money in safe liquid funds where the returns are awesome and the best part is that you can withdraw and invest money anytime. Planning a Europe trip with your bae? Treat your liquid fund as a piggy bank. Keep putting money and when the time comes, withdraw and fly!

 

7. While we’re talking about vacations, millennials stay at hostels, couch-surf and not at expensive 3-star hotels

They are travelers, not tourists. The beauty is outside those concrete walls of the 3-star hotel. And also the savings. Staying at other people’s homes is an experience in itself. That’s another trait of Urban Smarts, they invest in experiences and not materialistic things. So travel, concert and food tops the chart.

 

8. While we spoke about cars, did we mention another smarter option:cab sharing!

Why take the entire cab to yourself when you can share it with commuters on the same way. The benefits are multi-fold: save money, contribute to the environment, make new friends maybe? You can’t manufacture co-incidences, but hey…who knows, if you’re looking for an acting break, you might just share an Ola with a casting director. Looking for investment for your startup? How cool would it be meeting an angel right at the backseat of a cab. Elevator pitch? How about a cab pitch? 😀

 

9. Putting money in retirement funds starting at their 20s itself, plan to retire early

Thinking of retirement in their 20s was something that was unheard of for the previous generation. Well, not anymore. More and more twenty-somethings are planning to retire wealthy & early, and then just chill. Yep, chill. You are wealthy if you can stop working and indefinitely maintain your standard of living from other sources of income. That’s exactly what youngsters are planning for.

Urban smarts are taking over, millennials are finding innovative ways to stay ahead of the curve.

I relate to the ‘urban smarts’. Do you?

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