what we want

the millennial edt

you can find me at: @K_AnnM | Insta | LinkedIn

If it hasn’t been evident before, I hope it is now– I am a proud Millennial. I am an advocate for Millennials. Unfortunately, Millennials get a bad reputation but I am sure that is that case with most rising-star generations. Being a Millennial is tough work, everyone is always downplaying your abilities and shooing you to the wayside. To make an impact, we need to focus on the positives. An article written by Global CEO of Deloitte Touche Tohmastu Limited, Barry Slazberg, recently wrote an article about Millenials. To be honest, going into the article I was skeptical, however, after reading the article I was pleasantly surprised.

Their findings in a nutshell

Millennials are ready to go their own way

Millennials want to make a difference

Millennials want to be leaders

Millennials want to be innovative

Millennials expect businesses to care

I support all of these findings. As a Millennial, I find it hard to stick with things that have always been. I want to pave my own path and create my own future. Sure, it’s not going to be easy to create my own path, but then again who said life was easy?

millennials

why are we always being bashed?

you can find me at: @K_AnnM | Insta | LinkedIn

Often, I google: “Millennial”. I want to see what’s up with my generation. More often than not, there is bad news with the small search of one simple word. Today, I found an article entitled: A Survial Guide to Working with Millennials. This article was published on The Wall Street Jorunal’s website.

Frankly, I’m fed up.

I don’t understand how my generation can generate so much negative energy. There There are so many negative connotations about Millennials out there, it’s mind-blowing. Truly, I don’t understand what my generation did to get such a bad rep. Is this something all generations face from the precednets?

The aritcle starts off by saying:  What’s the hardest part about working with younger employees, and what’s the best way to deal with it? “The kids today…” That’s the phrase used in one form or another by every generation looking at the “new kids” joining the workforce. Here are three tips for older employees to survive and thrive in a multigenerational workplace. 

It goes into telling you what to expect and how to deal with “us.” Their advice? “Take a New Look at Work,” “Teach and be Taught” and “Stay Flexible.” Overall, this advice can be used for anyone going into a workplace, not just people who will be working directly with Millennials.

I am tired of Millennials being pinned as the bad person. The worst part is, as the saying goes, one person ruins it for everyone.  After reading the comments on this article, one from Grumpy Boomer reads, About those Millennials…the ones I’ve met (and there are quite a few of them) are smart, mentally agile, and capable. And some of their approaches are superior – the meetings mentioned in the article being one example. I find it amazing how my fellow boomers have transitioned from being rude and rowdy (yes, we were, in the eyes of the previous generations) into models of staid propriety – while we find issue with the Millennials for all manner of supposed shortcomings (the same ones we were guilty of a few decades ago). The Millennials will do fine. And their creativity just might lead to a golden age that’s better than has ever been seen before.

These are the types of people we, Millennials, need on our side. Shout out to Grumpy Boomer for respecting a yonger generation!

social media & finances

you can find me at: @K_AnnM | Insta | LinkedIn

A few years ago I interned for a non-profit, Mobilize.org. They believe in order to create long-term, sustainable and community based solutions to the challenges facing our generation, Millennials (young adults born between the years 1976 and 1996) must authentically engage their peers in identifying problems, proposing solutions, and most importantly, must work together to implement these solutions on their campuses and in their communities. While interning for them, I had awesome opportunities; one of them being to attend an event an write a blog about it. My boss sent me to an event at AARP, it was about finances and different age groups. Take a read and let me know what you think. a few years ago I would have been heart-set on saying it was taboo to talk about money and finances among my generation, Millennials. But now I am torn. I am starting to see a divide, because we are now understanding how important fiances are.

using social media to save money

Millennials (like myself) want to talk about everything, everywhere and especially on social media. But what I’ve realized is that one thing we don’t talk about is money. However with the financial issues facing us and the country, and with the accessibility to others via social media, we should be having constant conversation on finance that would help break down barriers on what is often too taboo, even for Twitter.

Lifetuner and AARP hosted an event Thursday during Digital Capital Week to discuss how members of all generations use social media to talk about or finances. Robert Brokamp of The Motley Fool was the event moderator and the three panelists were: MP Dunleavey of Daily Worth, Melora Heavey of Feed The Pig and Kelly Whalen of The Centsible Life.

The panelists talked about how social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and blogs can impact our finances on a personal level and change the way we handle our money. We are in a world where we integrate social media in every aspect of our lives, so why not use it to help our pocketbooks? In November of 2009 Budgets are Sexy surveyed and found that 57% of young Americas consider their financial situation the biggest concern in their lives. So, how can we use social media to become more aware of our finances, from balancing a checkbook to applying for a Roth IRA or even as simple as making a budget? The answer…use it!

To bring more awareness to financial issues and to start online dialogues, we need to display concerns places where everyone is talking. For instance according to newser.com there are 600 tweets every second, totaling 50 million tweets a day, with a whopping 6 million registered users it makes sense to use social media.

Of course you’re thinking why use social media when that’s my time to relax, right? You’re saying to yourself, “that’s my outlet for de-stressing.” Well, it still can be your source for relief. Believe it or not, social media can help you save money and avoid debt – the ultimate de-stresser!

Twitter is also a great resource for savings, it serves as a customer service portal for companies and as they often post deals or coupons. You can also follow people who talk about money like @APPersonalFin, who tweets about summer fares lowering. Or you can use  Twitdom that has different applications for finance pages you can follow on Twitter like: Mint, My Mile Marker, Twinancial,TopStockTweets and Stoockr . By adding these applications to social media networks, it becomes easier to exchange ideas with more people and you can personally track your spending behavior.

Blippy.com also tracks spending behaviors, and by seeing what and how much spending you do can help you get a perspective on how much you spend and will ultimately help you get your money habits under control. Then you can use your online banking system to set up your budget.  When your target monthly spending is approaching, you’ll receive a text or an e-mail alert indicating how much money you have left for the month.

Getting information from blogs is also very helpful, though bloggers may not be experts in the field, they often share where items can be bought for lower prices – never a bad thing.

Since the Millennial Generation is active in social media but aren’t that enthused about discussing their finances, reaching them is a task in itself. If you’re writing an article to reach Millennials, remember the article should be quick, eye catching and vibrant. Use videos and bullet points and ask for instant feedback that will tell you if your message direct and captivating.

And to my fellow Millennials: let us be the generation that wants to be educated on our finances. Let us be the generation that no longer makes it taboo to talk about our money problems, because once we start seeing how many of us are dealing with the same issues, together we can start developing solutions.