Credit Cards and The Quarterlifer Crisis

Did you know?


College graduates fear debt and joblessness more than another terrorist attack. When asked, “What they are most fearful of at this time?” 13.4% said a terrorist attack; 32.4% said going deeply into debt; and 31.2% said being unemployed.

Source: May 2005 Survey conducted by Partnership for Public Service
Cited: USA Today May 18, 2005

Here is an interesting article that appeared in Hatch recently: Paper or Plastic?

Credit cards and the resultant debt cycle are one of the main factors contributing to today's quarterlife crisis.

Credit cards are relatively new. Coming out in the 60s and becoming more popular in the 70s. Our grandparents didn't go through their quarterlife years carrying plastic and neither did many of our parents.

We, however, have grown-up with the card. Many of us carrying plastic before we carried a wallet or purse.

As Cholntz E. McGee says in his article:

"I had the unfortunate privilege of signing up for a credit card shortly after my 18th birthday. It was freshman year of college, and hip young credit card representatives lined the campus streets like hot dog vendors in New York City. Along with the main dish of signing up for the plastic, each offered free toppings: Frisbees, mugs, key chains, cardholders -- anything a poor, unsuspecting college student might relish.

"Who knew that that free Frisbee that I lost two days later would wind up costing me about $25,000 -- and counting?"

Not only is the credit industry relatively new...it is also very unregulated. Credit card companies can change interest rates, eliminate rewards programs, charge high penalties and there is no strict governing body quarterlifers can turn to if abused by their credit card company.

Add on top of that the growing incidences of identity theft and one can see the many potential hazards for quarterlifers.

If you've had a run-in with a credit card company...whether a growing debt cycle or identity theft... send me an email and tell me about it. My email is jason@uploadexperience.com

Too Sexy at Work

As quarterlifers are we increasing our chances of promotion by dressing sexy at work or are we secretly creating our own glass ceilings?

Below is an excerpt for an article in the Chicago Tribune-- Too Sexy for Work? You can find the entire article here Too sexy for work?

"A lot of my younger clients are coming out of a college experience where it doesn't really matter what you wear," Bremer says. "It doesn't occur to them that they have to make a switch when it comes to the workforce."

From "pants tight in the crotch" to see-through blouses and sleeveless tops, Wildermuth, too, is facing an uphill battle with twentysomething clients."They say to me, 'If I'm really smart, what difference does it make what I'm wearing,' " Wildermuth says. "I always respond that if your co-workers or boss are always talking about the shoes you're wearing or your earrings, they are not getting the chance to see the real you. It's a distraction."

There is no doubt in my mind that people like to work with people who are attractive...physically as well as in personality. Yet the article points to a generational difference. As quarterlifers we are use to low jeans, plunging necklines, tight shirts, piercings, and skin...lots of it. Our parents and grandparents aren't.

Not only aren't they use to it...it frightens most of them. They don't trust it.

To many quarterlifers, clothes are the last attempt to hold onto their individuality and youth. It's a way of saying "I'm different. I'm not going to end of a clone like the rest of you." Yet as the article points out this "individual expression in clothes" can also create barriers in truly allowing other co-workers to get to us. The preconceived judgment of co-workers over shadows anything we may do or say.

As the article points out this occurs less for men, because we have fewer clothes options. Unless we break out a purple suit a black suit is a black suit.

My opinion is that there are societal standards that exist. As quarterlifers we shoot ourselves in the foot when we buck the system in every direction. There are more ways of standing out than in the style of shoe we wear. If we are really determined to make a change I think it's easier to start a revolution from the inside.

What do you think? Are quarterlifers selling out by dressing according to the standards set by their profession?

New Year's 2006 Video

Here is a link to a short video titled "The Questions Movie"

www.uploadexperience.com/movie.htm

Let me know how you like it.

Jason

Response to Slate '06 article on "Twentysomethings"

Earlier this week I was forwarded an article from Slate.

The article is titled: The It-Sucks-To-Be-Me Generation: Twentysomethings who can't stop whining about how the economy is screwing them.

Here is the link: http://www.slate.com/id/2134007/?GT1=7641


The article rips on quarterlifers for “ complaining” that life is challenging today--often called called the quarterlife crisis.

The author, Daniel Gross, makes some good points, but he makes one key mistake.

Daniel acknowledges that he felt the same confusion, frustration, and uncertainty back in the 90’ s that quarterlifers feel today. He goes on to say that as he and his friends got older and shifted into a better quality of life the frustrations lessened.

Here is the mistake. It is precisely that quarterlifers don’ t have the life experience that makes the ages between 16-34 so challenging. This is a fact about quarterlifers not a fault. When older generations look back from the vantage point of the future and say, “ Come on… you’ re going to be just fine. ” That is as helpful as teenager telling a 6 month-year-old to just " put one foot in front of the other" to teach him to walk.

The infant needs time and someone to help guide the process. So does the quarterlifer taking his or her first steps into the real world.

This is why I think material written by quarterlifers for quarterlifers is so valuable. Who better to research and find solutions to the biggest questions quarterlifers are facing than someone going through the questions? There is no better market research than life experience. Right?

As quarterlifers is life today harder than for previous generations? No, certainly not across the board, but life today is different. It’ s not as clear cut. There are more decisions to make, more opportunities to choose from.

The Big Idea

“It was the most pathetic moment of my life. I had reached the top, but it was empty,” 22-year-old Sarah Conley from Evergreen, told me.

Sarah should have been the happiest girl in the stadium, after all, dancing had been her life long dream. Now in college she was a member of the University of Colorado’s Dance Team. On top of her form, Sarah found herself in the middle of 65,000 fans as Colorado faced the University of Texas in Dallas. Six years of practice and hard work had landed her in the same arena where the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders became famous. But instead of the game being a dream come true, it became a nightmare.

“It was cold, raining and absolutely miserable,” Sarah told me. “I was dancing in front of a sold out crowd when I noticed one of the cameras for national television right on me. At the same time, someone was taking a picture from the side. Suddenly, I realized that I’d spent six years of my life trying to earn my way to this point and it meant nothing. These people at home watching television weren’t going to care who I was. The TV camera guy didn’t care who I was. Nobody cared who I really was. They just wanted a picture for right then.”

This marked the beginning of a new life for Sarah. Two years after the Texas game, she left college and joined the Catholic Community of the Beatitudes. “People don’t understand at all. They think, ‘Oh, you threw away all those fun years.’ But what did I throw away? I threw away a lot of superficiality, a lot of emptiness. Becoming a nun is not an easy life. But it’s a beautiful life.”

Perhaps you are experiencing a similar sense of emptiness. The person you’ve been no longer works for the person you’re becoming. One secret for transitioning into a new way of being is to cultivate a big picture view of the world. When you are able to see yourself as a part of something much larger than yourself, it fills you up with a feeling of importance.

In 2006 you may choose to volunteer at your church, spend more time in nature, or go to the Passport to the Universe at the Denver Museum of Science’s planetarium. Regardless of how you do it, being able to see beyond your life is the first step to having more in your life.

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