美国人越来越穷，年轻人不敢在这10样东西上花钱

被称作“千禧世代”的85后、90后 经常被人批评缺乏理财观念，但是年轻一代美国人存钱的本事却是相当了不起的。作为在大萧条时代成长起来的一代人，美国的年轻人几乎想把挣的每一分钱都存下来。

与他们的父辈相比，刚刚奔三的“千禧一代”早就着手为退休生活做打算了，但他们的精打细算还不止于此。这一代青年人的消费习惯也与老一辈大不相同。比如以下的这十样东西，是如今相当多的年轻人无论如何也不愿意花钱去买的。

1.付费电视

美国人平均把71%的媒体消费花在电视上。但在14到24岁的年轻人中，这个比例只有46%——他们的资讯消费的大头都花在了手机、平板和PC上。许多年轻人家里甚至根本没有电视。民调机构尼尔森公司经调查发现，大多数家里没有电视的都是年轻人。在所有“零电视”家庭中，有44%都是年龄在35岁以下的年轻家庭。

不光是年轻人在疏远电视。据尼尔森公司称，2013年，美国人民总体观看电视的时间出现了四年来的首次下降。

2.投资

按理说，美国的年轻人应该挺喜欢投资股市的。这些刚刚进入职场的年轻人离退休还有几十年，足够他们在股市里折腾的。还有专家建议，年轻人最好将投资的75%到90%放在股票或股票基金里。

然而作为在“大萧条”中成长起来的一代，美国的“千禧一代”宁愿把钱藏在放袜子的抽屉里，也不愿扔到华尔街打水漂。美国富国银行曾针对1500名22到32岁的年轻人进行过一项调查，结果发现，52%的受访者都表示，他们对投资股市存养老钱“并不非常有有信心”或是“压根没信心”。

在这些受访者中，只有32%的人表示，他们把大多数存款都放到了股市或基金上。（不过还有同样比例的受访者坦承，他们自己也不清楚自己到底投资了什么东东。但愿他们的基金经理别做赔本生意吧。）

3.大众化的啤酒

老一辈美国人想喝啤酒的时候，挑来挑去无非就是百威、米勒、摩森康胜等几个经典的牌子，偶尔来上一罐喜力就算开洋荤了。“千禧一代”就不同了。数据显示，如今的年轻人更爱喝小众啤酒。

最近的一项调查显示，43%的“千禧一代”更喜欢精酿啤酒而不是主流的大牌子，而中老年人喜欢精酿啤酒的只有32%。在美国“千禧一代”中，约有半数都曾消费过精酿啤酒，相比之下，美国人整体只有35%享受过精酿啤酒的口感。连摩森康胜的CEO皮特·库乐斯都抱怨道，这些难伺候的小爷正是导致他们公司啤酒销量下滑的主要原因。

4.买车

1963年，海滩男孩乐队（Beach Boys）出了一张名叫《Little Deuce Coupe》的唱片，风靡一时，从此开启了一种名叫“汽车歌曲”的音乐流派。但是现在，35岁以下的年轻人很少有人知道那句歌词“它有一部赛车离合器和四支点悬挂”是什么意思了。

一个悲哀的事实是，美国的汽车文化正在逐渐消亡。据雅虎金融报道，在16到24岁的年轻人中，持有驾照者的比例自1997年起便逐年大幅下降，现在已经不足上世纪 60年代的七成。另据《大西洋月刊》报道：“2010年，美国21到34岁的年轻人只购买了美国市场上27%的在售新车，远低于1985年的38%的纪录。”

5.买房

“千禧一代”并非不想拥有一套属于自己的房子，90%的年轻人都有自己的买房梦，只是他们买不起。哈佛大学住房研究联合中心研究发现，在2006到2011年间，35岁以下青年的买房率整整下跌了12个百分点，有200多万美国年轻人人还在与父母一起居住。

想让美国年轻人再次出手购房，估计还得等上一阵。经济萧条让美国年轻人的经济状况一夜回到了解放前，美国出台的《多德弗兰克法案》等房产改革又使得职场新人更难申请到房贷。虽然这两年美国的失业率有所下降，但大多数在职场上拼搏的“千禧一代”还是选择先租房凑合着。

6.仓储超市的商品

这一条乍听起来有点奇怪，但要联系上面那两条一起看：美国的“千禧一代”不爱买车也不爱买房，所以在好市多（Costco）办会员卡也就没啥意义了。没车怎么往家里搬能用一年的卫生纸和雀巢咖啡？就算你搭公共汽车，你租的那套一室户也塞不下多少厨房用品。

面对“千禧一代”需求的疲软，像好市多这样的大型商超也开动了不少脑筋引诱年轻人花钱。比如好市多最近通过与谷歌合作，能够将部分商品直接送到你家里。不过，就连好市多自己对这个新战略也并不感到十分兴奋。

好市多的财务总监理查德·加兰蒂表示：“请别指望我们会为每个人都送货上门，把少量商品送货上门并不是免费的，最终还是得有人为之掏钱。”

7.结婚

早早结婚，是人真正成年的一个标志。美国所谓“沉默的一代”（即1925年——1942年出生者）有65%选择在18到32岁之间结婚。不过自此之后，美国人的结婚年龄越来越晚。皮尤公司的民调显示“婴儿潮”一代（1965年——1981年出生）人在这个年龄段结婚的只有48%，而“X世代”（即80后）在这个年龄段结婚的只有35%，“千禧一代”更是以26%的比例，成为有史以来结婚最晚的一代人。

美国年轻人对婚姻的看法，正如同他们对房子的感觉。他们绝非讨厌结婚，有69%的“千禧一代”表示他们想结婚，但很多年轻人想等到经济上更稳定些再谈婚事。

8.生子

如果连自己都养不活，哪还有钱来养孩子呢。

结婚之后，要娃大计迟早要提上议事日程。但是“千禧一代”对育儿无爱，绝非仅仅是因为他们不想结婚，只不过很多年轻人还没做好要娃的计划。在2012年的一项调查中，只有不到半数（42%）的年轻人表示他们计划过要娃的事，远低于20年前78%的比例。

你可能也曾听过类似的话：“千禧一代”并非不想要孩子（或是买房、结婚、养宠物什么的），而是被大萧条吓破了胆，不敢做任何经济上的或是人生上的重大投资。在上述调查中，大多数受访的年轻人都希望有一天生下自己的孩子，但大多数人却并不认为他们的现实经济状况能养得起孩子。

9.医疗保险

据凯撒家庭基金会（Kaiser Family Foundation）统计，在奥巴马实行医保改革之前，18到34岁之间的成年人占据了美国所有未办理医保人口的40%。为什么年轻人不买医保呢？或许是因为年轻人身体好所以不爱生病的缘故。由于年轻人的健康状况相当不错，医保界纷纷表示，这群人是“不可攻克”的。

不过，自《平价医疗法案》出台后，越来越多的“千禧一代”也开始购买保险了。奥氏医保推出以来，美国新增的800万医保购买者中，有28%是18岁到34岁的年轻人。不过，这离国会预算办公室期望的40%的目标还差了很远——因为只有现在的年轻人掏钱买了医保，国家才有钱给现在的老年人发养老金。不过这也比谐星扎克·加里费安纳斯基为奥氏医保站台之前那点寥寥无几的人数好了很多。

10.你让他们去买的任何东西

在购买某种产品的时候，老一代美国人往往会相信熟人的建议。66%的“婴儿潮”一代人表示，家人或朋友的建议比陌生网友在网站上的评价更能影响他们的购买决定。

而大多数“千禧一代”却并不想要父母或朋友的帮助。51%的年轻人表示，他们更倾向于相信陌生人对产品的评价。 （财富中文网）

译者：朴成奎

Millennials are often maligned for their lack of financial literacy, but there is one money skill the younger generation has in spades: saving. After growing up during the Great Recession, millennials want to keep every cent they can.

This generation may be way ahead of where their parents were at the same age when it comes to preparing for retirement, but the frugality doesn’t end there. Kids these days also aren’t making the same buying decisions our parents made. Here are 10 things that a disproportionate number of today’s young adults won’t shell out for.

1.Pay TV

The average American still consumes 71% of his or her media on television, but for people age 14-24, it’s only 46%—with the lion’s share being consumed on phone, tablet, or PC. Many young people aren’t getting a TV at all. Nielsen found that most “Zero-TV” households tended toward the younger set, with adults under 35 making up 44% of all television teetotalers.

Millennials aren’t the only ones tuning out the tube. In 2013, Nielsen reported aggregate TV watching time shrank for the first time in four years.

2. Investments

By all accounts, young people should be investing in equities. Those just entering the work force have plenty of time before retirement to ride out market blips, and experts recommendyounger investors place 75% to 90% of their portfolio in stocks or stock funds.

Unfortunately, after growing up in the Great Recession, millennials would rather put their money in a sock drawer than on Wall Street. When Wells Fargo   0.19%  surveyedroughly 1,500 adults between 22 and 32 years of age, 52% stated they were “not very” or “not at all” confident in the stock market as a place to invest for retirement.

Of those surveyed, only 32% said they had the majority of their savings in stocks or mutual funds. (Too be fair, an equal number admitted to having no clue what they were invested in, so hopefully their trust fund advisors are making good decisions.)

3. Mass-Market Beer

Bud. Coors. Miller. When parents want a drink, they reach for the classics. Maybe a Heineken for a little extra adventure. Millennials? Not so much. When Generation Now (thank god that moniker didn’t catch on) wants to get boozy, the data says we prefer indie brews.

According to one recent study, 43% of millennials say craft beer tastes better than mainstream beers, while only 32% of baby boomers said the same. And 50% of millennials have consumed craft brew, versus 35% of the overall population. Even Pete Coors, CEO of guess-which-brand, blames pesky kids for his beer’s declining sales.

4. Cars

Back when the Beach Boys wrote Little Deuce Coupe in 1963, there was a whole genre called “Car Songs.” Nowadays you’d be hard pressed to find someone under 35 who knows what a“competition clutch with the four on the floor” even means.

The sad fact is that American car culture is dying a slow death. Yahoo Finance reports the percentage of 16-to-24-year-olds with a driver’s license has plummeted since 1997 and is now below 70% for the first time since Little Deuce Coupe’s release. According to the Atlantic, “In 2010, adults between the ages of 21 and 34 bought just 27 percent of all new vehicles sold in America, down from the peak of 38 percent in 1985.”

5. Homes

It’s not that millennials don’t want to own homes—nine in ten young people do—it’s that they can’t afford them. Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies found that homeownership rate among adults younger than 35 fell by 12 percent between 2006 and 2011, and 2 million more were living with Mom and Dad.

It’s going to be a while before young people start purchasing homes again. The economic downturn set this generation’s finances back years, and reforms like the Dodd-Frank Act have made it even more difficult for the newly employed to get credit. Now that unemployment is decreasing, working millennials are still renting before they buy.

6. Bulk Warehouse Club Goods

This one initially sounds weird, but remember: millennials don’t own cars or homes. So a Costco membership doesn’t make much sense. It’s not easy to bring home a year’s supply of Nesquik and paper towels without a ride, and even if you take a bus, there’s no room to stash hoards of kitchen supplies in a studio apartment.

Responding to tepid millennial demand, the big box giant is trying to win over youngsters by partnering with Google   0.02%  to deliver certain items right to your home. However, even Costco doesn’t seem all that excited about its new strategy.

“Don’t expect us to go to everybody’s doorstep,” Richard Galanti, Costco’s chief financial officer, told Bloomberg Businessweek. “Delivering small quantities of stuff to homes is not free. Ultimately, somebody’s got to pay for it.”

7. Weddings

Getting hitched early in life used to be something of a rite of passage into adulthood. A full 65% of the Silent Generation married at age 18 to 32. Since then, though, Americans have been waiting longer and longer to tie the knot. Pew Research found 48% of boomers were married while in that age range, compared to 35% in Gen X. Millennials are bringing up the rear at just 26%.

Just like with homes, it’s not that today’s youth just hates wedding dresses—far from it. Sixty-nine percent of millennials told Pew they would like to marry, but many are waiting until they’re more financially stable before doing so.

8. Children

It’s hard to spend money on children if you don’t have any.

After weddings, you probably saw this one coming, but millennials’ procreation abstention isn’t only because they’re not married. Many just aren’t planning on having kids. In a 2012 study, fewer than half of millennials (42%) said they planned to have children. That’s down from 78% 20 years ago.

Stop me if you heard this one: it’s not that millennials don’t wantchildren (or homes, or weddings, or ponies), it’s that this whole recession thing has really scared them off any big financial or life commitments. Most young people in the above study hoped to have kids one day, but didn’t think their economic stars would align to make it happen.

9. Health insurance

According the Kaiser Family Foundation, adults ages 18 to 34 made up 40% of the uninsured population in the pre-Obamacare world. Why don’t young people get health coverage? Because they’re probably not going to get sick. This demographic is so healthy that those in the health insurance game refer to them as “invincibles.”

Since the Affordable Care Act, more millennials are gradually buying insurance. Twenty-eight percent of Obamacare’s 8 million new enrollees were 18-34 year-olds. That’s well short of the 40% the Congressional Budget Office wanted in order to subsidize older Americans’ plans, but better than the paltry number of millennials who signed up before Zach Galifianakis got involved.

10. Anything you tell them to buy

When buying a product, older Americans tend to trust the advice of people they know. Sixty-six percent of boomers said the recommendations of friends and family members influences their purchasing decisions more than a stranger’s online review.

Most millennials, on the other hand, don’t want their parent’s or peer’s help. Fifty-one percent of young adults say they prefer product reviews from people they don’t know.