I'm not sure where to put this, so general discussion it is:
The other day I was out at a pub on a Friday night after a sports league game with a group of people who were about half my age. To make a guess, the age range was 23-28 if you didn't count me and one other person. We were all sitting at a giant table. The guy next to me was really chatty and I learned that he has a masters degree in what should be a lucrative a science field but that he's struggling to make ends meet. He noticed my iphone3 and asked why I didn't upgrade so I explained that I only pay $10/month for phone service.
"Wow!" he said "I've never heard of that!" He pays $130/month, he said. I suggested that he just stop doing that once his contracts ends (he had an iphone 5s so I assumed a contract) and switch to a very cheap plan.
At this point everyone was listening. "Oh, I could never do that, I use my phone all of the time!" he said. Everyone young agreed that my plan would not provide the service they need. They use their phones all the time to text and send snaps. I pointed out that I also use my phone all day but since I am on wifi almost all the time, I can text for free and use data for "free" (in quotes because i do pay for home wifi, and so do all of the people there.) We all agreed that we all have wifi during the day at work. Even the pub we were in had free wifi. They were unmoved. What if you are in your car? What about sending snaps from all kinds of random locations? This evolved into conversation about snapchat mishaps.
As the conversations went back down to smaller groups, the chatty guy next to me said his family is "dirt poor" and that he has no clue about money management, so "what should he do?" he asked.
So, of course I said the obvious: at your age I think you should save as much as you can, max your retirement plans at work at least.
To which he replied, earnestly, that he couldn't save because he has "too many bills." He lamented that he's not even contributing to the 401k at work to get the 6% company match. (Aside: I think that he thought I meant put in an amount to get the match as "maxing", which of course is not what I meant!) I expressed sadness that he was leaving that money on the table and suggested that he just join the plan and put in 6% to get the match. He said there was no way he could do that because he has too many bills. Okay, I suggested then that he join and put in at least a little bit, say 2 or 3%, and then try to raise it up in 1% increments gradually over time until he's getting the full match. He seemed to consider that idea, yay! Then I ask: what are your bills? so here we go:
Single guy living by himself, so he has rent and utilities (I didn't ask how much)
School loans (I didn't ask how much)
$130 for his phone that I already noted
He has payments for not one but two cars that he bought new. The first was an SUV. After he realized he was spending ~$250/month on gas commuting, he said he decided to get a more efficient vehicle. So he bought another new car, this time a smaller one. I agreed that the smaller car was a better idea financially. But I had to ask: "Why didn't he trade in the SUV?" He gave it to his Dad. Even though it wasn't paid off. So he has two new car payments now.
So I said, "Wow, if you are going to pay that much a month for cars, then you might as well just go buy something really ridiculous, like a new Camaro."
I guess I said it pretty loud, because everyone at the table was staring at me in silence.
After an awkward beat, someone volunteered "Pete just bought a new Camaro." Pete was another guy across the table (name changed, of course.)
And the young lady next to me had just bought a new car.
And the guy next to her had just bought a new car.
And the guy on the other side of chatty guy had just bought a new car (even though he was working at a fitness gym for a boss he didn't really like for a low hourly wage that he had been lamenting earlier.)
So the conversation devolved into how savvy they all felt they were in dealing with new car salesmen. :-(