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U.S. millennials spend an average of $2,164.99 month, or $25,979.88 a year, according to a survey by Ally Financial.

The Detroit-based bank asked 2,000 young adults about their incomes, expenses and attitudes toward financial planning.

The average millennial said an annual income of $53,000 is enough to live comfortably.

Seven in 10 millennials don’t believe Social Security will be around by the time they’re old enough to collect it.

Key Findings

Average Millennial Monthly Expenses

Food $325.44
Housing/Utilities $426.73
Social/Entertainment $198.51
Clothes $208.14
Travel $222.99
Tech $222.23
Student Loans $191.43
Medical Costs $209.94
Subscriptions (Netflix, Hulu, etc.) $32.65
Memberships (Gym, etc.) $29.13
Transportation $61.89

Top 8 Things Millennials Are Currently Saving For

Emergencies (medical, car or home repair) 44%
Experiences like vacation/travel, wedding, etc. 41%
Retirement 41%
Deposit for new apartment/house 38%
Education (yours or your child’s) 35%
Home improvements 31%
New tech (iPhone, video game console, etc.) 25%

Source: Ally Bank

Reporter’s Notes:

Real mean personal income in the United States grew 3.3 percent to $46,550 in 2016, the most recent year of available data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The median household income grew 1.8 percent to $61,372 in 2017, the most recent year of available data from the U.S. Census Bureau. A household refers to a single housing unit and all of the people that live in it.

Definitions of the millennial generation vary, but Pew Research Center said the group is made up of people born from 1981 to 1996. Pew forecast that millennials will become the largest U.S. demographic group in 2019 with 73 million people as baby boomers decline to 72 million. Generation X, born from 1965 to 1980, was never bigger than the baby boom generation, but will overtake the older group starting in 2028 when they both have 65 million people, according to Pew’s estimate.

Amazon.com’s aggressive strategy for getting tax breaks has helped the company to grow, according to Good Jobs First, which tracks government subsidies and economic development. The e-commerce giant has received about 20 economic development subsidy packages a year since 2012 for its warehouses and data centers—$1.6 billion and counting as of mid-2018.

Further reading:

Florida man seeks a quarter of a billion dollars that won’t help state 

The Pathology of Privilege

 

Source: Pixabay.com

Phone numbers are on the verge of extinction as almost half (46 percent) of Americans ages 18-22 ask for a social media handle instead of a phone number when meeting new people, according to a survey of mobile customers by Bank of America.

Other key findings:

Most Americans (58 percent) anticipate the country will become entirely cashless in their lifetime. About one quarter (23 percent) of Americans say they can avoid using cash for a month at a time, while 19 percent said they can forego using physical currency for a full year.

The most popular apps are navigation (used by 68 percent of consumers), entertainment (58 percent), retail (55 percent) and music (51 percent). Americans prefer an app that is easy to use (35 percent) and efficient (23 percent), compared with one that is entertaining (12 percent) or social (5 percent).

Person-to-person payments have become more popular, rising eight percentage points in the past year to 44 percent of consumers. PSP gift is considered appropriate for birthdays (58 percent of respondents), graduations (48 percent), holidays (48 percent), allowances (42 percent) and weddings (38 percent).

Mobile communications are the most common way to stay in touch with siblings (74 percent), friends (68 percent) and parents (53 percent), while in-person communication is more common with significant others (84 percent), children (67 percent) and colleagues (61 percent).

Mobile bank apps have grown their user base from 48 percent of people surveyed in 2015 to 70 percent this year. The biggest adopters of mobile banking are Generation Z (78 percent), millennials (77 percent), Generation X (67 percent) and baby boomers (59 percent).

Many Americans are comfortable using biometrics on their smartphones such as fingerprint/touch ID (69 percent), voice recognition (65 percent), facial recognition (50 percent) and retina scan (44 percent).

Researcher Convergys surveyed 1,001 adults 18 and older with a current bank account at Bank of America and who own a smartphone.