Answer: 46%

Questions:

• How would you answer the question: "What do you value more: experiences or possessions?" Explain your answer.
• Do you think your answer to the question will change over time? Why?
• Research seems to indicate that greater joy comes from purchasing experiences rather than "things." Why do you think this is the case? What can you get from experiences that you can't get from things? 

Click here for the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use in your classroom.

Behind the numbers (Visual Capitalist):

As for experiences and possessions, it was a similar case, with the 20-29 year and 30-39 year groups having the highest preference for experiences. This is not surprising, and it’s a widely known millennial attribute to seek powerful experiences like travel, music festivals, sports, and live events over buying new material possessions such as furniture or a new car.

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Interested in behavioral finance? Here are two from our video library:

• Why We Crave What's Cool (PBS, 2015)
• The battle between your present and future self (Ted Talk, 2011)

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Want to learn more about this question of experiences vs. possessions? NGPF Fellow, Barbara O'Neill conducted similar research recently: Twitter Chats as A Research Tool: A Study of Young Adult Financial Decisions.

Here's the summary:

The Twitter chat responses suggest that student loans were the top concern of participants, and debt and housing rounded out the top three concerns. The internet, both websites and social media, was the most frequently cited source of financial information. The article concludes with a discussion of lessons learned from the Twitter chat experience and suggestions for professional practice. 

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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