It seems like there are too many young people worrying these days.  As I checked Facebook on New Years I read way too much of the “Thank God 2008 is over!” or “2008 Sucked! Let’s hope for a better ‘09″ status updates.  Quite frankly, 2008 was a pretty good year for me.  Mary and I bought a house, I discovered a passion that I never knew I had (blogging), we have a new niece, and really nothing bad happened to us.  So I have to ask, why are you worried, because in reality (assuming you’re Gen-Y or even a Young Gen-X) you don’t have much to worry about.

Generally speaking, if you’re under 30 you are cheap for the company to employ, so your job is most likely safe, but be ready to take on extra responsibilities without a pay raise.  After we are out of this recession, the experience you have gained will better position you for promotions and raises.  Keep your head down, wear some corporate camo and work hard.  If you are graduating and worried about finding a job, take comfort in the fact that over a third of recent grads move home after college.

If you’re under 30 you don’t need to worry about your retirement much, in fact one of the best things you could do right now is to put more into it.  If you haven’t started saving for retirement…start!  The markets are depressed, so a good investment that would have cost you $50/ share a year ago, might very well still be a good, if not better investment at $20/share today.  If you are worried about picking stocks, consider index funds!  Purchasing index funds is like purchasing one of every stock on a certain exchange, it balances out the risks of individual failures with the rest of the market, including the biggest performers.

Millennials, go outside, the sun is still up, it’s not all doom and gloom.  This is the perfect time to seize opportunities and responsibilities as they come to us!

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