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Youth of Today -- No savings, no pension, huge debts-- Leaving school or university means financial independence -- bu

admin2013-06-03  89
问题                            Youth of Today
    -- No savings, no pension, huge debts--
    Leaving school or university means financial independence -- but does it also mean debt? Some experts say the young should take some care.
    It is life, but not as we know it. As this year’s school leavers and graduates in Britain move on to further education or work, tasting financial independence for the first time, they show signs of being entirely different to previous generations in their attitudes to money, according to information collected by Cash. Used to debt but more affluent than previous generations, the current crop of 16 to 24-year-olds is a complex sector of society. But if they can handle their debts, these 7.5 million young adults have the potential to become quite sophisticated on money matters.
    Cash looked for the financial hallmarks of this group.
    They are going to be big spenders -- and will be targeted heavily by retailers. "The market for products and services aimed at this group has continued to thrive" , concludes research organization Mintel in its recent report for retailers "Selling to and Profiting from the Under 25s". This is "partly because the period during which people are young, free and single, unencumbered (不受妨碍的) by parents and/or children has expanded to the late twenties and early thirties," it says.
    While 13 percent of the population regularly pays their utility (公共设施), credit card and other bills late, this proportion rises to a remarkable 64 percent for 18- to 24-year-olds, according to research conducted among 1000 adults by uSwitch.com. In theory, this suggests that more than 4 million of them are heading for such poor credit ratings that they will find it difficult to borrow in the future. But lenders may become more flexible in their lending terms rather than lose out on this huge sector of the consumer market.
    Near one in three (28 percent) of people under 35 "do not consider their future financial position", according to research from Accenture HR Services.
    Although half of 18- to 25-year-olds want to own their home some day, they seem almost insurmountable hurdles, according to Mintel. "For those who had not yet bought their own property, the prospect of trying to do so seemed daunting -- if not impossible -- financially." Or could it be that their future prosperity will depend on whether they inherit properly from their parents?
    They regard as necessities many items which were seen as luxuries by their parents at the same age. More than nine out of ten have their own mobile phones. "Some looked on their phone as a kind of security blanket, feeling lost without it," says Mintel. A car is seen as "vital" by 64 percent of 18- to 25- year-olds, and designer clothes are worn by 44 percent of men and 35 percent of women in this age group, adds Mintel. Computer equipment is a high priority for many twenty-year-old people. Audio- visual equipment is particularly valued by young men.
    Credit card ownership is increasing. Nearly two-thirds of young adults have a card. More than half (58 percent) of the under-25s do not pay off their credit card bill in full each month, according to Mintel -- including 16 percent who owe more than ￡500. With credit card ownership predicted to increase nearly 20 percent by 2009, the younger age group could be increasingly targeted, as they are more accustomed to borrowing than older groups.
    Debt is commonplace in this age group. Barclays predicts that graduate debt will average ￡17,500 in 2006, rising to nearly ￡34 000 by 2010.
    A third of this group believe they are "too young" to start thinking about a pension, according to Accenture. "There is a sea change in behavior going on here," says Mervyn Kohler of Help the Aged. "For recent graduates who are saddled with debt and struggling to buy a home, the last thing they would care about is pension planning. They have also heard the message that they will have to work until they drop, so they wonder why they should bother with a pension. But when they retire, they will expect the state to ball them out." There is evidence to back up their instincts. More than 73 percent of the current group of forties is on course to be on Pension Credit and other means-tested benefits when they retire, according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies. Unless changes are made to the system, this proportion will increase.
    Despite these disturbing findings, there is light at the end of the tunnel for the young. Helen Bow- man, welfare officer at De Montfort University’ s Student Finance Advice Center, believes that many 18- year-olds get into financial difficulty out of ignorance but that "they tend to be very, very good" at dealing with problems when they face up reality. Part of the problem is that many have received little financial education from their parents. Some young adults do not even know how to shop for food and many do not realize that convenience food from corner shops will be more expensive than fruit and vegetables and other basic ingredients bought in markets or by looking for bargains, value ranges and discounts in supermarkets. The generosity of parents can also backfire. "There does come a point where parents have to stop helping," says Bowman. Credit card companies have made debt far too accessible, she believed.
    It could be that lending is more strictly regulated by the authorities in future. The Liberal Democrats are increasingly concerned at the easy availability of credit and this issue could well move up the political agenda. The location of cash machines in pubs does not help, especially for a generation that drinks heavily. Budgeting is hard for students who have to pay mobile phone and many other bills monthly but whose income in the form of Student Loans comes in at the start of term. But there are many cases of students getting into debt and then finding a way out of the mess, usually by getting a job. long the way, they learn how to budget and how to avoid temptation by, for instance, leaving their plastic(信用卡) at home. Parents may not even be aware, in many of these cases, that their children have got into debt and then scraped their way out. And people like these, who learnt the hard way, have an understanding of money which is probably deeper than that of people who have never had difficulties.
The last thing most young people think they are still too young to bother about is ______.
选项
答案pension planning
解析 此句的答案从第十段的第三句话“‘For recent graduates who are saddled with debt and struggling to buy a home，the last thing they would care about is pension planning…’”中得出。
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