Why This Millennial Doesn’t Buy Stuff

Fast Company has some ideas about “Why Millennials Don’t Want to Buy Stuff.” Their ideas include: The cloud, new definitions of ownership, evolution of what we want from our purchases (connections, they say). Which: INTERESTING. But here’s why I don’t want to buy stuff:

1. Stuff costs money.
2. I don’t have money.
3. Okay, let’s say I did have money.
4. Theoretically that would be because I had a job.
5. But how long will I have that job?
6. Is my industry steady?
7. Do I feel comfortable enough in my job to sign up for four years of car payments?
8. Do I feel comfortable enough in my job to sign up for a 30-year-mortgage?
9. Do I feel comfortable enough in my job to sign up for year’s lease?
10. Do I feel comfortable enough in my job to pay rent month-to-month?
11. Do I feel comfortable enough that, if I start building a little home for myself in my month-to-month apartment, if I start collecting nicer pieces and buying lamps from places that are not Ikea, I won’t have to move in six months when the rent rises? Or in a year when my job is eliminated?
12. Do I feel comfortable enough with my ability to save that I know I’ll be able to pay to keep my things in a storage unit until I get back on my feet, or to rent a truck and drive a load down to my parents’ garage?
13. No, is the answer to all that.
14. I don’t know where I’ll be in six months, because I don’t know where I’ll have to be in six months. And that is why I don’t want to buy stuff.

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