New Generation Happy to talk about finances online - 30/05/08

SOCIAL networking websites have changed more than just the way groups of friends relate to each other. According to some US experts, they have also played a part in Generation Y being much more open in discussing their salaries, credit cards and finances

Gone is the idea of keeping how much you are paid a state secret -- a topic that was impolite to even talk about. Now friends regularly discuss their pay and conditions and can even operate as an unofficial trade union in helping each other get more money.

Beth Kobliner, author of the best-selling Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties, told The New York Times many young people had no idea what their baby-boomer parents earned, but knew every intimate detail about their close friends' salaries, debts and retirement savings.

She attributes the increased openness in part to a shared sense of struggle by people in their 20s, who have come of age in a turbulent economic time, including the dotcom boom, the September 11 gloom and the credit crunch.

"There is a bunker mentality. They've had it rough, jobs are precarious and debts are outrageous,'' said Ms Kobliner.

Bill Coleman, chief compensation officer of Salary.com, said there was much more honesty about pay in the MySpace/Facebook generation.

He thinks this reflects a deeper acceptance of networking offline as well as online. "This is a generation that is much more attuned to teamwork, collaboration and sharing information,'' he said.

"Everything they do is a kind of group event. How do you know, when you get your first job offer, if $45,000 is a good offer, a bad offer or an OK offer? You go to your friends.''

He said friends also looked out for jobs for each other and there was little fear of changing jobs to get more money.

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