Caroline O’Reilly, 20, felt fortunate growing up. Her family’s finances were stable, even during the 2008 recession, when they watched homes in their neighborhood in Hagerstown, MD, going up for sale around them. The community already struggled with a poverty rate hovering at 27%.
O’Reilly is now entering her senior year of college at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. For the past four years, she has worked for the restaurant chain Red Lobster, mainly during summers and school breaks, working her way up from bussing tables to waiting tables. O’Reilly says that both her hometown and her job at Red Lobster have proven influential in shaping her views about money.
How has being at school affected your views on money?
I’ve been really fortunate in that my family could afford to send me to college without student loans. I have friends who already have $40,000 to $60,000 in student loan debt. However, for my senior year, I’m studying overseas in France, and that costs more. I’m an international studies major with a focus on European culture, and to afford this overseas program, I had to apply for a $10,000 private loan and different grants to cover the $18,500 total cost for the semester.
I’m putting everything toward France. My mom recently handed me a stack of savings bonds that were given to me starting from the day I was born, and going to my fourth or fifth birthday. I’m going to take this stack and put them toward my time in France.
What do you like to spend your money on?
Definitely travel. I went to Spain for spring break with some friends and that cost me between $1,000 and $1,500 with the flight, hotel and food. I saved up for that.
I don’t really shop much. When I was in high school, I remember wanting all the name-brand stuff, but now I tell myself “going to France is more important than another pair of shoes.” When I do buy clothes, I go straight to the clearance rack at American Eagle, or I go to discount stores like Marshalls.
What’s a money move you’re most proud of?
I’m a big saver. I always have to have money in my savings account. If my balance falls below $2,000, I freak out. I’m fortunate that I don’t have to pay for a lot of things out of my own pocket, such as my car or my phone. And growing up in Hagerstown, I went to school with a lot of kids who didn’t have much. I would see kids at school wearing the same shirts over and over. It made me really appreciate what I do have.
How would you characterize Generation Z’s attitude toward money?
Student debt is really an issue. A lot of my friends are pretty good about how we spend and manage our money. No one is going crazy. But our generation is also really aware of taking out loans or using credit cards. I recently applied for my first credit card, since I will be out of the country for my semester in France, and I wanted to have a credit card for emergencies, but I am nervous about taking on debt.
My generation also knows that in this economy, you need a master’s degree just to be competitive for jobs, so I know I’ll have to take on student loans for graduate school. I definitely think it’s much more difficult to achieve the American dream and live comfortably now than it was for our parents or other generations. As I talk with many of my friends, we discuss how none of our parents have master’s degrees, yet we are all well off. When we job search now, many of the jobs we want require a master’s degree, if we actually want to be a serious candidate.
Katrina Woznicki is a writer based in Los Angeles. Her reporting and essays have appeared in National Geographic Traveler, AFAR, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and U.S. News & World Report, among others.
Inset photo courtesy of Caroline O'Reilly.
Read more from our Generations Talk Money: Millennial Rose McAleese.
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