Shop for clothes online and then pay afterwards. A large proportion of young people do not see this as guilt. And that is a problem, conclude researchers from Trendbureau Drenthe, among others.
Social Planning Bureau Groningen also conducted the research. The organizations investigated how young people deal with money and came to the conclusion that young people often lack knowledge and skills to deal with financial responsibility.
Julian Rengers of Trendbureau Drenthe: “For example, we did not expect that a student debt would not be seen as debt. The conversations with young people also focused on: when is a debt a debt? There was still a lot of uncertainty about this among young people.”
Another example is paying afterwards. Not many young people use this, but they do not see it as a debt, while this is a debt according to the researchers. Nearly 80 percent of young people indicate this. How is this possible? Julian Rengers: “We have not asked, so we cannot say anything about this from the research. But a possible explanation could be that they do not see it as a fault because there is the possibility that you can return the product if it does not meet expectations. I can return it and then it will have no consequences. But if you do keep it, the consequence is that you will forget about it.”
But there are also positive developments. For example, young people are satisfied with the money they have. And almost all young people, about 94 percent, indicate that they save money. They would just like to learn more about this.
One of the researchers’ advice is to continue to inform young people. Not only about the dangers of debt and the risks of payment arrears, but also about making money a topic of discussion, for example at school.
Julian Rengers: “They want to learn more about dealing with money. We have to provide that. I think it is important to involve different parties. But certainly also the parents. We see that many students discuss money matters with parents. But some parents know more about it than others. So we can help with that.”