A complained about sky-high property prices, student debt and intergenerational theft as younger Australians will be forced to pay for excessive government borrowing in coming decades.
All valid points, except that this millennial, now approaching 30, never mentioned his haphazard approach to career and saving.
![Millennials who let the travel bug dictate their early career are most at risk.](/web/20161029125004im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/1/m/d/d/z/c/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gqzqyp.png/1463811819429.jpg)
Like many these days, he took a gap year after school to travel. Then followed university and a procession of full-time and part-time jobs, none lasting more than 18 months. He would work, save, quit his job and travel overseas – a pattern that characterised his 20s.
I wondered if too much travel early had wrecked his long-term career and financial prospects. And when excessive travel and a stop-start career pattern starts to deter recruiters.
Later that day, a personal gym trainer said business was quiet. Several of his clients were holidaying in Europe. "Must be all the CEOs escaping the cold," I joked. No, the clients were twentysomethings on a mid-year overseas holiday.
Several of his young friends bought extra leave from their employer to have a few weeks holiday in Europe in our winter. And another four weeks off in the Australian summer. So much leave cannot be good for their career development or finances.
Separately, a parent complained about her son's love of travel. Any money saved is spent on his next overseas holiday when it could be the start of a deposit on an investment property. The parent doubts her son will ever break into the property market or leave home.
The innovation writer in me thinks that extra travel by twentysomethings will make them the most collaborative, creative, confident and worldly generation in history – and that travel is one of the best investments in personal development they can make.
And that so much travel at such a young age will develop a global perspective that is an incredible asset for Australian companies.
Part of me wishes international travel was as cheap and available for my generation (X) and that overseas holidays were not always squashed into a few weeks of annual leave.
But I worry that kids who see their early career mostly as a means to travel are setting themselves up for decades of torturous career and financial pain if they get the work/holiday balance wrong.
Yes, plenty of millennials sensibly juggle building a career with a travel-based lifestyle. They work hard, play hard and save at the same time. Others forgo costly travel and invest as much as they can, often leveraging their parents' scarce resources. Good on them.
Those who let the travel bug dictate their early career are most at risk. These kids quit good jobs after 12 months because trudging to work each day is a lot less fun than backpacking through Europe. They cannot concentrate at work and have low job resilience.
I taught too many millennials over the years who were not serious about their career until their late 20s. Consequently, they approached their 30s with little or no career foundation, limited earnings capacity and the prospect of taking on yet another entry-level job, when they should have had a mid-ranking job by then and be managing others.
I'm sure plenty of millennials reading this column will view it as old-fashioned, critical and ignorant of the benefits of a lifetime of travel. Or argue that the pattern favoured by previous generations – study, work, save, retire, travel – is hopelessly outdated in an ageing population.
It is. A linear life pattern makes less sense as life expectancy rises. Different life stages will emerge as people live well beyond travel. Perhaps a decade of travel/shorter-term jobs in one's 20s is part of this evolution and a developing stage of life.
But the reality is corporate careers being condensed like never before. Many approaching 50, sadly, have a bigger target on their back as redundancy candidates. Those who do not bring in income, or can be replaced by cheaper, younger staff, have increasingly tenuous white-collar employment.
Those who leave it to their late 20s to get going financially and in a career have an unfairly steep mountain to climb in less time. It's no surprise that more are not even trying.
I don't suggest twentysomethings should give up overseas travel and spend all their time working, studying and saving – and delaying their gratification. Rather, it's about finding better balance between work and travel for some – and planning earlier for the immense financial and career challenges that await them in their 30s and 40s.
Thinking more creatively about combining travel and work is an option. For example, studying at overseas universities rather than Australian ones. Students get a true global perspective, often at better universities, and get some of the travel bug out their system before work.
Yes, many Australian universities offer overseas study options for students. But that does not compare to doing an entire undergraduate degree in Europe, the US or parts of Asia.
Longer gap years after school are another option. Gap years, mostly for youngsters with wealthy parents when I finished school, seem to be a rite of passage. Would a few years of travelling after school, rather than breaking it up during one's 20s, make more sense?
Smart companies with global operations find ways to accommodate the travel needs of younger staff by overseas posting and the like. I wonder if more companies can think creatively (and cheaply) in this regard: overseas staff exchanges with similar companies, for example.
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