AMHERST, Mass.-Looking for an indication of how Millennials will behave as older members? Then take a look at older members.
Charles Schewe, professor of marketing at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, noted that 15 years ago the prevailing attitude was that all members of Generation X were "slackers." He recalled speaking to a group recently and asking how many people in the room knew someone between the age of 36 and 47 whom they thought of as a slacker. "Virtually no one raised their hand," said Schewe.
"That was a name that we gave to young people-as we do generation after generation-where older generations can't understand all the differences between them and the younger generation, and in so many cases we label them with something less than we are," he said.
Schewe is the co-author of a recent paper in the Journal of Consumer Behavior examining a splintering in the Millennial cohort spurred, in part, by the Great Recession. The further away consumers get from that event, he said, along with continued maturation, will mean those Gen Y members end up fairly close to "normal" credit union member behavior patterns.
"Over time, in particularly as they go through more mature life stages, all of that gets tempered and they become just like everybody else," said Schewe.
After all, he reminded, Baby Boomers-even those who came of age during the heyday of the sixties and the "Summer of Love"-still hold jobs, have kids, mortgages and the traditional financial needs that go along with all of that.
"They aren't living in communes and calling their children rainbow Willy and Sunshine Suzy. The same thing will be true of Millennials."
