A drastic change from people born before 1985 compared to people born after 1985...

[Peakster]

^ I agree. I have a budget of $790/month (which includes a supposed $400/month rent payment I'm not spending money on currently) which is very doable with my province's minimum wage of $8.60/hour. The more people make, the more they tend to spend. Imagine how much money people could save if they kept that $790/month budget, but made $2,500 a month!

[i_am_socket]

I was born in 81, my older sister in 78. She was always smart with money and always had cash on hand, I was always broke. Today she's pretty much broke (influence from her husband I expect) and I'm just about breaking even after a nasty financial crisis a few years ago. I fully intend to increase my means while not increasing my living expenses because I never want to be in that kind of situation again. My fiance and I both made mistakes and were smart enough to work to fix them.

My and my fiance's parents were born early 50's, but there's a split mentality there too; 3 out of 4 kept it at or below the means.

Some learn from other's mistakes, some learn from their own, others never learn (or give up).