How much money do I have left to spend? That’s the simple question most Millennials (born 1980-1999) ask and want answered! The answer comes from an app called Level Money – no pie charts, fancy graphs or categorization of expenses – queue Mint. It’s simple, gets back to the BASICS and I LOVE IT!

Of course, you can download the app and add your accounts but what I like most about this site is its BLOG because it provides insight into what employees at Level (Millennials) think. I read a few posts about options for cheap food, bad financial advice they’ve received and having fun (for free). Notice a theme??? FREE, CHEAP, FINANCES… I will admit that I have become slightly obsessed with the topic of money management and my future lately, which got me to thinking – Are Millennials cheap? A paper from UBS, a  Swiss global financial services company, released just a few months ago says YES! 

You may think things like cheap meals and having fun for free don’t matter all that much (even though they can add up), but when you consider that the 3 largest expenses in most people’s budgets are HOUSING, TRANSPORTATION and FOOD (Bureau of Labor Statistics), you realize that’s where you get the biggest Bang for your Buck and THAT’S EXACTLY WHERE MILLENNIALS are focused! The Atlantic Cities references 2 surveys in, What Millenials Want,  and summarize the situation: “The key characteristics seem to be walkability, good schools and parks, and the availability of multiple transportation options.”

Speaking for myself I can tell you this is exactly where I am in my life! Let me give you two examples.

• First, I LOVE to travel and my latest adventure to San Diego focused on “All Things Free”. My flight was purchased exclusively with Delta miles (plus $5 in taxes) and my magnificent hotel, with Marriott points (free breakfast and light dinner) and the car I drove to LA was obtained with Hertz points. #winning

• Second, I recently moved to Atlanta and while I currently live in a hip, (slightly) expensive area, I am VERY AWARE that in a year’s time my husband and I will face a MAJOR decision about housing that will GREATLY influence our financial position for years to come! We can’t do anything tangible now (other than save), but we DO talk about it often and are preparing ourselves to make the best financial decision we can, with our FUTURE in mind.