Being an adult is inevitable as it is part of an individual’s phase of life. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) classification, an adult refers to a person older than 19 years of age unless national law defines a person as being an adult at an earlier age, until 65 years of age. Narrowing down that general category of adult by WHO, the Department of Health of the Republic of Indonesia (2009) further specified adulthood ranging from late adolescence (17-25 years old), early adulthood (26-35 years old), late adulthood (36-45 years old), early elderly (46-55 year old) and late elderly (56-65 years old). This categorization might lead people to define adulthood as a state of being, while the real definition of adulthood might be a set of actions, responsibilities, and maturities in thinking and behaving. Frankly speaking, it is undeniable that some people in adolescence view adulthood as a phase of freedom and joy to live with and get impressed without knowing the other side behind the curtain of adulting. While adulting means freedom to make decisions, on the other hand, it also means taking responsibility for oneself, and hence it is beneficial to take a peek at the reality of adulting to be wiser in undergoing adulthood, particularly for Millenials who are currently entering the young adult phase of life.
Adulting or becoming an adult means that an individual is becoming responsible for himself/herself in every life aspect. It is the phase where someone gradually becomes independent from the self-caretaker e.g. parents, in making decisions regarding any options provided and taking the consequences as well. Moreover, Arnett (2006) combines his research and concludes three main signs that someone is an adult, namely taking responsibility for the self, making independent decisions, and being financially independent. These three signs require and may improve the maturity of oneself as he/she grows older and becomes an adult.
The first sign which indicates someone is being an adult is when he/she can take responsibility for himself/herself. It generally means embracing the obligations of an individual’s well-being without relying upon and expecting anyone else, particularly self-caretakers such as parents, to protect and take those obligations. For instance, practically, being an adult encourages an individual to figure out where his/her income in terms of money sourced from. Unlike in childhood or even adolescence where someone’s money comes from the self-caretaker without needing to search for it, adulthood promotes individuals to seek money in order to fulfill the needs by themselves. Eventually and rationally speaking, people need to find a secure job and start saving for the future, besides the obligations that they will have to pay for bills coming from many needs such as home, food, electricity, water, apparel, vehicle, and so forth. This condition might challenge someone to choose between passion and monetary factors in choosing a job or career. Further, this circumstance requires good financial management for an adult to sustain the well-being as part of his/her self-responsibility.
The second sign of being an adult is making independent decisions. Another distinction between childhood, adolescence, and adulthood lies in the options that someone has as well as the independence of making the decisions. During childhood and juvenile, individuals grow up in structured and determined circumstances with limited options to choose from, not to mention that most of the choices are decided by the self-caretakers. For instance, when someone is in elementary school, it is certain that he/she will continue to secondary education at a certain time, and hence the uncertainty regarding the future option is relatively low and the options of another correlated aspect are relatively slight. However, adulthood is almost totally the opposite of previous circumstances. Individuals are facing ad infinitum choices and options that they have to decide independently without interventions from anybody else. The options include but are not limited to work to do, potential partners to marry, things and people to spend time with, and so forth. It is worth noting that the decisions someone makes are influenced by numerous past and present factors as well as future considerations and expectations.
Moreover, the other important side of making independent decisions is the fact that each individual has a peculiar and specific means and timeline with regard to the circumstances and decisions being made. It is not a one-size-fits-all situation and therefore an individual needs to know that it is fine to adjust to the circumstances of adulthood with his/her individual-specific attributes. For example, someone’s response to a trait or behavior of his/her partner in a relationship might not necessarily be the same as, supposedly, his/her friend to that trait or behavior. It further helps individuals to choose the potential partner to marry with and a similar way might be applied to other decisions in other examples. Furthermore, this means that adulting encourages someone to focus on the self, not to interfere with others’ lives and decisions, and to be a bigger person in terms of maturity. As people grow older and meet many new people, they usually recognize and accept the fact that they might not fit in to befriend some people and hence their circle of friendships are getting smaller as they value the quality of friendships rather than the quantity. Their peer groups might be those who are matched with them in certain ways and traits, and they might be able to ignore unnecessary remarks as they will be more able to filter and avoid non-essential arguments as well as accept the fact that it is getting harder to keep in contact with everyone and balance life at the same time. Some people view that being an adult means having peace with the past as well as finding meaning from struggles and moving forward to be a better person.
The third indicator of being an adult is financial independence. Financial independence means that individuals no longer rely on their self-caretaker to finance and take the costs of their behavior. In order to obtain financial independence, an individual needs to have a revenue stream, either through getting a paid job or starting a business. However, to maintain financial independence to be sustained in the long run, financial, economic, business, and entrepreneurial literacy is needed. This kind of literacy means an understanding of how the economy affects the quality of life, how to manage any kind of individual assets responsibly, how to act appropriately in professional contexts, and how an individual’s decisions and behaviors affect individual financial achievements and goals. In essence, it means preparing well and making the right choices for the future of an individual financial condition by creating a budget allotment, setting savings or investment goals, as well as practicing other basic financial-management techniques.
An example of financial independence is the affordability of houses among young adult. Recent data released by Pew Research Center during February to May 2020 shows that around 52 percent of young adult (18-29 year-olds) Americans were living with their parents. It suggests that albeit the proportion was pushed by the pandemic as young adults struggled to get by, it is also part of a longer-term pattern. This new pattern of living for the Americans reflects the importance of the housing market to overall economic growth. A study by Tekin (2020) explains that after the adjustment for inflation over time, the median house prices in 2017 grew 121 percent nationwide since 1960, while median household income only rose 29 percent. The condition of a higher growth rate of housing price than income growth is not only happen in the developed countries such as the U.S., but also in developing countries e.g. Indonesia. The growth rate of house prices in cumulative reached 5 percent, compared to 3.1 percent cumulative growth rate of income nationwide. Although further study regarding this topic need to be conducted and there might be another determining factors, yet this fact could be seen as preview of Millenials’ financial independence struggle nowadays.
However, the importance of financial independence might vary across nations as it also determined by each nation’s and society norms and cultures. While financial independence might be perceived as important in the U.S., in developing countries such as Indonesia, where kinship is relatively high and there is a culture of mutual cooperation, these cultures further do not place too much financial independence, especially during times of financial crisis. Indonesian collectivist cultures emphasize that people are socially responsible for their families and that children must look after their elders, which further could lead to the problem of the so-called Sandwich Generation. For example, individuals might have to work away from home to provide financial assistance or sacrifice their leisure time to raise siblings. On one hand, this pressure could restrict young Indonesians as much money and time is consumed with family duties. On the other hand, their loyalty is rewarded with a sense of security and reciprocal assistance when needed.
In addition, most of Indonesian Millenials in particular could be said as more dependent on parents due to economic anxiety as a product of the financial education pattern raised by parents. There was more common in a communal society like Indonesia for families to feel obliged to take care of their children until they could be financially independent, even after they have graduated from university. Thus, the issue is not merely about money, but also regarding the mindset of doubt that children will manage their financial aspect when they grow up. Another factor that might trigger the economic anxiety among Millenials is the combined circumstance of economic uncertainty and widespread political dynamic.
Being an adult means becoming aware financially, emotionally and being skill-wise, or the so-called self-advocate. Moreover, being self-advocate means that an individual knows how to make decisions based on self-preferences, beliefs, skills and capabilities that open the opportunities to succeed in each own definition. In order to become a self-advocate, oneself needs certain perspectives gained from literacy. Firstly, the Health literacy which refers to the understanding on health issues such as how to access the health resources and services, choose healthy meals, stay active, and understand your healthcare insurance options. Secondly, the Civic literacy, which means an understanding of individual’s role in the community and the responsibilities as a citizen in order to be aware of the issues which influence one’s life and make an attempt to support those issues. Thirdly, the Global awareness, which refers to the understanding on cultural diversity through staying up-to-date on world news, and know how global events impact different parts of the world. Fourthly, the Environmental literacy, which means an understanding on how people behaviors affect the environment and conversely, how the environment affects people health, technology, economy, living conditions, etc. In addition, Millenials in general are arguably aware on the issues of environment e.g. the climate change as there are emerging behavior of recycling and adopting other sustainable practices. Finally, the Financial, economic, business, and entrepreneurial literacy which has already mentioned and described before.
In conclusion, growing up is one thing that unavoidable for every individual as they get older. Yet, being an adult is another thing that consists of certain attributes and needs maturity in thinking and behaving. One of the raising global issues regarding adulting is the financial independence in which one of the examples could be taken from the affordability of house among Millenials and the generations afterwards. While there might be another factors affecting someone in adulthood and financial independence, it is worth noting the importance of being self-advocate to manage adulting life properly since people were not born to just pay bills.
References
Arnett, J. (2006). Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens through the Twenties. Oxford: Oxford University Press
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Pew Research Center. Retrieved 6 September 2020 from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/09/04/a-majority-of-young-adults-in-the-u-s-live-with-their-parents-for-the-first-time-since-the-great-depression/
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hope. 