Financial journeys : Reasoning about debt and money among young adults in Sweden

Abstract: Young adults are often mentioned as among the most financially vulnerable groups, and Sweden is often characterized as being one of the countries in the EU with the most indebted households. While this houshold indebtedness mainly is linked to home loans, also other forms of credit usage have become increasingly common. Given the increasing access to readily availabe consumer credits, a difficult housing market with fewer smaller rental apartments, and a tendency for postponed entry into adulthood, how do young Swedes navigate these circumstances?This study draws on interviews (focus group, dyadic and individual) with thirty-three young adults aged between 18 and 29 (24 women and 9 men) from five cities in Sweden and with various social class backgrounds in order to explore their reasoning on money, consumption, debt and credits. The empirical material also includes survey data collected in conjunction with the interviews, photos of advertisements, and information on 'financial solutions' in the five Swedish cities. A key finding in this study is that these young adults refer to what can best be described as a form of money talk etiquette when talking about money. Understanding this code of conduct is closely related to the transition into adulthood and what it means to be a responsible financial subject. A second key finding involves how these young adults refer to their own and others’ financial reasoning and practices in terms of financial journeys. These financial journeys are temporally situated socialization processes unfolding biographically within the respondents’ own life-course trajectories. A third key finding is the entrepreneurship of the self, a form of investment which stresses the importance of personal growth, self-realization, gaining new experiences, and increasing knowledge. Finally, a fourth key finding shows how these young adults attribute great importance to money in terms of its enabling properties. Young adults refer to different types of financial means as granting them the freedom to control, maintain, and shape the life that they want to live in terms of their own tastes, wants, needs, identities, and lifestyles.The study argues for the importance of shifting between different theoretical perspectives and analytical tools in order to better understand young adults’ reasoning about money, credit, loans, and personal finance. In the study a combined theoretical perspectve is used, comprising of theories on moral economy, on the cultural and social meaning of money, on the financialization of everyday life, on the significance of everday life, on the life course, and on consumption and its social significance.