SoFi Blog

Completed a DIY home improvement project recently? If you’re a Millennial, then we’d be willing to bet that you then posted a picture to social media to show off the finished product.

We recently conducted a survey where we were able to uncover the differences between Millennials and Baby Boomers when it comes to home improvement projects to celebrate the start of home improvement season 2018 and our now Tiny Kitchen Makeover viral campaign.

We surveyed a national sample of 1,231 consumers aged 24-72 who had completed a DIY home improvement project in the past two years and found that Millennials are more likely (23%) than Baby Boomers to land in the ER from a DIY home improvement project gone awry, and that overzealousness may be because they are eager to show off their latest project on social media.

Studies show millennial women have enormous power—when it comes to spending, that is. But what about when it comes to building wealth, like saving and investing toward the future? To figure that out, SoFi teamed up with Levo to survey 2,050 millennial women on their behaviors and motivations around financial habits, with intriguing results.

Millennials get a bad rap when it comes to personal finance. They’re often labeled as unprepared for the future or emergencies because they don’t save enough, if anything at all. However, of the women surveyed, 53% have an emergency savings fund set aside (covering three to six-plus months of housing and necessities). And they don’t just keep their money under the bed: 70% review their bank accounts at least once a week. These findings indicate millennial women are much more financially responsible than they’re given credit for, in that they are savers and have cash flow to invest.

There are plenty of reasons to wait until the last minute to plan a vacation. You might want to save up a little more cash, wait for a great price on airfare, or see how crazy work is before booking. And spontaneous vacations can certainly feel more exciting than ones you’ve planned months in advance. One minute, you’re anticipating an uneventful weekend at home, the next, you’re throwing a swimsuit in a bag and jetting off to the beach.

But here’s a good reason you might want to rethink your planning strategy: research reveals travel’s biggest impact on your mood doesn’t kick in during the trip.

Having a child is one of the biggest decisions a couple can make. The second largest decision? Choosing which child care is right for their family. With all the options out there, settling on just one can be a challenge, as every family’s situation and needs are different.

On top of that, in my 10 years of helping new parents financially plan their families, child care also tends to be the second largest monthly expense, after housing. And contrary to what you might think, it’s not an expense that some parents can choose not to budget for. Even if you have one stay-at-home parent, you’ll still need to pay for some babysitting and child care, as it’s wan important part of maintaining a healthy relationship with a partner—not to mention provides a necessary mental break for both.

Starting a family, or even starting to think about it, is an incredible stage in life. But it can also be overwhelming. You might be thinking about the hard questions: What will your life be like with a newborn? What will you and your partner be like as parents? Should you move closer to family?