If you ask a 26-year-old what they are saving for, the answer is more likely to be a trek in Spiti or a concert ticket than a sofa set. It can look like carelessness to an older eye, but it is closer to a reordering of priorities, and it has some very practical reasons behind it. In an interview with HT Lifestyle, Dr Chandni Tugnait, MD, psychotherapist, life alchemist, coach and healer, founder and director of Gateway of Healing, explained what drives this shift.
Access has replaced ownership
According to Dr Chandni, music, films, cabs, even homes and wardrobes can now be rented or streamed, so owning something no longer carries the weight it once did. A rented flat or a subscription gives you the use of a thing without the loan, the storage or the upkeep. “When access is this easy, spending on something you can only live through starts to feel like the better deal,” said Dr Chandni. It also explains why owning a lot of things can start to feel like a burden instead of an achievement.
