I don't have a penny to my name. In fact, I owe thousands of pounds. I don't earn a regular salary - I am temping while I look for a job - and make only the minimum payments on my credit-card bills (yes, I have more than one). But does it stop me spending? No.
And I am not alone. In fact, I am a statistic. According to a new report from the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS), people aged between 18 and 24 are the fastest-growing group of debtors, owing on average £15,000. However, instead of living off baked beans and buying clothes from Oxfam - as my parents' generation would have done if in debt - I can still be found pounding the high street, laden with shopping bags.
While I don't lead an opulent lifestyle, I do live beyond my means. If I have to make a choice between paying off £50 of my overdraft and buying a new pair of shoes, I tend to opt for the footwear. At the moment, my excuse is that I need to buy new clothes for my quest to find permanent work, but the main reason is that there is something comforting about consumerism, and, since I moved to London two months ago, it has helped me to settle.
For most young people, debt begins with their student loans. However, since we don't have to start paying them back until we are earning at least £15,000 - temping doesn't pay well - my student loan does not seem pressing (we receive one letter a year reminding us how much we owe, which is promptly slammed in a drawer and forgotten). The debt is so high that it is difficult to comprehend; far easier, then, just to forget about it, and continue to spend using my credit cards and overdraft.
The amount of credit available to me is staggering. Barclays, for instance, automatically gives both a Barclaycard and an overdraft facility to everyone who opens a student account. Store cards also help us to fool ourselves into thinking we have money, enticing us with discounts, special offers and, most seductively of all, VIP treatment.
James Thorpe, of the internet bank Egg, believes that credit has become a necessity for young adults: "Nowadays, young people have to go into debt if they want to go to university. In that respect, debt is seen as a good thing, as it allows you to advance yourself in a way that you couldn't without it." Indeed, the CCCS claims that young people are now embracing credit "as a way of life".
Tiffany Forster, a 24-year-old job-seeker who graduated this summer, justifies her spending by telling herself that her degree has afforded her the privilege. While she may not have any money to her name, she is confident that she will get a job that will allow her to pay off her debt and make more sensible investments.
Until then, she will make the most of the considerable credit available to her. "I feel that I should be enjoying myself. I'm in my twenties: I have the rest of my life to worry about paying things back," she says.
"My philosophy is that, so long as I look the part, I'll become the part, and this is very important in the industry that I want to work in, fashion. I have to look like I belong."
Forster favours high-end shops, such as Reiss, LK Bennett and Kurt Geiger, in which the price of many items exceeds £100. She believes that one of the key factors in her spending habits is that she has become accustomed to a lifestyle set by her parents, who have never been in debt. "I don't want to have to reduce the way that I spend and think just because I am having to fund myself," she insists.
Charlotte Morse, 23, who recently graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, agrees. "While I was brought up to think that you should never spend what you don't have, my student loan doesn't feel like a debt," she says.
"The pure excitement of having £1,000 in the bank was just overwhelming. I wasn't paying rent, so the money allowed me to go shopping, on holidays and to the theatre. I felt the money was mine to spend as I wished. I told myself that everyone had a loan and, being a fashion student, I wanted to have the means to buy new clothes, beauty products and to fund my regular nights out."
Research carried out this summer on behalf of MTV identifies my peers and me as "Generation Y", young people whose "private lives are now partially or fully expressed through the purchase of branded products, services and experiences".
Scary stuff, but as a generation obsessed with celebrity, we are desperately trying to keep up with the Joneses - or, more specifically, the Beckhams - without a penny of the money needed to fund it.
And it seems that many of us will go to extremes, even into bankruptcy, to attain this; last year, the CCCS advised one in 16 of its clients to opt for insolvency, which, thanks to last year's Enterprise Act, is a far more viable option than it once was. Now, anyone made bankrupt (with some exceptions) will find themselves automatically discharged after only one year.
Personally, I would do anything to avoid this, because, for me, it still holds a stigma. Indeed, writing this article has forced me to confront my finances. I may go home tonight and actually read a bank statement, or even pay off a bit of my overdraft.
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