Analysis from this study shows that participant‟s responses to questions about their future vary in a way consistent with other studies of middle-income young adults. In a recent European study of the ways in which young adults think about their future, Brannen and Nilsen (2002) identify three ideal types, or models suggesting different ways that young people think about time. The first is a model of „deferment‟ where young adults live primarily in the present and focus on the opportunities and
138 enjoyments available to them as young people. This group also tend to assume their longer term future as something that will successfully work itself out at time passes, in much the same way as their own parents‟ has over time. The second model, of „adaptability‟ includes young adults who consider the future a challenge - to be
actively calculated, with short-term and open-ended steps taken (such as work choices) to ensure they can cope with the challenges. They carry a sense of confidence and expectation about the future in what they see as a shifting environment. The third is a model of „predictability‟, in which young adults (often males) take a longer term view of the future, training for high-paying professions and a chosen vocation. These young people view themselves in terms of a „scheduled, standardized life-course‟ (Brannen and Nilsen 2002: 529-31).
The middle-income young adults in this study are represented in all of these three models. A very small number of participants described their understanding of future in terms of „deferment‟, where present experiences (like travel) dominate goals and money-earning objectives:
„A big thing for me in my confidence is…doing things on my own and I think a lot of that equates to travelling. Travelling by myself, experiencing new places and people, on my own terms. And that‟s really what I want. … [It] doesn‟t equate to a house, I‟m sure there‟s a lot of security and satisfaction in having that…but it‟s never been something I think about. In monetary terms, I think it would be great to have somewhere to make money so I could travel more…you know I mean it always comes to that; it always comes back
to…seeing new things.‟ (Saskya, 26, Administrator)
A majority of middle-income participants in this study fit the „adaptability‟ model proposed by Brannen and Nilsen (2002). That is, these participants feel they must plan for their financial future and that they themselves can shape their own futures despite changing circumstances. The meanings they give money fit into shorter-term and open-ended goals that may (or may not) change:
„But experiences are still very important to me and eventually I‟d like to save up to go on another overseas holiday; I haven‟t done one in while now. But I guess I‟m just getting towards the age where I‟m starting to think
139 about nesting a bit, you know, should I be saving towards a house? Well,
yes I am trying to save towards a house.‟ (Peter, 28, Manager)
About a quarter of the participants fit into the third model, of „predictability‟.
Similarly to the Brannen and Nilsen study (2002: 527), gender is central to this model and all those identified in it are male. These young males are „planners‟: they desire a sense of long-term predictability found in a well-paid and static occupation through which long-term financial security may be attained:
I: Where would you like to be, say in fifteen or twenty years time, with your work?
P: „I would like not to be there.‟
I: So in what way to you envisage being able to be in a position to be able to not work?
P: „Oh, set the company up in a way that it can run effectively…and in the long term, without me being there, basically.‟
I: What would you like to be doing with the time that you‟ll have?
P: […] „Sailing. Would that be good? Sail a yacht. Yeah, just sailing‟ (Edgar, 34, Building Contractor)
I: Do you think about the future?
P: „Yeah, I guess it‟s part of my background, or my training almost, you know. For a lot of people they just haven‟t got a clue about money, or how to make money. And they‟ll go to work, and earn their money, spend it, and move on. Whereas for me, I work with money essentially. And so I‟m actually quite good with it. I know how it works and I know how to make a dollar. And so therefore I can‟t help myself but plan for these sorts of
140 Within the middle-income category therefore, participants have varying ways of perceiving time and the importance of „future‟ in respect to the meanings they give money in the „good life‟. As Brannen and Nilson acknowledge (2002: 532), time orientations are shaped through multiple dimensions of experience, including opportunity structures, the influence of gender, lifestyle and consumption
opportunities, cultural construction of the meaning of „youth‟, and the influence of social class, race and ethnicity.