KULR 8's Home Experts: Local News

Economy by Generations Series

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By Sarah Gravlee

Story Updated: Mar 23, 2009

BILLINGS - The recent financial crisis is affecting people from all generations including Ben and Ashley Buller, a pair of 20-somethings who have been married for five months. Like many newlyweds they're struggling to get their financing in order.

"We want to have a house some day. We don't want to rent for the rest of my life," Ashley said. Ashley recently graduated college and is currently looking for a job and Ben drives a truck for the lumberyard. They say they're working to save up money for a down payment on a home.

"We're doing the best we can to get money saved," Buller said. Financial planners say this is the perfect time for young couples to invest in the stock market, but Ashley said she's not willing to jump in just yet.

"The stock market kind of scares me right now," she said. So instead, the Bullers are pinching pennies where they can.

"We eat in a lot more," Ashley said. "We don't eat out. Fortunately, our parents give us most of our meat. There's no way we could buy meat at the store."

As hunters they also supplement their food with some of their harvests, but even their outdoor activities have been limited by their tight budget. "We don't do activities we wanted to," Ben said. "We wanted to go camping this summer, but we couldn't."

If there is a bright side to the situation, it's that the Bullers haven't lost money in the recent losses on Wall Street. "We really didn't have anything before," Ashley said. "And we don't have any now."

Economist Scott Rickard said there is some good news for the Bullers and Generation Y, they have the most time to recover from the recent economic turbulence.

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