Use to work with a guy, he was making 45k, wife prob 40k, lived in a 80k home.  But had toys up the wazoo.  He was union and was going to get his 4 year raise (big one going to 53k or so), he figured out how much more his paycheck was going to be, and went out and bought a camper and new car to match to the dollar how much more he would make per month.  He rarely had more then a thousand dollars in his bank acct.  

I think you would be surprised how many younger people have absolutely no cash reserves.