tldr; teach kids that they can't have it all; happiness is #1 in importance but money is a VERY close #2. I'm a young Asian guy with very white-washed parents.

tldr; teach kids that they can't have it all; happiness is #1 in importance but money is a VERY close #2. I'm a young Asian guy with very white-washed parents. Many statements below are generalizations. Two lessons from my parents: (1) money is very important and (2) you must be excellent in your career (in that order). Chinese, specifically, are all about wishing wealth onto one another. Although too much focus on wealth accumulation can be a bad thing, it is at least a "good problem". Many of my peers have the intelligence and ambition but villainize the concept of doing something for the money. The article itself implies that these 20somethings are the victims to their wealth-accumulating bosses (who, from the description of it, are entrepreneurs who run very high risk operations). Too many upper-middle children brought up in the early 90s have seen money's ugly side: divorce, Wall-Street, Jim Carrey's Liar Liar etc. These 90s kids are brought up by overworked parents, anti-money tenured teachers and non-profit workers. The media and the occupy movement have made it worse by victimizing these 20somethings encouraging more people to villainize wealth. It's also important to note that the parents are out of touch with today's job market. Parents of today's 20-somethings feel like it was ONLY their hard work that got them there and consequently that their children are entitled to pursue their dreams. They forget that their generation had unions, pensions, government jobs, low interest rates and most importantly the creation of dual income. Today's 20somethings face those debts, specialized jobs, dying industries, outsourcing and lots of competition. That being said, I think parenting for the next generation (or even re-educating 20somethings now) it's all about a balance. I don't think you have to push your daughter to be a physician necessarily. Young people just have to understand and appreciate the value of money which means teaching them about taxes, the value of health benefits, financing, leasing and investing. With that in mind, they can find a good solution or at least a compromise. EXAMPLE USING ABOVE RANT: Daughter wants to be a ballerina. Explain to her that the prima ballerina (#1 dancer) earns less than $140,000 per year and that her career is very short. The expected pay for a ballerina falls short of $10,000/yr. If she wants to do ballet, she can find her another career that has better earning potential and dance as a hobby.