For the twenty-somethings of today, growing up is hard to do

By the time I was 25 years old, I was a salaried employee, I had bought and sold my first house, I had a mortgage, insured my own car, had made some flat-pack furniture (not very successfully, it has to be said) and considered myself very much part of an adult world. Since that time (which was, admittedly, a few decades ago), I may not have grown up any more, but I can say that at a relatively early age I was shouldering a fair amount of fiscal responsibility and considered myself a person in my own right, firmly independent from my parents.