According to the Pew Research Center 2006 Gen Next Survey of 579 18- to 25-year olds, the most important goals of Gen Y are:
1. To get rich (81%);
2. To be famous (51%);
3. To help people who need help (30%);
4. To be leaders in their community (22%); and
5. To become more spiritual (10%).

The survey also asked what are their most important individual problems: The top four were
1. Money/financial/debt (30%);
2. College/education (18%);
3. Career/job (16%); and
4. Family/relationships (7%).

The conventional wisdom is that Gen Y is much more interested in work-life balance and making a difference in their professional and personal lives than are their Baby Boomer parents. Although that is not necessarily inconsistent with wanting to be rich, I am surprised that such a high percentage list that as one of their top goals.

What would be very interesting would be to see the answers from Gen X'ers and Baby Boomers at the same points in their lives. I'm guessing that a side-by-side comparison will put the above results into context and we'll see that Gen Y is much more interested in ork-life balance and making a difference in their professional and personal lives than are their Baby Boomer parents.