They may have graduated during the Great Recession with poor job prospects and outrageous student loans, but that doesn’t matter. There’s one explanation for why millennials have been slow to buy homes: avocado toast. At least that’s what Australian millionaire and property mogul Tim Gurner told his country’s “60 Minutes,” in comments that are being widely mocked around the internet.
“When I was trying to buy my first home, I wasn’t buying smashed avocado for $19 and four coffees at $4 each,” Gurner said.
Just unbelievable how out of touch people are, especially when they taste a bit of success.
All around the internet I see financial literacy education (interest rates, saving, lines of credit) being touted, but I really think the best type of education is teaching people how to develop extra income streams.
Just unbelievable how out of touch people are, especially when they taste a bit of success.
All around the internet I see financial literacy education (interest rates, saving, lines of credit) being touted, but I really think the best type of education is teaching people how to develop extra income streams.
Noone ever got rich by saving.
Does smashed avocado taste like success? To me it tastes like smashed bumhole.
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Last edited by undercoverbrother; 05-16-2017 at 01:37 PM.
He's got a point though... expensive coffees, expensive organic / natural foods, gym memberships, cars, Netflix, etc. - all mainstream and non-necessary stuff. These are examples of the first items one should immediately cut out if you want to save money. Just from personal observation, I do think this concept is lost on a lot of people.
I agree there's financial literacy education outlets everywhere, and should be used, but I'd wager to say most people don't use them and have no little to no literacy in this subject at all... and don't have a desire to learn.
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Warren Buffet started his first business when he was a young teen. I read his wiipedia a few months ago and it was pretty interesting.
Buffet is a notorious saver and had saved $99,000 in today's dollars by the time he was finished university to fund his investments (keep in mind that savings = investment, many people think that saving is leaving money in a bank account to devalue over time).
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Sorry, but that article is terrible if you read the whole thing.
The quote it takes from 60 minutes is likely out of context, and it spends a whole paragraph talking about avocado toast. Then it suddenly shifts to lattes, which apparently are not trendy anymore (gotta get some "cold brew"). Finally it references another avocado toast quote and concludes any millennial cannot buy a home.
Quote:
Gurner’s hot take on both food and finances is garbage.
You know what is garbage? That article.
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He's got a point though... expensive coffees, expensive organic / natural foods, gym memberships, cars, Netflix, etc. - all mainstream and non-necessary stuff. These are examples of the first items one should immediately cut out if you want to save money. Just from personal observation, I do think this concept is lost on a lot of people.
I agree there's financial literacy education outlets everywhere, and should be used, but I'd wager to say most people don't use them and have no little to no literacy in this subject at all... and don't have a desire to learn.
Only rubes pay for netflix. The key is to get the Inlaws to pay for it.
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Sorry, but that article is terrible if you read the whole thing.
The quote it takes from 60 minutes is likely out of context, and it spends a whole paragraph talking about avocado toast. Then it suddenly shifts to lattes, which apparently are not trendy anymore (gotta get some "cold brew"). Finally it references another avocado toast quote and concludes any millennial cannot buy a home.
You know what is garbage? That article.
There might be some merit to it, obviously the 'Avocado Angle' is sensational as all generations buy crap we dont need.
For them its Avocados and for the prior generation its expensive trucks and motorhomes or whatever.
I dont think that really touches on the crux of the matter that I dont think imprudent spending is the cornerstone of why millennials cant afford homes, but moreso the unrealistic appreciation in the cost of homes combined with the almost static level of average wages.
The cost of the homes is outpacing the growth in wages for the people who want to buy them. Unless one has a serious Avocado dependency issue (get help, its serious) the amount of money spent on Avocados seems immaterial when placed against the cost of a home.
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Just unbelievable how out of touch people are, especially when they taste a bit of success.
All around the internet I see financial literacy education (interest rates, saving, lines of credit) being touted, but I really think the best type of education is teaching people how to develop extra income streams.
Noone ever got rich by saving.
No, but you can sure become and stay poor by wasting your income. You can't invest any money if you don't save any money.
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I do think being Monthly paymented and latted to death is a huge financial literacy issue.
Cell phone
Cable
Car
Amazon Prime
Neltflix
Crave
Apple Music
The apps store
.....
The subscription model is becoming a very popular way to extract people from their money without them being aware.
If you actually break it down into real dollars, similar or greater subscription expenses have always existed. Instead of cell phones and Netflix, there were magazine, cable, and phone subscriptions a generation ago. Given the huge profitability of magazines 30 years ago, you can't argue that the previous generation didn't have their own vices.
Anyways, I think this is all a bunch of garbage being spewed by baby boomers to rationalize their own wealth while they create an even greater economic strangle hold over younger generations.
Coffee shops aren't a new thing. Spending $200 less a year on coffee is not going to get you anywhere near a down payment on a decent property. The bigger question is why are middle class earners now expected to live in poverty without any kinds of luxuries? That certainly wasn't the way 30 years ago.
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Buffet is a notorious saver and had saved $99,000 in today's dollars by the time he was finished university to fund his investments (keep in mind that savings = investment, many people think that saving is leaving money in a bank account to devalue over time).
I see what you're saying with the definition, but I don't believe savings and investment are the same. Maybe there's an official definition somewhere and I just need to look it up.
Saving, to me, just means cutting back - being prudent. In the context of the article, it's cutting back on a $20 purchase, which means you've saved $20.
Investing, is taking that $20 and turning that into something else - whether it's into a business, stocks, bonds or whatever asset class.
The issue is that a lot of these rich guys tell you that saving $20 (or even $20 a week) will allow you to pay for a $100,000 down payment.
It won't - the best way to get to the $100,000 down payment is investing and developing new income streams, but noone really teaches people how to get there (ie. giving people a reason to save).
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The guy is right but also massively understates the financial climate we live in, in the 50's people lived in a small 2 or 3 bedroom house with 4 or 5 kids, they bunked three kids in one room parents in the main bedroom, they had one second hand car that they kept on the road for years, holidays consisted of driving to relatives who lived somewhere else and sleeping in a tent in the back yard dad worked, mum probably didn't and they spent almost no money beyond rent/mortgage and food.
By todays standards that's utter destitute poverty, by 1950's standards that's a good life.
I always get annoyed at Vancouverites who complain about their inability to buy a house in Vancouver, what they mean is they don't want to buy a ####ty old townhome in Abbotsford and commute like their parents would have done without even thinking about it
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If you actually break it down into real dollars, similar or greater subscription expenses have always existed. Instead of cell phones and Netflix, there were magazine, cable, and phone subscriptions a generation ago. Given the huge profitability of magazines 30 years ago, you can't argue that the previous generation didn't have their own vices.
Anyways, I think this is all a bunch of garbage being spewed by baby boomers to rationalize their own wealth while they create an even greater economic strangle hold over younger generations.
Coffee shops aren't a new thing. Spending $200 less a year on coffee is not going to get you anywhere near a down payment on a decent property. The bigger question is why are middle class earners now expected to live in poverty without any kinds of luxuries? That certainly wasn't the way 30 years ago.
I think it was fairly common for middle class earners to live in 1000 sqft bungalows without cable and not buy new cars. You can't buy a sub-1000 square foot house anymore. Also Monthly payments for 25 year loans have relatively followed inflation. The housing price increase is mostly driven by cheap interest rates.
I do agree with you that subscriptions did use to exist but I do not believe it is as ubiquitous as today and certainly not as convenient to sign up and have recurring payments just do to payment tech.
The criticism this guy is getting is idiotic. I'm a millennial and I'm surrounded by the poor personal financial choices made by my peers on a day-to-day basis. In fact, someone at my office recent recently purchased a $500 blender (that is being financed over a 5 year term!). It's a combination of a severe lack of personal financial education in the school system (I doubt that the average teacher would even know enough to properly teach the subject) and ease of access to credit. I'm lucky in that I've been interested in investing since junior high and I love reading and learning more about the topic.
Quote:
Originally Posted by blankall
If you actually break it down into real dollars, similar or greater subscription expenses have always existed. Instead of cell phones and Netflix, there were magazine, cable, and phone subscriptions a generation ago. Given the huge profitability of magazines 30 years ago, you can't argue that the previous generation didn't have their own vices.
Anyways, I think this is all a bunch of garbage being spewed by baby boomers to rationalize their own wealth while they create an even greater economic strangle hold over younger generations.
Coffee shops aren't a new thing. Spending $200 less a year on coffee is not going to get you anywhere near a down payment on a decent property. The bigger question is why are middle class earners now expected to live in poverty without any kinds of luxuries? That certainly wasn't the way 30 years ago.
Nonsense. Spending $200 on coffee isn't an issue in an of itself, but it's exemplary of bad financial habits that are all too common amongst younger generations. Subscription services, buying new vehicles financed over long terms, constantly eating at restaurants, spending on frivolous crap etc. are all common examples of wealth destroying habits. Cutting back on these makes it easy to build investment. Furthermore, housing in Calgary is quite affordable right now, to the point that monthly carrying costs of owned property are near parity with rental rates. It's really not that difficult for a middle class earner to own a home right now.
I think this generational economic struggle myth is something created by younger folks to rationalize their poor financial habits as something beyond their control, when that truly is not the case.
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Just unbelievable how out of touch people are, especially when they taste a bit of success.
All around the internet I see financial literacy education (interest rates, saving, lines of credit) being touted, but I really think the best type of education is teaching people how to develop extra income streams.
Noone ever got rich by saving.
"The Millionaire Mind", by Thomas J Stanley
should be required reading
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Millennials: Avocados or homes?
