Ah, boomers: we love them. But it's fair to say that some of the advice they give to Gen Z'ers and millennials — especially the money-related kind — is not always great because it might not apply anymore.
So I asked the BuzzFeed Community to share what they think is some of the worst money advice they've ever received from boomers. Here are some of their eye-opening responses.
1. "Put 10% of every paycheck into savings for a 'rainy day.' My check barely covers my essentials. I don't have 10% to spare for 'just in case.'"
2. "Insisting on buying a car, especially a new one. I was in a ton of debt after college and was already buying a car. I eventually moved closer to work, sold my car, and started walking and taking public transit. Made such a difference to live close to work instead of commuting from the suburbs just so I could have the car."
—rtrz
3. "Always carry cash. My father-in-law insists on using cash as much as possible. Keeping cash at home is not going to earn any interest and it's an easy way to lose or forget it somewhere."
4. "Put your money in CDs or savings accounts with higher interest rates. Yeah, those don’t exist anymore. My $0.03 a month or even $0.20 is not going to do anything."
—Anonymous
5. "My grandpa constantly tells me, 'Always pay yourself first and put money into savings because the bills will get paid somehow.' What savings account? I have so much student debt because my family pushed the importance of education at any expense so now I live paycheck-to-paycheck and hate my degrees."
6. "My dad told me not to buy a $90k condo back in 2009 in Dallas. I definitely could have afforded it, but I was in my early 20s, one year out of college, and so afraid of making the wrong financial move that I listened to him. I mean, he'd only raised me and had years of life experience, right? Well, I didn't buy my first property until 2018, nine years later. If only I had to courage to take that leap, my life would look so different right now."
—Anonymous
7. "Not to get a credit card at all. My dad told me over and over not to get a credit card and that I should establish my credit through my car loan. Well, I was once three weeks late on one payment on my car loan, which was my only line of credit, and it absolutely tanked me."
8. "While working in an unpaid internship during my senior year of college, I was told that I should travel the world before entering the workforce, and not worry about the money."
—Anonymous
9. "My parents always said leasing a car is a dangerous game. I’ve leased two cars so far and it’s been a dream. It’s a lower upfront cost than buying one in cash, you have a solid idea of how much you’re going to end up paying over the course of your lease, aside from scheduled maintenance."
10. "My dad who used to be in human resources always tells me to network to get jobs. Like he’d have me randomly call colleagues of his, even though their company wasn’t hiring. Companies don’t add head counts randomly. They budget for them. Maybe networking works when you’re a CEO’s friend but I have never gotten a job through networking."
—Anonymous
11. "I don't make that much for starters and neither does my husband, but my parents and his mom always tell us to set aside certain percentages out of our checks for 401k, savings, debt (we don't have any right now, thankfully), budgeting for home repairs, emergencies, and 'fun' money."
"If we did that, we would have all of $5 to our name in the bank for anything else we would need, like groceries and gas. It's easy to have so many accounts for certain needs when you make six-figures with no college debt."
12. "'You should be saving money from every paycheck toward your retirement.' With a crappy economy and high inflation, we don't make enough money to pay rent and bills, much less save anything. If we could save money, why wait until we're old to enjoy life? A lot of us won't live to see retirement age, so why scrimp and suffer for decades for a day that might never come? If you wait to enjoy life, you might regret it, or spend all your hard earned cash on healthcare at the end. That's not a good life."
—Anonymous
13. "Telling us how to buy and pay for two things that are exorbitantly more expensive now: college and a house. For a house it’s 'You can’t even think about buying until you have a 20% down payment' and for college it’s 'You wouldn’t be in debt if you worked while you were in school.'"
14. “'Work as much as you can while you are young so you can enjoy retirement.' Why would you want to physically, mentally, and emotionally drain yourself just to retire at 65 and die 10 to 20 years later? Enjoy life while you are young. Travel, see the world, have the best time of your life so you have memories that last a lifetime."
—Anonymous
15. "Telling us anything is a 'waste of money.' If it brings me happiness in any way, it’s worth it to me. Just because YOU don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s a waste of money."
16. "'Rent should be a third of your income.' I don't know anyone who spends less than half their income on rent, even if they're living in the cheapest places possible."
17. "When desperately searching for jobs after college graduation, my mom (a boomer) kept telling me to go in and talk to the supervisor or to just keep calling them until they give me an interview. She didn’t understand that many applications said DO NOT CALL US, we will contact you. No one gives a shit if you come in. You basically have to have experience (which you don’t have straight out of college) or you have to know someone to get an interview. I now work in a completely unrelated field to my college degree and make shit pay. But I love my job so... 🤷🏻♀️"
18. "That you should stay in the same job for 35 years (like they did) and retire with a pension."
—Anonymous
19. "Anything having to do with buying a house. Yeah, Janet, let me just find a million dollars I have to spare."
"I live in California and brand new manufactured townhomes in the Bay Area are going for nearly two million. Houses in my home town are a minimum of $500k for a tiny house, plus there’s property taxes and maintenance, as well as water bills and garbage bills which sometimes collect more fees if you’re deemed as using/wasting too much. And in order to get there, needing to make enough to actually save for a future house, while working with sky high rents that monopolize your paycheck. It’s just not attainable for most people."
20. "When I was struggling to find a job and childcare as a single mom to a toddler, so many boomers told me to find a job as a nanny or in a daycare that would let me take my child along because that's what they did in the 80s. Ha! Daycares would look at me like I had six heads when I suggested receiving free tuition for working there and nanny positions wanted me to be 100% devoted to their own children."
21. "My parents told me credit cards are the absolute devil and to never open one. That was great until I was over age 30, had zero credit, and a bad credit score because of it. It would have been a lot more helpful to have basic practical advice on when, how to use, and build credit."
22. "My parents are boomers and the one thing I took away from them about finances is... nothing. They never had any conversations with my sister or me about finances. They helped us open our first credit cards at 18, and from there, that was it. They set the stage for both of us to use credit cards and rely on them. Eventually it got to a point where we couldn’t survive any longer. We had to learn everything ourselves and figured out quickly that we knew nothing. Both of us have filed for bankruptcy before age 40 due to extreme credit debt."
—Anonymous
23. "Take a job, any job. Go in early, stay late. Show gumption. Work nights and weekends. Never take a sick day or vacation."
"I work to live, not live to work. No amount of money is worth giving up my time and headspace."
24. "Hard to say which is the worst, but boomers in my family carry a ton of debt. 30-year mortgages, vehicle leases, extravagant vacations on credit cards. What I hate the most is the excuse not to be financially healthy because we're young and should enjoy our youth. I wish someone sat me down 20 years ago and said to save my Roth cap every year before buying anything unnecessary. I'd probably already be a millionaire or close by now. 'Life is about experiences' or some nonsense like that — honestly, I barely remember those Vegas and Mexico trips in my 20s. Staring at 40, I would have rather invested that money and be closer to retirement."
—Anonymous
25. "The advice that the only way to make a living is going to college. College cost now versus then is so wildly different, they have no concept of how much it will put us in debt."
26. "Only keep $1,000 in your emergency fund. Like... that would not cover even the smallest emergency, DAVE."
"Also the insistence on putting 20% down on a half-million-dollar home. It’s not feasible, especially with the interest rates dropping. We pay $114 a month in PMI but only put $15K down. If we had put the 20% down, that would have been $80K and no emergency fund. $114 a month to still have a real emergency fund and live in a home where we’re building equity is well worth it, boomers."
Have you ever received any less-than-great financial advice from Boomers? Tell me in the comments below!
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