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Forums - General Discussion - Millionaire to Millennials: Stop Buying Avocado Toast If You Want to Buy a Home

Millionaire to Millennials: Stop Buying Avocado Toast If You Want to Buy a Home

Freely spending on avocados — the pricey, popular superfruit beloved by young people — may be one of the reasons why some young people can’t afford a house, according to Australian millionaire and property mogul Tim Gurner.

“When I was trying to buy my first home, I wasn’t buying smashed avocado for $19 and four coffees at $4 each,” Gurner told the Australian news show 60 Minutes.

A Food Institute analysis of 2014 data from the US Department of Agriculture also found that millennials spend about 44% of their “food dollars” on eating out where foods like avocado seem to dominate menus from fast-food staples like Starbucks to fast-casual restaurants like Chipotle.

 

http://time.com/money/4778942/avocados-millennials-home-buying/



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I have done the avocado toast math, if you save an average 7$ a day and put it in an account with 3% interest over 45 years you will end up with 233K$ savings. (Inflation would increase a future house price and your necessary savings).

https://www.wellandgood.com/good-food/why-avocado-toast-costs-10-dollars/

https://www.investor.gov/additional-resources/free-financial-planning-tools/compound-interest-calculator

 



As much as I enjoy teasing out of touch rich people, this man isn’t making any condescending or ignorant comment. What’s he saying is true.

Many of the people I see on campus will spend insane amounts of money on pricey foods and restaurants when they could save hundreds by being more conservative with what they eat. Yes, I would happily eat avocados or Chipotle over a basic turkey sandwich at home, but the difference between a $10 bowl and $11 to make over half a dozen sandwiches is significant

Granted avocados won’t be the difference between rich and poor, but his overall point surrounding food still stands



Now I'm in the mood for a fry salad.



There is nothing wrong with splurging now and then but he's right about people spending far too much money on luxury items when they can't really afford it.



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Avocado isn't pricey? Maybe I am lucky here but its sometimes 69 cents and often 2 for $2.

What he should say is stop eating out, as millenials eat out more than other generations.

Edit: and buying bottled water like wow the biggest waste of money

Last edited by Farsala - on 24 January 2018

He's right about the importance of being frugal or at least not blowing all your money on overpriced luxuries. But what shocks me about this is that people actually like avocado! If you're going to spend recklessly at least buy something nice. Maybe they've been told it builds character or these are some masochistic young uns.



Ka-pi96 said:
numberwang said:

I have done the avocado toast math, if you save an average 7$ a day and put it in an account with 3% interest over 45 years you will end up with 233K$ savings. (Inflation would increase a future house price and your necessary savings).

https://www.wellandgood.com/good-food/why-avocado-toast-costs-10-dollars/

https://www.investor.gov/additional-resources/free-financial-planning-tools/compound-interest-calculator

That's nice and all... but where you can find a 3% interest rate that you could actually do that with? My bank offers around 0.5% on most of their regular savings accounts. So 3% over 45 years.... where would one find that?

Eh, and S&P 500 index fund will easily average over 3% annually over the course of 45 years...



Mr Gurner began his career as a property investor after purchasing a gym in Melbourne’s south in 2001 with the help of $34,000 borrowed from his grandfather.

This is the same guy who started with a $34K interest-free loan in a 2001 Melbourne housing market. I assume he was also living with family rent and utility-free. Given the same circumstances, there’s not a person I know that couldn’t get into the housing market. He’s so out of touch with reality that his comments are a sick joke. 


Let millennials do whatever they want. I read an article the other day saying that 1 in 6 millennials have 100,000 in savings right now.



*I call complete bullshit on that, fyi.

But it's not just Avacado's or expensive coffee. Where I work, I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that eats in every single day. Most people go out to eat for lunch. They are spending like $8-10 easy every day buying lunch. If you make your lunch you will save a lot.
Then take going to bars on weekends, or going out to eat at night a lot or ordering pizza delivery, smoking, marijuana, beer, microtransactions, ect. It's a culmination of a lot of things, not just avacado's or expensive cofees that can save people thousands.