The Worst Money Advice People Still Believe

One of my favorite genres on the internet is a boomer explaining why you can't afford a house. They bought their first house for $80,000. College cost less than a used Honda, or many of them didn't even go to college. And somehow they've concluded that your problem is DoorDash. Now, frankly, I love hearing these comments. I don't know why. I have a mental problem. I can't stop reading them. And once you start reading them too, you're going to see that a lot of their financial advice has not been updated in decades. The economy has changed, but their advice has remained exactly the same. So today I went looking for the most out-of-touch boomer money advice that I could find. And I want to answer one question. Does any of this stuff actually work? Let's find out. Lee in Iowa says, boomer here. I bought my first house after 10 years of saving like crazy and the interest was 14.5%. I don't know where kids got the idea that they were due a house and new car at college graduation. But that's not how it ever was. All right, listen, Lee, you fake-ass account on Twitter. First of all, the median age of first-time homebuyers has jumped from age 28 a couple of decades ago to age 40. What do you think, that people just magically became lazy by a third? No, that's not how it works. Homeownership became historically expensive. The fact that your house had a 14.5% interest rate and it cost approximately 3 jellybeans to buy Does not really prove comparable to what's going on today. If you factor in how much house costs and the interest rate, you look at total cost of ownership as well as the available housing units, because it only now makes sense for developers to build huge McMansions because it's also illegal to build small— I know I lost you. You can't even keep up with what I'm talking about. You just want to be angry and you want to call people in their 30s and 40s Kids, because it makes you feel superior. And rather than developing empathy and saying, holy shit, have I actually run a calculator? Do I even remember how to calculate basic fractions? No. But if I could in this hypothetical environment, wow, I might realize things are way more expensive. And the fact that I saved for 10 years, the median person could save for 25 years and still not be able to buy a house. You don't get that because you don't care to want to get that. And so my message to all these boomers is we're not debating you anymore. We're not going to try to convince you to be empathetic. You got to be 60, 70, 80 years old without building empathy? Okay, fine. You went it your way? Fine. We don't care to entertain your delusions anymore. We are simply going to build more housing over your impotent objections. When it comes to this advice, I noticed that people spend a lot of time worrying about tiny financial decisions. Meanwhile, the big decisions, the ones that move the needle, often get ignored. And I see this all the time with business owners. They're focused on saving a few bucks here and there, but they often have no proactive tax strategy. That's a mistake that will cost business owners more than any coffee ever will. And that is why I partnered with Gelt, the sponsor of this video. Gelt is a modern CPA firm that specializes in high-income earners and business owners year-round. Not just during tax season. And here's what makes them different. They have a proactive tax plan tied to your goals, cash flow, and P&L, guidance on credits, deductions, and entity setup to optimize your structure, and a clean, modern platform that keeps everything organized and on track. If you are making multiple 6 figures or you are running a business and you don't have a proactive tax strategy, you might be overpaying. And that's not a $3 problem. That is a $30,000+ problem. So if you want to see what a real tax strategy looks like, visit joinGelt.com/Ramit to schedule your consultation today. That's joinGelt.com/Ramit. And you can also scan the QR code on screen or click the link in the description below. Okay. My team pulled this one from a subreddit called Boomers Being Fools. I didn't even know this exists, but I already love this subreddit. Why don't boomers understand the concept of inflation? They buy groceries, pay bills, buy gas, and pay rent just like millennials do. They must see the prices of these things going up and up, and yet they're firmly against raising the minimum wage, despite millennials and Gen Z being far more educated. A boomer will be like, $4 for a Coke? I remember when it was a nickel! Yet they'll quickly forget about that whole exchange when people say they can't make rent on $10 an hour. The same boomer will be like, what? $10 an hour not good enough for you? Back in my day, it was a damn good wage. I had to run a house, a car, feed a wife and 2 kids on that in 1980. You must Terrible with money. Stop being so entitled. Okay, but we don't live in your day anymore, and ten dollars today would only be two dollars and sixty-eight cents in nineteen eighty. Would you have worked for that? Also, didn't they live through hyperinflation in the seventies? And they must notice their bills going up. I don't get how they don't get inflation. If it's not willful ignorance, it's dementia. Okay, let me explain why boomers do not get this. And it's actually all people, especially in America. You must understand that for the vast majority of people, when it comes to money and math, the connection between the two for the average person is extremely tenuous. Like they understand, yes, personal finance involves some sort of math in the same way that I understand that my car turns on because of engineering. That's about as far as it goes.

Like.

I turn the key, it turns on, done. I don't need to understand anymore. And in fact, if you try to lecture me, I'm not interested. Okay? That's how it works. In fact, even my fucking example of turning the key doesn't even make sense because nobody turns the key anymore. I'm living in the past like these fucking boomers. Ah, these boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, you do the same thing too. We take a formative moment in our life and we freeze in time. You ever seen some guy who's in his 40s and he's still wearing slim cut pants? It's like, you fucking look horrible. Nobody wears that anymore. It's wide leg. I could tell the year you were born by the hem in your pants. But they won't stop. They are frozen in time based on their formative period. So for a millennial, they grew up and they really developed their fashion sense such as it is in like the 2010s. And that is what they know. That's why you see these guys who are like in their 70s. They have really long pants. They won't hem them properly because that was the style back then. It's the same thing for money. When I ask people, how much would you spend on a vacation? First of all, they never know. Nobody sits down and carefully calculates out how much of my guilt-free spending should I allocate? They don't do that. They go, hmm, $5,000. It's always the same number. $5,000, whether they live in Brooklyn or Ohio. $5,000, whether they're going to Yosemite or Italy. Where did this magic number come from? I'll tell you. Because $5,000 in their 20s is what they once spent on a trip. And now, like a cow getting branded, it's frozen in their psyche. We do not adjust to numbers changing around us. We do not adjust to fashion changing around us. We struggle to adjust to social norms changing around us. That's why when you look at the political voting of older people versus younger people, you will often see older people stuck in the past. Let's look at the next thing. Our parents are still out of touch. This topic is like hitting a dead horse, but I just need to rant. Backstory, I work out at a gym with people who are our parents' age and of the boomer generation. I overheard them saying, we bought our first house for $65,000. I'm sure kids these days are only paying $125,000 for that same house. When they said that, I burst out laughing. How are they so out of touch? It drives me nuts. You need to understand that most people have an extremely loose connection with numbers. Like, the only number the average person sees on a given day is when they use their remote to switch and they go, ooh, top Netflix hit number 3. Like, that's pretty much it. So, you know all those teachers that were trying to do their best back when you were in middle school saying like, hey, you really need to learn algebra. Let's talk about rotating conic sections in Calculus AB. Well, who the fuck am I kidding? Y'all didn't go to Calculus AB.

Let's be real.

They were trying to say you're going to use this. Not anymore.

All right?

And as you age, you're using it less and less. $65,000, 25 years later, to only double to $125,000 just based on inflation would be absolutely absurd. They don't get it and they don't care. And neither do you because nobody uses these numbers. What am I doing on this stupid fucking channel? Where's my lid? I'm never going to find this lid. Look, this is a fountain pen. This thing is gone now. I don't even know where my lid is. Yeah, it's fun to make fun of bad advice online, but I actually want you to take control of your money. For me, the worst thing in the world would be you watching video after video of why things aren't fair. And 20 years from now, you are stuck in the same financial position as you are today. I want you to have money so you can travel, so that you can go to the grocery store and not have to look at prices so that you can live your rich life. That is why we created a new program called Road to $100K. For most people reaching their first $100,000 invested is the moment that money starts to feel different. Notice how you're feeling right now. $100,000? Yeah, right. Must be nice. Maybe someday. No, we're gonna make a plan right now. You are going to know exactly the month and year that you're gonna have $100,000 invested, and you're gonna have a personalized path to get there even sooner. You'll also get access to live coaching and a community of people who are working toward the exact same goal. So watching videos is great, but I want you to take control of your own money with a real plan. If you want to join Road to $100K, scan the QR code on screen or click the link below to learn about Road to $100K. All right. I want to see what's next.

I have to constantly remind myself that, like, the job market is shit and balls. But I think the most frustrating part about it is how older people just act like we're lazy and not like— obviously this is like a common conversation, but I'm talking about the way that they think we are just not Trying or like not being creative enough. I don't know if they fully understand. It's not even like just the fact that we're only applying online now. They're using AI to read.

All right, hold on. I have something surprising to say, which is a lot of you are not good at applying for jobs. In fact, you're horrible. I have seen it because I'm a hiring manager and I have a lot of hiring manager friends. We all just don't really say this publicly because it's not that politically correct, but when I put A job posting out, and I get replies like 95% of them get eliminated in five minutes. When I ask on a job application, "Hey, please send a video," and you don't send a video, you're not getting hired. And it's not the economy in that situation; it's you. Sometimes I think you know it's easier to poke fun at boomers than to take a hard look in the mirror. You are not good at applying for jobs. Why would you be? Have you ever learned the Have you ever studied my free YouTube videos on how to create a resume that matters? Here's a hint: nobody cares about your chronology. You thought your resume was just to show your chronology. I don't give a fuck. Your resume is meant to communicate a narrative. If you don't know what the narrative of your resume and your career is, you're not getting a job. If you only apply through the front door, through some website, and you go, why is nobody hiring me? Well, that's because a million other people are doing exactly the same thing. And you are just one more in that group. If you think you're above networking or that doesn't work because I didn't go to a fancy college, then you're going to get average or worse than average jobs. I'm telling you the truth. I created an entire curriculum on this and then I ended up giving away most of the material for free. Have you ever heard of the briefcase technique? Have you ever watched my videos on landing a dream job? They're free. Damn, I just roasted 90% of my audience. Everybody left this video. Oh well. That's why I get to run my business the way I want to. That's a rich life. Moving on. Boomer dad can't figure out why I don't buy a home. I showed him my income and we did the math. After rent, car, groceries, and insurance, I have $0 left over. He said, quote, you should get a second job. I already have 2. He then said, you're a fool for paying rent. Buy a house. Okay, I think this is where we started, Dad. Then he goes, Right out of college, I was struggling, so I got an apartment for $150 a month, but I only made $800 a month. Okay, so your rent was 1/5 of your income. That would be like me finding an apartment for $500. Well, rent is a lot cheaper than that, so you should be fine. I showed him the exact apartment he had for $150 is now $2,400. You need to get another job. I told him, I have 2. Then you should get a good union job at a factory like I did and work hard. First of all, Extreme props to this person. Now, usually I don't recommend verbally eviscerating your own family, but sometimes it needs to be done. So just freaking block and tackle. This guy came guns blazing, ready to go. Oh, he's gonna say this? Then I'm gonna say this. He's gonna say this? I'm gonna have the data ready to go.

Da da da da.

That's how you crush your opponents, and sometimes you need to do it. Is this good for healthy relationships with your own family? Absolutely not. Is it extremely entertaining, especially for me? Yes. So, I don't know, what's the ethical approach here? Crush your dad? Maybe. I have discovered something that is the antidote to delusional people online. As you may know, I speak to thousands of MAGAs online. I have a mental defect where I actually enjoy talking to stupid people, and I don't have a lot of people like that in my day-to-day life. So when I get to speak to racist people, Politically delusional people, barely literate people who are often so extremely bad at logic that I worry sometimes they might forget to breathe when they go to sleep. I decide to have a little fun with them and see, is there anything I could possibly say that might even open their eyes to basic reality? I've discovered one trick that is an antidote to them spinning off into digression after digression. I simply say, what would you do instead? I put the onus on them and I make them tell me, what would you do If you had a magic wand to run the government? And suddenly they actually don't know what to do because their entire existence is merely reacting to what is going on. That's stupid. That's crazy. I hate immigrants. That's what they say. Okay, you tell me what you would do. And you can quickly see within 5 seconds their entire answer falls apart because it's easy to react like a toddler. I don't like carrots. Okay, well, what do you want to make, little toddler? Let them do everything. Watch how quickly they will throw up their hands and just go, well, you need to get 3 jobs. Oh, okay. I appreciate that. And put that on my calendar. Where would I find those jobs? I'd like you to find me the job online right now that will pay the kind of money and calculate it for me. Oh, they can't do that. Well, back in my day— Well, that's really interesting, Dad, but hang on for a second because we are working on you creating a plan for me and I will agree to do your plan if it makes sense. But please continue. Let's stay out of the past. Let's focus right now. Watch what happens. This is actually a principle you can use anywhere. If you find yourself in a dynamic where the person is react— I don't like this. I don't like what you planned on our trip. I don't like this food. I don't like, like, like. Hey, I totally understand. We might have different tastes. Maybe I didn't do a good job picking this thing out. Can you take over and tell me what you would do? Oh, eh, uh, eh, eh. And that's where you start to have a lot of fun. Try it and let me know what happens in the comments below. Okay, what's next? What's the most out-of-touch piece of life advice a boomer has given you? All right, we're about to run out of tape Because I don't— I'm gonna read this forever. Don't worry about being stable, you'll figure it out as you go. Said by my mother after telling me not having kids because I can't afford it is stupid. For reference, I grew up in poverty. There were quite a few days where we literally didn't have food. You know, nostalgia is an amazing thing. We often create these rose-colored glasses to look back on our own past. I do it myself. Like, I remember studying for the SAT. Yo, I took that shit seriously, okay? I was very academically oriented, and so were all of my friends in high school. We dominated this shit. We prepped, we did all kinds of stuff to get really good and to get into great colleges. And it was hard. Like, I studied my ass off. And yet now when I look back, I go, huh, wasn't so bad. Hey, get to work! I tell my nephews, get to work! Yes, it was still hard, but in the grand scheme of life, Which can include health challenges, financial challenges, relational challenges. It was hard, but it wasn't everything in life that is hard. While I might be right that, hey, like, you actually do need to work hard, get to work, and getting into a good college is going to help you a lot. All that is true. It does discount how large that feels to somebody at the time. So I try to catch myself and instead of maybe telling them just like, Just work. Just shut up. Just get to work. It's like, hey, like when I remember it was really hard, but in the end it was really worth it for me. And I wonder if some of these folks might be able to adopt that same principle when they are sharing their life lessons. Let's move on. My mom thinks a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco is $1,000 and that $20 an hour is a shitload of money. Y'all remember that thing on Twitter that went around where people basically said whenever you hear something really dumb, You have to mentally remember, of course you're 12. And that's kind of what's going on here. Like, whenever you hear some of these comments about how buying Thanksgiving dinner pre-prepared should cost, you know, $17, of course you're 12. A 12-year-old doesn't know anything, okay? They think things magically fall from the sky. Ooh, I woke up and I have a birthday cake here. It was just magically prepared. Santa Claus is still bringing gifts. You're 12. The scary thing about bad money advice is that we hear it so often we actually stop questioning it. If you want help to figure out what actually works with your money, hit subscribe. All right, let's look at the next one.

Boomers, you were not more financially disciplined and you did not make more sacrifices than millennials and Gen Zs. In 1975, if you came home from a long day's work and your kids were crying and wanted food, you mean to tell me if DoorDash existed, you wouldn't use it sometimes? Of course you would have. You would have had the internet, you would have had cell phones, you would have had iPads, you would have had Netflix, you would have had Disney Plus. So it doesn't make you disciplined just because these things didn't exist. That'd be like people back in the 1920s, '30s, and '40s when Americans were much thinner saying, well, we were disciplined. No, you weren't. All the food was healthy. It wasn't processed, and there wasn't a McDonald's on every corner tempting you. The temptation's all over the place. So we actually have to be more disciplined. And then when it comes to the sacrifice, you worked 40, 50 hours. We're working 40, 50 hours. You worked overtime. We're working overtime or a side hustle. A lot of you had one person working, supporting a family of 2 or 3 in a house that you owned by 29.

This is a great video and a great point. You know, I took my 2 nephews to Stanford on a college tour. I was asking them, like, what is it like being 15, 16 years old, applying to colleges? They told me stuff that really blew my mind because I remember, you know, being in high school, applying to colleges, and it was hard. For sure, it was hard. They have cell phones, which is engineered to be as addictive as humanly possible. It's hard enough for adults to stay focused on stuff. Now imagine you're a 15-year-old kid and all of your friends are on social media. It gave me such an appreciation for how hard it's got to be. Yeah, of course there's new stuff. There's YouTube where you can learn more about the SAT and stuff. Fine. But on balance, I think it's way harder to be in high school and to be academically oriented than it was in my time when we did not have those The same is true for money. Having DoorDash now, although yes, it is a luxury, it is ever-present. 2 clicks and you can have any food delivered to your house in 30 minutes. Even the mere fact that back in the day you had to pick up the phone and call somebody, that alone is a small barrier. But just imagine how easy it has become to spend money. Subscriptions, they didn't exist back then in the same way they do now. So I don't think this glamorization that older people were more disciplined is accurate at all. They lived in a completely different time. We should appreciate that they existed in that context, but that does not mean that they were better people. In fact, if they had DoorDash, they would have been using DoorDash just as well as people do today. Look what I got! Listen, I love all the YouTube viewers, but I'm not gonna ruin this freaking beautiful fountain pen just For your entertainment. Buy the best, take care of it. The next time somebody tells you to stop buying coffee, I want you to ask one question. Is this $3 advice or $30,000 advice? Because a lot of boomer money advice gets focused on tiny decisions when the big ones go untouched. So this week, let me suggest stop looking for a tiny little thing to cut or to feel guilty about. Instead, I want you to look for one thing that could move the needle in a big way. And if you are tired of hearing the same old money advice over and over, Watch this video next. I'll show you 7 money rules that might seem completely backwards, but can help you build real wealth.