And The Aussie Mogul Says .....

[jaF0]

Millionaire tells millennials: If you stopped buying avocado toast, you could afford a home
CNBC - ‎2 hours ago‎
Brunch may be overpriced - and it may also be the reason so many millennials aren't buying homes. That's the contention of 35-year-old Melbourne millionaire and property mogul Tim Gurner, who appeared on a recent episode of Australia's "60 Minutes.

I agree fully.

But of course, it's not just choices in food. It's Starbucks instead of Folgers. It's $400 jeans instead of $14 jeans. It's the latest and greatest cell phone with all the bells and whistles instead of one that works 'well enough'. It's a fancy new car every two years instead of one that gets you where you're going.

 

[jaF0]

When working, I made it a point to keep my bills and other expenses below half of my monthly income. I made it a point to live on one of my two paychecks each month and to bury the other one in saving, investments, IRAs, etc.

I saved enough that I've been living on just part of it for the last six years as augmentation to my small state pension. Yes, I've burned through a lot of it, but not enough to hurt me.

 

[rocket_surgery]

I don't disagree because it's common sense if saving money but it looks like he's offering advice to people who don't want it. I don't see where they are bitching about not being able to buy homes.
They wanna spend it on a latte instead of a down payment that's their business.

 

[Hard_Rom]

What we want or what we need. They are different. Consumer driven society. Consumers don't spend economy doesn't grow. Better though private debt in a house than credit cards and car payments.

 

[Liar]

https://thebillfold.com/how-is-this-avocado-story-back-f88cfe348e4e

How Is This Avocado Story BACK

Hey, remember last fall when Australian columnist Bernard Salt wrote that Millennials would never be able to buy homes because we were spending too much money on smashed avocado toast?

Yeah, that was a thing, and the internet talked about it for like three days, and then we all kinda agreed that maybe this guy was wrong. Avocado toast costs, at most, $20—and that’s if you’re eating at a really fancy brunch place. If you’re looking to buy a $200,000 starter home or condo, you’d need to skip your $20 weekend brunch for thirty-nine years to make the $40,000 down payment.

But, thanks to the rising price of avocado, the Avocado Toast Factor is back.

 

[rocket_surgery]

https://thebillfold.com/how-is-this-avocado-story-back-f88cfe348e4e

Sounds disgusting anyway.

 

[Conager]

Double post

 

[Conager]

https://thebillfold.com/how-is-this-avocado-story-back-f88cfe348e4e

Owner-occupied, starter home requiring 20% down?

I don't think so.

Hell at the peak of Franklin Raines' reign of stupidity and greed, investors were offered 5% down loans. First time homebuyers programs it became legal for a seller to kick back the entire down payment, first to a bullshit foundation that paid the buyer's down payment, and eventually, directly into escrow.

Down payment has not been a hindrence in years. Debt to income ratios are, which are directly caused by the buyer propping up a lifestyle by charging their Starbucks and avocado toast, and agreeing to pay that off in 20+ years.

So yeah. It's a thing.

 

[Liar]

http://www.avclub.com/article/intensely-hatable-millionaire-thinks-millennials-e-255361

Millennials have been told they are many things. They are lazy; they are profligate; they live at home too long and don’t get their driver’s licenses the way their grandparents did; they use Snapchat; they make a weird whooping sound too much. They also graduated from college into an economic wasteland during which the rate of capitalist expansion had long since peaked, witnessed an unprecedented shift of the world’s wealth to its very richest inhabitants at the expense of the very future of the planet, and saw the cycle of home ownership and debt to be an albatross that actively drove their parents insane. Perhaps justifiably, millennials have some shifting opinions on the value of working themselves to death so that they can own a piece of land. Even if home ownership remains the dream of many, there is no faith anymore in the system by which it is achieved.

 

[Liar]

Owner-occupied, starter home requiring 20% down?

Requires 15% down by law over here. No idea about Australia where that fella is from.

 

[Conager]

Requires 15% down by law over here. No idea about Australia where that fella is from.

That's a point. I'm referencing US stupidity.

I also have no idea what the median price of a starter home is in OZ.

Per the quote, that math is 20%. Which is what, historically banks would require on investor loans with no mortgage insurance included as they have nothing to disincentivize them from simply walking away if the market turns.

 

[Conager]

http://www.avclub.com/article/intensely-hatable-millionaire-thinks-millennials-e-255361

Where is this coming from?

"After the rate of captitlistic expansion had peaked..."

Wtf is captilistic expansion and where does such a thing flourish, unfettered by government and monetary policy interference?

How would you measure the peak with the monetary policy induced bubbles in internet startups and real estate for just two examples.

Millenials, if they wish to blame anyone should again be looking to government which has fueled the academic industrial complex boom of worthless degrees. They are the product of the next bubble that's going to burst.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Personally, I was raised as the fourth generation on the family farm in a family dominated (out of respect) by our grandparents who survived through The Great Depression and passed the lessons of frugality on to their children and grandchildren.

Similarly, the Queen was raised in rural KANSAS and had a hard-scrabble life.

So, scrimping, saving and investing (the latter of which my grandparents would have never approved of, hell, they weren't even big fans of banking, they had a huge upstairs closet that was filled from floor to ceiling with silver dollars) has dominated out lives. We now have more than enough invested to retire and retire well. Princess, too has a steak of frugality to her, but at the same time, she is brand, not price fixated...

 

[jaF0]

Millenials, if they wish to blame anyone should again be looking to government which has fueled the academic industrial complex boom of worthless degrees. They are the product of the next bubble that's going to burst.

Yeah ... that.

MOST people do not NEED degrees at all. They have been conditioned, err brainwashed.

 

[Hard_Rom]

It's not the government. Most governments are quite responsive to citizens wishes. Else how would they get elected. It's the parents fault! And the TV selling useless shit. No one wants to deny their kids the toys in life. It makes them stick out in the teen crowd and may lead to them being unpopular.

There is a shortage of tradespersons. Even master plumbers earning 80K a year want their kids to be doctors and shit. Like 80k from a trade isn't good enough.

Want, want, want, want. And try keep up with the Jones while you're at it.

Kids today are molly coddled and hand held. I got friends that drive their teenage kids three blocks to buy Tim Horton lattes. Not doing the pudgy lazy little bastards any favours.

A buddy and his wife got divorced just as kids entering university with a maxed out 80K line of credit. Had to have the latest toys themselves. The credit line should be maxed out at least after the kids graduate university.

 

[jaF0]

A credit line should never be maxed out short of some unexpected catastrophe.

 

[doowdniw]

Owner-occupied, starter home requiring 20% down?

I don't think so.

Hell at the peak of Franklin Raines' reign of stupidity and greed, investors were offered 5% down loans. First time homebuyers programs it became legal for a seller to kick back the entire down payment, first to a bullshit foundation that paid the buyer's down payment, and eventually, directly into escrow.

Down payment has not been a hindrence in years. Debt to income ratios are, which are directly caused by the buyer propping up a lifestyle by charging their Starbucks and avocado toast, and agreeing to pay that off in 20+ years.

So yeah. It's a thing.

And carrying a balance means max (other than default) rate. I got an unsolicited card offer the other day that offered to allow me to carry a balance at around 25% APR. Yeah, right.

 

[Hard_Rom]

Too bad you couldn't have a balance in the black with credit cards and get 25% interest.

 

[jaF0]

I never carry a balance. CCs are paid off in full each month. Haven't paid a penny in CC fees or interest in at least 10 years.

And with the points, bonuses and incentives they're paying me to use the cards.

 

[Lorilei]

I eat avocado toast nearly every day and it costs less than $10 a week. Where the hell are these people eating?

 

[Hard_Rom]

Canadian Tire credit card is very useful. Crappy Tire has their own gas stations. You get 3% back in CT money and can get 4X coupons. Excellent way to get a break on gasoline prices.