If you\u2019re young and feel like you\u2019ll never be able to afford a house or comfortably retire, you\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n
According to a poll from the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School, 43% of Americans aged 18 to 29 are \u201cstruggling or getting by with limited financial security,\u201d and only 30% believe they\u2019ll be better off financially than their parents. (1)<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy is it that boomers were able to buy houses on a single income, but for young people, even saving for a down payment feels impossible?\u201d asked personal finance expert Ramit Sethi on an episode of I Will Teach You To Be Rich. (2)<\/p>\n
Sethi claimed boomers built wealth in a system that no longer exists, then changed the rules in ways that make it harder for younger people to benefit.<\/p>\n
This can mainly be seen, according to him, in pensions and housing. \u201cThis is not about young people spending too much on avocado toast,\u201d said Sethi.<\/p>\n
Sethi also argued that some of the financial advice out there \u2014 from the likes of Dave Ramsey and Kevin O\u2019Leary \u2014 is \u201coutdated\u201d and stuck in old financial frameworks that don\u2019t take into account the modern economic reality for most Americans.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s why he believes these frameworks don\u2019t work and what young people should focus on instead.<\/p>\n
Ramsey and O\u2019Leary are two of the most influential voices in American personal finance, shaping how millions budget, invest and tackle debt. But Sethi says their frameworks were built for a different era \u2014 before today\u2019s high housing costs and the shift from pensions to DIY retirement.<\/p>\n
\u201cDave Ramsey is still recommending 15-year mortgages and these mythical 12% mutual funds that he refuses to name,\u201d said Sethi.<\/p>\n
He then attacked O\u2019Leary\u2019s habit of lecturing people about wasting money on coffee. \u201cDid Kevin O\u2019Leary become worth hundreds of millions of dollars from not spending money on coffee? No,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat would have been relatively straightforward or easy decades ago is virtually impossible today \u2014 to work a normal entry-level job on one income, buy a house, have a car,\u201d said Sethi.<\/p>\n
One of the major changes he noted is that companies no longer fund their employees\u2019 retirements. Sethi pointed out that companies, including those owned by boomers, rarely offer pensions anymore, meaning the \u201cretirement burden has been shifted to individual employees.\u201d<\/p>\n
Story Continues <\/p>\n
This observation is supported by data. Over the years, traditional pensions have been supplanted by 401(k)s and IRAs. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 15% of private industry workers had access to a defined benefit plan in 2023. (3)<\/p>\n
More than three-quarters of respondents to a survey by the nonprofit National Institute on Retirement Security agreed that the \u201cdisappearance of traditional pensions has made it harder for workers to achieve the American Dream.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sethi also discussed the housing factor. Boomers, who are sitting on an estimated $18 to $19 trillion in real estate (4), bought houses when the government \u201cwas explicitly encouraging home ownership through policies and mortgages that made buying a house affordable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not the case today. Boomers account for 42% of all home buyers, while millennials account for 29% (down from 38% a year ago) and Gen Z makes up just 3%, according to the National Association of Realtors\u2019 2025 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends report.<\/p>\n
The report also found that half of older boomers and 40% of younger boomers are purchasing homes entirely with cash. (5)<\/p>\n
Scott Beyer, a columnist fellow at the Independent Institute think-tank, believes boomers are the \u201clead architects\u201d of restricting home supply. \u201cMuch of this is due to boomers buying multiple investment properties, avoiding high interest rates via all-cash purchases,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
And while there\u2019s nothing wrong with investing in housing, these purchases, he added, \u201cnaturally reduce available housing stock for younger generations.\u201d (6)<\/p>\n
Read More: This is the quiet portfolio shift many wealthy investors are making in 2026<\/a>. Should you consider it too?<\/p>\n So if the system is stacked against younger people, is there anything they can do about it?<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t spend my days with my nose buried in my phone tracking my bank account in two-cent increments, and you don\u2019t need to either,\u201d said Sethi. Here are some areas where young people should focus instead.<\/p>\n Earn more: It makes sense to cut back where you can, like reviewing your subscriptions and canceling ones you don\u2019t use anymore. But cutting back can only get you so far if you\u2019re already stretched thin. The solution is earning more.<\/p>\n \u201cThat could mean learning the skill of negotiating your salary. Maybe it means starting to look for a new job that pays you more or starting a side business to bring in an extra thousand dollars a month,\u201d said Sethi.<\/p>\n Save and invest consistently: When it comes to saving and investing for the future, consistency is key. Rather than feeling guilty because you spent money on a fancy coffee, Sethi recommends automating your savings and investments so you don\u2019t even have to think about it. Instead, you go about your life while \u201cautomatically, invisibly, you are building wealth in the background.\u201d<\/p>\n The only time you need to make adjustments is if you get a raise or start earning more and want to bump up your savings rate. \u201cInvesting regularly, especially automatically, is a key to building wealth. That\u2019s because of compounding. When you invest money, it compounds, meaning interest earns interest on itself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Make conscious choices: Fear-based financial rules can keep people stuck in shame-based budgeting and decision-making. This can lead to paralysis or suboptimal decisions.<\/p>\n So, rather than following fear-based strategies, like never using credit \u2014 which isn\u2019t realistic for a lot of people \u2014 it may be more important to learn how to manage a reasonable amount of risk.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot of financial advice out there. Ask yourself whether that advice creates fear or shame, and whether it\u2019s realistic, given your economic circumstances.<\/p>\n You may also want to seek the advice of a qualified financial advisor who can assess your personal situation and help you create a plan to meet your goals.<\/p>\n We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics (1<\/a>); YouTube (2<\/a>); U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (3<\/a>); National Institute on Retirement Security (4<\/a>); Realtor.com (5<\/a>); National Association of Realtors (6<\/a>); Independent Institute (7<\/a>).<\/p>\n This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re young and feel like you\u2019ll never be able to afford a house or comfortably retire, you\u2019re…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[29874,138,3205,246,6017,128000,127999,2333,111,139,69,244,245,21757,294,128001],"class_list":{"0":"post-210351","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-boomers","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-dave-ramsey","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-financial-advice","13":"tag-financial-frameworks","14":"tag-harvard-kennedy-school","15":"tag-kevin-oleary","16":"tag-new-zealand","17":"tag-newzealand","18":"tag-nz","19":"tag-personal-finance","20":"tag-personalfinance","21":"tag-ramit-sethi","22":"tag-retirement","23":"tag-the-institute-of-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}