Yahoo Finance Boomer savaged over 'avo toast and coffee' advice for young people wanting a home: 'So out of touch'
The homeowner said it was incredibly hard to buy property at the moment, but you could get ahead by not living 'so lavishly'.
An older Australian who owns her own home has given some advice to young people wanting to get onto the property ladder that has gone down like a lead balloon. Some Aussies have all but given up on owning a property as prices continue to skyrocket across nearly every capital city.
The 72-year-old agreed that it's incredibly difficult for almost anyone to purchase property in Australia at the moment. But she had some sage words for those who might have lost all hope.
"You have to sort of maybe not live so lavishly you know, maybe have to give up the odd coffee and avocado on toast," she said in a video on social media.
Have you struggled with getting onto the property ladder? Email stew.perrie@yahooinc.com
Unsurprisingly, people didn't take too kindly to that methodology.
"Yeah because avo and toast is really a mortgage payment," said one user.
"No way she pulled the old avo on toast card," wrote another.
"It’s crazy how older people are so out of touch," added a third.
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But others jumped in to defend her comments.
"I used to buy a cafe coffee every day for 3 years during COVID & I spent almost $5,500, just on coffee in that time ... so it is true. Lil expenses add up," wrote one Aussie.
How much would you actually save if you gave up avo on toast and coffee?
The price of an average coffee has been slowly but surely increasing in the last few years as cafe owners grapple with soaring expenses. There are even predictions it could soon cost you as much as $6 for your daily dose of caffeine.
Some cafes have also gone viral for how much they charge for staple items. One was called out for offering avo on toast for a jaw-dropping $17 while another hit customers with a $19 charge for a breakfast roll.
Spending that much every single day would certainly knock back your ability to afford a home deposit. If you had that expensive avo on toast and pricey coffee each and every morning, then you'd be spending nearly $8,400 each year.
But most Aussies don't eat and drink at a cafe every day and might only be able to afford it once a week, fortnight or month if they're lucky. If you assess it on that metric, Aussies would be spending $1,200, $598 or $276 respectively a year on that "lavish" luxury.
The cost is even more minimal when you make that breakfast pairing at home.
Having a whole avocado, two slices of bread and a coffee from a pod machine each day would set you back around $2, or $730 for the whole year.
The mean price of residential dwellings in the country is $933,800, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' latest data. If you wanted to purchase that exact property, you'd need at least $93,380 for a 10 per cent deposit. But to avoid paying Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI), you'd need a 20 per cent deposit.
So, it would take you just over 11 years to save the minimum needed for a deposit and 22 years to avoid LMI if you ditched avo on toast and a coffee at a cafe every day. On the flip side, it would take you close to 128 years if you picked the at-home option to get a 10 per cent deposit and 256 years for the higher deposit.
Just for fun, it's worth seeing how much time it would take to purchase a house in Australia's most expensive market: Sydney.
The median house price in the NSW capital grew to a record $1,627,625.
If you gave up that daily cafe breakfast and coffee, it would only take you 19 years to save the $162,000 deposit and 38 years for the $324,000 deposit. The at-home model, meanwhile, would take you a casual 222 years or 444 years depending on how much you wanted to save.
'You've got to work hard'
The "avocado on toast and coffee" mantra wasn't the only bit of advice from the Baby Boomer homeowner.
She said some people should look at sharing an asset with a friend or loved one by pooling their resources rather than trying to go it on their own.
The woman said she had two to three jobs on the go when she purchased her DMR-affected property back in 1985 for $82,000. That same property would cost just $281,000 last year if you adjusted for inflation.
“[I’m] lucky to have that house now 40 years later, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to afford to buy a house at all,” she said.
She added: “I saved, I worked hard for what I had...[but] I think it’s much harder now. I think we had jobs, we had opportunity. Very different time. But we're living in a global time where global greed is at its worst."
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