A lot of this stuff is older generations genuinely not realising that their financial intuitions are out of date.

Holidays, entertainment and clothes have all got significantly cheaper in real terms while deposits for house purchases have of course spiralled https://t.co/tw5mLja4NW

— David Algonquin (@surplustakes) February 7, 2022

That’s quite right. Back in the 1990s, when houses weren’t nearly as expensive as they are now, my grandfather said something like, “You should save up your army money and buy a house when you get out.”

I said, “Pa, I couldn’t even make a down payment on a house with what I can save in the army. Houses aren’t $8,000 anymore.” And in the 1990s, as compared to now, houses were cheap. But the last time he’d bought a house was back in the 1970s so he still thought they were 1.2x median salary, when they were already more like 2.5x even by then.

Now it’s far worse, of course. But yeah, a lot of Boomers have financial intuitions from the era when housing and medical care was quite cheap and have never updated them.