19 "Don't Do It" Purchases Older Adults Are Warning Millennials And Gen Z Not To Make

Alana Valko  Fri, November 22, 2024  BuzzFeed

We've all been let down by a purchase that didn't exactly meet our expectations.

And, in adulthood, buyer's remorse can sting a little harder — especially when those purchases become bigger and have more financial consequences.

Because none of us want to make the wrong bet, I asked older adults in the BuzzFeed Community to share the purchases they'd never recommend Gen Z'ers, Millennials, or any young adult make.

Here's everything they shared:

1."Don't buy extended warranties! Save your money. Over my 40 years of not buying them, there were only two times I might have been able to use one. Especially don't buy them on inexpensive items or on items like laptops where the technology changes so rapidly. Makes no sense."

2."Sort of a niche answer, but maybe someone will appreciate: Whole-life insurance is a rip-off. Super profitable for the company selling it. It's about 5x the cost of basic term life, and it comes with an investment account, but you can create the same setup yourself by buying the cheaper term life for 20% of the cost and putting the remaining 80% you saved yourself into your own investment account (retirement or whatever). You'll come out far ahead of where the whole-life policy would have gotten you."

3."Don't get hyped up by sales. They always tell you that it will end tomorrow, and it will, but the day after tomorrow, there will be another one. Pay when you're ready; prices will generally only go down (except for the new stuff). In some cases, be willing to go refurbished. You will often get something as good as the condition your new item would have been in after one month of usage."

Price tag showing a sale item originally priced at 179.00, now reduced to 129.00 at Manor. Includes barcodes and product codes

(Cont'd) "Fashion is idiotic. Looking trendy is expensive, and the only people you will lose as friends are the superficial ones (win-win). Everything trendy today will be out of fashion in 10 years or less, and this will rotate until the old fashions become the new ones again. Get clothing that is well made and comfortable for you, or at least the minimum needed for a work situation."

4."The latest tech device. Wait six months, and it will be cheaper. You may not even want it anymore, especially once the hype is over."

TO READ MORE:   https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/older-adults-sharing-purchases-dont-041603795.html