Do we need to choose is it treats or a house?
Holy guacamole! Avocadogate was a heck of a good dustup, leaving the combatants more bruised than the rejects at the bottom of a Countdown produce bin.
For those that missed all the fun: A couple of weeks ago, and all it took was a single paragraph. How could young people afford to order ‘‘smashed avocado with crumbled feta on fivegrained toast’’ if they wanted to save a house deposit, he asked?
Unsurprisingly, things went pear-shaped. The internet took the bait, unleashing a wave of rage, hilarity, and stupidity in equal measures.
The outraged triumphantly pointed out it would take decades to save a house deposit by cutting back on smashed avo toast. Err ... If your sole strategy for saving a deposit is occasionally not eating brunch, home ownership is probably not for you.
Obviously no-one believes avocado on toast is the root cause of all millennial money troubles. Nevertheless, lots of people did their best to pretend this was the actual argument being made.
Their attempts were undermined somewhat by the surprisingly powerful impact of changing one trivial habit. Making your own smashed avo toast at home a few times a week instead of brunching will save at least $20, which is $1000 a year. After 50 years - a lifetime habit - you’d have $220,000.
That’s crazy impressive, but not much help if you’re trying to save a deposit over a shorter time period.
The housing market is out of control and people are rightfully angry, but they’re lashing out at the wrong things. Smashed-avo style savings techniques work, but they’re hard to maintain. You have to constantly deny yourself, and us feeble humans only have a limited pool of willpower to draw upon.
If you want to have your avocado and eat it too, start with the low-hanging fruit. These are the decisions you make once, and never think of again. Think moving into cheaper accommodation, selling extra vehicles, reviewing your insurance. These will save you a lot more money, with very little ongoing effort required.