Have your smashed avo and eat it, too
There is a savings strategy that doesn’t require giving up your favourite brunch.
HOLY guacamole! Avocado-gate was a heck of a good dust-up, 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, a middle-aged Aussie satirist pulled off a masterclass in trolling, and all it took was a single paragraph. How could young people afford to order ‘‘smashed avocado with crumbled feta on five-grained 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. While the #smashedavo hashtag is no longer trending, I won’t let this tasty topic rest until we’ve cut out all the squishy brown bits.
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. Now add compound interest, which all the outraged people conveniently forgot about. After 10 years, you’d have $13,500. 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.
Is changing one small spending habit enough to get you on the property ladder? Of course not. Changing 10 small spending habits might do the trick though. This isn’t some cute theoretical exercise: I know this sort of strategy works because I’ve used it myself, as have many others.
Smashed avo-gate is the ‘cancel Sky TV and save harder’ brouhaha all over again. The housing market is out of control and people are rightfully angry, but they’re lashing out at the wrong things. Auckland’s property madness doesn’t have any bearing on the principles of frugality, which remain rocksolid.
Let’s end on a practical note. 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, making sure you’re in the right KiwiSaver fund, and yes, cancelling Sky.
These will save you a lot more money, with very little ongoing effort required.
When you’re done, go find the fanciest hipster cafe in town and pull up a milk crate. Be sure to MARK DWYER/FAIRFAX NZ make direct eye contact with any judgmental baby boomers as you rock out with your guac out. You’ve earned it!
Got a money question you’ve been struggling with? Email Budget Buster at richard.meadows@thedeepdish.org, or hit him up on Twitter at@MeadowsRichard.
‘ No-one believes avocado on toast is the root cause of all millennial money troubles’