Boomers are extra wasteful in sure spending classes than their youthful counterparts. These habits may be dangerous for the many individuals on this cohort who’re financially susceptible. – MarketWatch photograph illustration/iStockphoto
The wasteful habits of millennials and Gen Z members ought to come as no shock — it has been properly documented that many of those shoppers are liable to impulse on-line spending and have grown hooked on the comfort of supply apps.
However new survey knowledge present that child boomers — America’s richest technology and one usually perceived as being thriftier people who adopted — are extra wasteful in sure spending classes than youthful individuals. And people habits may be particularly dangerous for the many individuals on this erratically rich cohort who’re financially susceptible.
Particularly, child boomers are extra probably than the common client to waste meals by throwing out leftovers or expired gadgets, to depart home equipment or utilities working unnecessarily, to purchase brand-name pantry gadgets and to purchase lottery tickets, in keeping with a current survey by Motley Idiot Cash.
And these habits have solely gotten dearer: Meals costs elevated by 2.9% in January in contrast with a 12 months earlier, gasoline utility prices rose by 9.8% and electrical energy went up 6.3%, in keeping with the newest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“As soon as you’re drawing from financial savings as a substitute of constructing it, small recurring bills matter extra,” mentioned Melissa Caro, a monetary planner and founding father of My Retirement Community, a monetary schooling web site. “Utilities, meals waste and life-style inflation can quietly erode money circulate over a 20- to 30-year retirement. Even households with significant belongings have to handle longevity danger, healthcare uncertainty and rising residing prices.”
Boomers — who had been born between 1946 and 1964 — had been extra probably than Individuals on common to waste cash throughout purchasing journeys, whereas on trip or for particular events, the ballot of two,000 U.S. adults discovered. Their commonest set off was gross sales and reductions.
However, millennials, who had been born between 1981 and 1996, and Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012, had been extra prone to waste cash on-line late at night time. Members of Gen X, born between 1965 and 1980, had been probably the most susceptible to emotionally pushed purchasing however, together with boomers, had been more likely than youthful generations to withstand social-media developments and peer affect, the Motley Idiot survey confirmed.
Regardless of their wasteful methods, boomers are the wealthiest cohort in U.S. historical past. Many had been buoyed by the postwar financial growth, entry to inexpensive school educations and office pensions, and progress within the housing and inventory markets, MarketWatch just lately reported.
In keeping with broader developments within the financial system, nevertheless, their wealth just isn’t evenly distributed throughout the technology. Pew Analysis Heart discovered that the highest 10% of boomer households owned 71% of the technology’s general wealth.
As an illustration, Individuals 70 to 74, who fall in the midst of the present boomer age vary, have a median web value of about $476,000, together with house fairness, MarketWatch beforehand reported — that means half of the individuals in that group have a web value that’s decrease. The online value for these within the ninetieth percentile is almost $3.3 million, or 6.8 instances the median.
This wealth hole means that for a lot of boomers, wasteful spending habits may have a significant affect on their monetary well-being.
The “enormous inequality throughout the boomer technology itself” means “some have paid-off properties and powerful portfolios. Others rely virtually completely on Social Safety and have little or no margin for error,” Juan G. HernandezAriano, a monetary planner and principal at WealthCreate, advised MarketWatch.
In his expertise, boomers are largely “fairly cost-conscious in day-to-day spending,” however many are informal about bigger monetary selections that “slowly chip away at retirement safety,” similar to underestimating healthcare bills or being overly conservative with their investments.
Solely 40% of boomers — the youngest of whom are already 62 years outdated — are prepared for retirement, Vanguard estimates, that means their projected sustainable revenue exceeds their spending wants. These individuals are “concentrated among the many high 30% of revenue earners.”
There are different indicators that many boomers could also be victims of poor spending habits: Extra reported residing paycheck to paycheck — that means their spending on requirements took up greater than 95% of their revenue — in 2025 than in 2023, in keeping with the Financial institution of America Institute.
The common credit-card debt was $6,795 for boomers, 82.9% of whom had credit-card debt in 2025, the next price than millennials (77.9%) or Gen Z (72.2%), in keeping with Experian. They had been additionally the almost certainly to have home-equity strains of credit score.
Some might not even pay attention to their spending habits. Boomers had been extra probably than different generations to say they by no means waste cash — however “that doesn’t imply that there isn’t waste. It simply exhibits up slightly in another way,” Joel O’Leary, private finance skilled at Motley Idiot Cash, advised MarketWatch. “It’s extra like throwing away unused groceries or persevering with to go to Costco or a few of these costly shops and shopping for in bulk, after which throwing away a lot of it.”
Wasteful habits are dangerous once they begin to affect monetary safety. Whereas one-third of child boomers mentioned they needed to faucet their emergency financial savings within the final 12 months,16% of individuals on this age vary mentioned they don’t have any emergency financial savings, in keeping with 2025 Bankrate knowledge.
Like every client, boomers who wish to keep away from losing cash can contemplate monitoring and analyzing bills and slicing again on bills that don’t truly enhance their high quality of life.
Whereas Caro “wouldn’t describe wasteful spending as a defining boomer trait,” she famous that “many boomers had been raised by dad and mom who lived by the Nice Despair. That have tends to provide sturdy cash beliefs — generally within the route of maximum thrift, and generally in the other way. In households the place shortage was intense, the following technology can both internalize ‘waste not, need not’ or subconsciously react in opposition to it.”
