Maligned millennials, rejoice: Cutting out avocado toast from your breakfast regimen will not buy you a house, or finance your retirementr.
So your savings habits have been vindicated.
Thanks to the avocado toast index, that is.
A major fracas erupted recently in the press after an Australian tycoon, worth somewhere around a half billion dollars, scolded millennials for indulging in trendy items and failing to save enough money to buy a home.
Millennials have already been criticized for not saving enough for retirement, despite their having to deal with lower-paying jobs and loads of student debt.
Life can be pretty bleak under those circumstances, but many have criticized millennials anyway for seeking to relieve the gloom by occasionally indulging in avocado toast brunches and coffee from baristas instead of a coffeepot on their kitchen counter.
One might think they’d be allowed a tad of indulgence, since they’re trying to survive an average of more than $30,000 in student debt and still have a life, pay their bills and put away a pittance for retirement.
But Tim Gurner said in an Australian version of 60 Minutes that millennials are too busy scarfing down that expensive toast slathered with mashed avocados, and washing it down with equally pricey lattes, to bother engaging in responsible self-denial and put that money into a fund for a down payment on a house.
Gurner, a property mogul, called millennials’ expectations unrealistic and said they have to buckle down and start saving. He was quoted in the report saying, “When I was trying to buy my first home, I wasn't buying smashed avocado for $19 and four coffees at $4 each. We’re at a point now where the expectations of younger people are very, very high.”
Gurner didn’t stop there, adding that millennials “want to eat out every day, they want travel to Europe every year. The people that own homes today worked very, very hard for it [and] saved every dollar, did everything they could to get up the property investment ladder.”
Well, the BBC took pity on the poor millennials after all this abuse and decided to see whether it truly was realistic to believe that an indulgence in avocado toast and coffee was enough to shut young people out of the housing market in 10 different cities worldwide.
And so it came up with the avocado toast index. Pure genius!
And while it’s not exactly comparing apples to apples, we thought it was worth taking a look to see just how much money those avocado toasts add up to, lest they also be preventing millennials from working toward a financially comfortable retirement.
It seems fair to say that even a taste for an exotic breakfast (well, not too exotic—after all, these are avocados we’re talking about, not Beluga caviar, thank goodness) is going to take a lot of meals before it consumes one’s retirement fund.
Here are the cities, relative costs of avocado toast, and the number of years (yes, years) it would take to come up with a 20 percent down payment on a house simply by abstaining.
House prices are based on the average price for a 90-square-meter apartment outside the city center, the BBC says, as reported by users of cost-of-living website Numbeo. That’s 968.752 square feet, by the way, not quite double the size of the typical studio apartment, so not exactly on the scale of Mar-a-Lago.
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10. Mexico City
Cost of avocado toast: $3.50
Apartment price: $85,883
Number of avocado toasts required to make up 20 percent deposit: 3,123
Number of years to give up avocado toasts to save that deposit: 9
At a single avocado toast breakfast per day, even in Mexico City, the least expensive housing market on the list, it would take a person 9 years of abstinence from avocado toast to come up with a 20 percent down payment on an apartment.
That’s a long time to go without breakfast.
Related: Women unprepared to inherit wealth or pass it on, study says
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9. Johannesburg
Cost of avocado toast: $5.50
Apartment price: $69,364
Number of avocado toasts required to make up 20 percent deposit: 3,964
Number of years to give up avocado toasts to save that deposit: 11
So breakfast is pricier in Johannesburg, but apartments aren’t.
Even at that rate, it would take someone 11 years to save up for an apartment by eating at home. One’s own kitchen walls will probably look pretty boring after staring at them for that many years.
Apartment price: $313,577
Number of avocado toasts required to make up 20 percent deposit: 6,968
Number of years to give up avocado toasts to save that deposit: 19
You’ll have your work cut out for you in Berlin trying to afford breakfast every day, never mind that apartment. It will take nearly twice as long to buy a place in Berlin, even going on that financial diet.
Related: Millennials weigh paying off student loans versus saving for retirement
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7. Tokyo
Cost of avocado toast: $10.50
Apartment price: $605,761
Number of avocado toasts required to make up 20 percent deposit: 11,538
Number of years to give up avocado toasts to save that deposit: 32
Tokyo is known to be a pricey city, so don’t get your hopes up that just by cutting out one little luxury you’ll be able to put down roots.
After all, that little apartment will cost you double here what it would have in Berlin. And if you ever expect to retire, you might want to think about a second job after you “retire” from the first.
Apartment price: $590,726
Number of avocado toasts required to make up 20 percent deposit: 11,815
Number of years to give up avocado toasts to save that deposit: 32
Technically Tokyo and Sydney are tied for how long it will take—32 years; millennials will be ready to retire by then!—to save for a home just by stinting on breakfast.
Either way, that’s a long time to do without a favorite. A dual career might be useful, so that you can have some income once you move in.
Related: Financial stress hazardous to emotional, physical health
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5. New York
Cost of avocado toast: $10.00
Apartment price: $606,726
Number of avocado toasts required to make up 20 percent deposit: 12,135
Number of years to give up avocado toasts to save that deposit: 33
Surprisingly, New York is not the most expensive city on the list, despite the fact that its housing costs are high and square footage is small.
But still, good luck trying to put together that 20 percent deposit just by skipping breakfast. Really. Good luck. You’ll need it. And maybe a third job.
Apartment price: $718,870
Number of avocado toasts required to make up 20 percent deposit: 15,975
Number of years to give up avocado toasts to save that deposit: 44
Even though breakfast is cheaper here, housing certainly isn’t. It will take a lot more effort than focusing on a single small indulgence to sock away enough for a home in the city by the bay.
Never mind the second and third jobs. Write a killer software program, or find a rich spouse.
Related: 10 cities adding the most millennials to the workforce
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3. Vancouver
Cost of avocado toast: $14.00
Apartment price: $435,518
Number of avocado toasts required to make up 20 percent deposit: 17,421
Number of years to give up avocado toasts to save that deposit: 48
In Vancouver, it’s more a function of how expensive breakfast is than how expensive a home is—but it still won’t get you to closing any time soon if you switch to scrambled eggs at home.
In fact, if you rely solely on skipping those avocado toasts to finance your home, you could be celebrating your golden wedding anniversary with your kids and grandkids—and maybe even great-grandkids!—just shortly after you have your housewarming.
Oh, wait; no time to celebrate. You’ll still be at work.
Related: Could homesharing solve millennials' and seniors' housing problems?
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2. Hong Kong
Cost of avocado toast: $14.00
Apartment price: $1,387,130
Number of avocado toasts required to make up 20 percent deposit: 19,816
Number of years to give up avocado toasts to save that deposit: 54
Never mind saving or retiring; you’ll still be working if you’re relying on breakfast savings to get you a home or a retirement. Better pick jobs you like, because you’ll be working at them for a long, long time.
Apartment price: $857,473
Number of avocado toasts required to make up 20 percent deposit: 24,499
Number of years to give up avocado toasts to save that deposit: 67
Even though both breakfast and housing are cheaper in London, you’ll spend the rest of your natural life just trying to scrape up that down payment using avocado toast as a measure for saving.
And once again, forget about retirement. Maybe you could rent yourself out as an exhibit in a wax museum as an example of how not to save for a home or for retirement.
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