It’s easy to blame baby boomers for today’s financial struggles like housing costs or student debt. But according to personal finance expert Rachel Cruze, the problems may run deeper than any single generation.
Here are some examples of money struggles faced by younger generations, some of which may have been influenced by the baby boomer generation and some of which have nothing to do with them at all.
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Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that 44% of high school grads born between 1960 to 1964 and approximately 73% of high school grads born from 1980 to 1984 obtained either a two-year or a four-year college degree, reported Cruze, showing a nearly 30% increase in college attendance over just 20 years — which correlates with a huge increase in student loans.
She went on to explain that some boomers may have even been the first in the family to get a college degree, and may have encouraged their millennial children to get a college degree as well. With student loans being readily available it was possible to go to college and figure out student loan debt later.
According to a 2024 Pew Research Center survey, 22% of Americans feel the cost of a college degree is worth taking on a student loan. Even parents are willing to tackle loans for their child’s college degree. To help cover rising college costs, the Department of Education offers Parent Plus loans for parents of dependent undergrads. Over the past decade, the amount borrowed through these loans has surged more than 75%, climbing from about $62 billion in 2014 to nearly $110 billion in 2024, according to the Institute of Education Sciences.
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Cruze noted that boomers historically have been less likely to participate in self-care, avoiding things like visiting the doctor and getting help with mental health issues. Comparatively, millennials are concerned with self-care physically and emotionally. The boomers’ poor habits could have caused the millennials and Gen Z to swing the other way, but Cruze remarked that she is not sure if they are to blame or not.
McKinsey & Company estimates the U.S. wellness market at over $500 billion annually, with younger generations (including millennials) driving that spending.
Even though borrowing money for consumer goods was thought to be irresponsible and immoral in the early 1900s, after the Great Depression, it was necessary and became an accepted option, shared Cruze. The boomer generation was among the first to take on credit card debt and car loans.