19 "Don't Do It" Purchases Older Adults Are Warning Millennials And Gen Z Not To Make

We've all been let down by a purchase that didn't exactly meet our expectations.

And, in adulthood, buyer's remorse can sting a little harder — especially when those purchases become bigger and have more financial consequences.

Because none of us want to make the wrong bet, I asked older adults in the BuzzFeed Community to share the purchases they'd never recommend Gen Z'ers, Millennials, or any young adult make.

Here's everything they shared:

1."Don't buy extended warranties! Save your money. Over my 40 years of not buying them, there were only two times I might have been able to use one. Especially don't buy them on inexpensive items or on items like laptops where the technology changes so rapidly. Makes no sense."

2."Sort of a niche answer, but maybe someone will appreciate: Whole-life insurance is a rip-off. Super profitable for the company selling it. It's about 5x the cost of basic term life, and it comes with an investment account, but you can create the same setup yourself by buying the cheaper term life for 20% of the cost and putting the remaining 80% you saved yourself into your own investment account (retirement or whatever). You'll come out far ahead of where the whole-life policy would have gotten you."

—collapse

3."Don't get hyped up by sales. They always tell you that it will end tomorrow, and it will, but the day after tomorrow, there will be another one. Pay when you're ready; prices will generally only go down (except for the new stuff). In some cases, be willing to go refurbished. You will often get something as good as the condition your new item would have been in after one month of usage."

4."The latest tech device. Wait six months, and it will be cheaper. You may not even want it anymore, especially once the hype is over."

—Anonymous

5."Cars. Definitely cars. I recently worked with a young man who couldn't figure out how my wife and I run a household off our combined income. I determined that between his monthly payment, insurance, and tags (registration fees are determined by the vehicle's book value in this state), he was paying more month to month than we are on a 15-year mortgage. Cars. I don't get it."

6."Single-use kitchen gadgets and tools. Sure, the waffle maker is cute, but you have to store all of these things. Buy tools that can help with more than one task."

—Anonymous

7."I'm 47. Don't fool yourself into going into debt on anything that is motivated by impressing others. Whoever you think cares about your designer purse, brand new car, or leather furniture, remember they aren't the ones to deal with your bills. And no one is impressed by someone drowning in debt."

8."Timeshares. Don’t ever buy them."

—Anonymous

9."Home warranties! Stay away from them because it's a complete scam. I thought they helped cover the expensive appliances and the $7,000 furnace or A/C unit, but NOPE. They just keep fixing it with old and used parts. In addition, they take forever to schedule emergencies."

"Our A/C went out when it was 80+ degrees out. It took two weeks to get someone to look at it, an additional two weeks just to get the part, AND then an additional two weeks to get it fixed. We had to find somewhere to live since I just gave birth to our newborn. Ultimately, we canceled the home warranty and had to buy a whole new A/C Unit."

—smellydaisy347

10."A fixer-upper house. Buying a house is super difficult and expensive right now, and I get that. But buying a house that needs a ton of work is going to suck up all your free time and money in ways you don't expect. If you live in it long enough, you will then need to do maintenance on things you installed."

11.Similarly, "Don't buy a house unless you know you really want to live there. It's a huge anchor to a single location. I grew up in a fairly small town with the idea that I was supposed to get married, buy a house, and have kids. So, when I was 23, I was making OK money, and I had enough to put a down payment on a tiny house. After a few years, I realized I didn't want to get married and have kids; I wanted to travel and live in a bigger city."

"Trying to rent out my place and dealing with it from another city, even with a rental company, was a huge pain. I was lucky that I bought it in a bit of a downturn and ended up selling it during COVID-19 when prices spiked. Even with all the maintenance costs, rental agency fees, taxes, and more, I made a bit of money; however, I probably would have made about the same amount had I just invested in a low-fee S&P 500 index fund, and I wouldn't have had any of the stress."

—Anonymous

12."Don't ruin your bank account or credit score for wild wedding nonsense. You don't need to spend 30, 40, 50 thousand dollars on a wedding for it to be memorable. You don't need a more-expensive-than-a-year's-salary-priced ring to 'prove' he loves you. You don't need nor should you have to go into years of debt for some wild nonsense the often predatory wedding industry swears you have to have for a special day. The wedding industry preys on women by saying it won't be a perfect day or special enough if she doesn't spend a billion dollars for just one day of special."

13."Formal wedding china. I just sold mine after 21 years and only used them a handful of times."

—Anonymous

14."A swing set for your kids. It seems like a great idea, but kids play on it for a few weeks, then nada. Plus, they are hard to mow around and take up yard space you could use for doing something fun together!"

15."Anything with a store credit card. It seems great in the moment to get an extra 10% off or some free coupons, but most store credit cards come with a STEEP interest fee that you'll be regretting for months (years) to come."

—Anonymous

16."Porn, OnlyFans subscriptions. Nothing creates a false sense of reality, breeds misogyny, creates such easy dependence and harm, or is so readily available and addictive more. I really worry about young people's access to pornography."

—Sasha Kyääti

17."Coming of age in the early 00s at the height of Sex and the City meant coveting designer everything. I dreamed of owning Manolo Blahniks and scrimped, saved, and studied so that I could buy designer shoes and bags off of eBay (the only place I could afford them). I look back on it now and think about what a complete waste of time and money it was. Now that I can actually afford those things, I wouldn't be caught dead tastelessly flaunting my 'wealth' in front of other people like that."

18."Spending $300 a month at Starbucks, aka drinking awful-tasting coffee to look cool."

—pisorsisaac

And lastly:

19."I'm 70 years old. I've seen things come and go and, sometimes, come around again. Think about what you're going to spend your money on. Do you need it, or just want it because everyone else has it? Try to buy quality products that have a reputation for being long-lasting."

"When looking at reviews, of course, the 5s and 1s give you the good, the bad, and the ugly (yes, I'm a Clint Eastwood fan). Read the 3s out of 5. There, you'll find why they liked the product, but also the problems/issues. You'll find the best info there. One thing I have learned is that stuff does NOT buy you happiness. Your in-person relationships do. Doing things with the ones you love is what's important."

—Anonymous

Do you agree with these takes? Let us know, and if you have any other purchases to avoid that you want to add, pop 'em down in the comments or at this anonymous form.