What worked for boomers doesn’t always hold up in today’s completely different financial world.

Boomers came up during a time when stable jobs, pensions, and homeownership were practically guaranteed paths to building wealth. Many of their financial habits were shaped by that era—and while some of those moves still make sense today, plenty of them feel completely out of touch to younger generations. Millennials and Gen Z see a totally different economic landscape, one where wages lag behind inflation, housing prices have skyrocketed, and markets feel anything but predictable.
That’s why some classic boomer investment strategies get mocked or flat-out rejected by younger investors who feel like they’re playing an entirely different game. What once built solid retirements can now seem outdated, risky, or tone-deaf to people navigating student loan debt, housing shortages, and unstable job markets. These 11 investment strategies might have worked back then, but many younger folks aren’t buying into them anymore.