Millionaire to young people: You could buy a house if you stopped eating so much avocado toast

You’ve heard all the stereotype about millennials: They’re lazy, they are uniquely obsessed with selfies, they live for Tinder hookups—the list goes on.

But one millionaire has decided there’s another bad thing about millennials: They absolutely cannot get enough avocado toast.

That’s right, avocado toast. If you haven’t heard, this is a trendy food sold in specialty breakfast restaurants that consists of two key ingredients (bread and avocado).

Australian property mogul Tim Gurner had a few choice words for the millennial generation when it comes to their brunch obsession: Just stop, then maybe you could buy a house.

“When I was trying to buy my first home, I wasn’t buying smashed avocado for $19 and four coffees at $4 each,” Gurner told the Australian news show 60 Minutes.

In summary, Gurner thinks the reason young people aren’t buying houses is because they can’t afford them. Because they’re eating too much avocado toast.

His comments went viral this week, earning lots of exaggerated eye rolls and think pieces about the real reasons young people can’t afford to buy a place. Add Australian millionaires to this list of people you should never take financial advice from, I guess?

One Twitter user tweeted: “Wow was just informed by my apartment complex that I’ll be evicted for attempting to pay rent with 350 slices of avocado toast.”

wow was just informed by my apartment complex that i'll be evicted for attempting to pay rent with 350 slices of avocado toast

— A West (@ayyy_west) May 16, 2017

Another said: “Don’t buy a house today and getchu a house by the end of the day. It’s totally possible.”

Don't buy any avocado toast today and getchu a house by the end of the day. It's totally possible.

— _ (@gwgfwe) May 16, 2017

Two Cents, the money section of the website Lifehacker, even created a sarcastic calculator that measures how many avocado toast outings you’ll need to skip to afford a house.

The Washingtonian threw some shade with a new piece titled simply “Here’s where you can ruin your future eating expensive avocado toast in D.C.”

(Totally unrelated, but before Gruner’s message went viral, there was this story about a real estate listing in Australia that promises free avocado toast for a year with the purchase of a house.)

The New York Times pointed out that home ownership is historically lower among young adults anyway. On top of that, since the 2008 financial crisis, home prices have gotten more expensive and wages haven’t kept up.

Not to mention crippling student loan debt, ridiculously high housing costs in tech-friendly markets such as San Francisco and Denver and the fact that young people just aren’t that into staying in one place (or at one job) for long periods of time. After all, they’re the creators of the gig economy, right?

Here’s what else Gruber had to say:

“We’re at a point now where the expectations of younger people are very, very high,” Gruner said. “They want to eat out every day, they want to travel to Europe every year. The people that own homes today worked very, very hard for it, saved every dollar, did everything they could to get up the property investment ladder.”

Yes, the overarching point of his message is sound. Stop spending, start saving. But hey, shouldn’t that advice apply to all of us?