Spending Habits 'Upper Class' Millennials Have That Boomers Don't

Young people learn a lot from their elders. They grow up in an environment framed by their parents and other family members before moving out into the world and making sense of things with the help of different perspectives. Adults navigating the contemporary workplace and savings landscape are generally found within three age-group buckets today. Some of the youngest professionals in the workforce are a part of the Generation Z cohort, while a bulk of modern workers are millennials (aged 29 to 44 in 2025). Meanwhile, older members of the older Generation X and baby boomers are retired already (indeed, with a strong enough savings profile, it's entirely possible to hit your retirement goals at 50). 

But one of the starkest contrasts across different cohorts and financial statuses comes when comparing what wealthier millennials spend on that baby boomers don't. Millennials are generally perceived as being worse off than boomers financially, and while the latter certainly hold more wealth as a group, upper-class millennials are wealthier than folks in the baby boomer cohort, according to a study published in the University of Chicago Press. 

Baby boomers were working and saving through the Dot-com bubble implosion and the housing market collapse, while millennials call the post-pandemic world their working home. Lots of external factors impact the way people prioritize spending, and the difference between the decisions of upper-class millennials compared to baby boomers is striking, to say the least. Naturally, these two groups have different lifestyle needs, but the way they spend and save in relation to one another says a lot about how the world is changing and how workers are reacting to those shifts.

Millennial savers are far more likely to have derived a portion of their wealth from inheritances and gifts from loved ones than their older counterparts. This is an important starting point, and it helps contextualize a key change that many younger people are making in their budgetary math. Plenty of older Americans have real estate and cash savings to pass on to loved ones. Inheriting a 401(k) plan, for instance, is a fairly common experience today. Inheriting cash or assets in can easily kickstart or supercharge a younger saver's investment journey.

However, where younger people depart from the sentiments of their loved ones is twofold. For one thing, per the Worth's 2024 Millennial Mindset Report, millennials are still investing heavily in ETFs and other bundled tools, but they're doing so at a significantly lower rate. Whereas these tools represent 31% of wealthy millennials' investment returns, they make up 61% of returns for baby boomers. Instead, the younger cohort invests more in real estate, while also dabbling in alternative investments like cryptocurrencies, gold, and high-interest savings accounts. Every other category has seen a notable rise in participation among younger investors. Similarly, millennials are two times less likely to pay a financial advisor to help them with their investments than boomers, keeping more money in their accounts and doing all the research themselves.

Wealthy millennials are largely in line with the older generations when it comes to the idea of purchasing flashy items and luxury goods, according to Worth's research. However, the same survey results show that younger people were far more likely to answer affirmatively when asked if they like to "show off my wealth and success," as well as placing a lot of weight on "the impression I make on others." Consequently, it's not surprising younger people are more likely than baby boomers to invest in luxury personal items and highly visible fashion brands. Buying luxury goods can be an avenue toward purchasing long-lasting commodity assets that will deliver greater general value. However, it's also possible to fall into a splurge trap and throw money around on luxury items for the status symbol they provide.

However, some of millennials' self-investments focus on personal growth. Millennials are far more likely to have gone to college than their boomer parents or grandparents. According to reporting from Education Data Initiative, there's a striking uptick in college enrollment that begins in 2000 and peaks a decade later. That corresponds notably well with the age of high school matriculation among millennials. Overall, roughly 40% of millennials have at least a bachelor's degree, compared to approximately 25% of boomers, per a Pew Research Center study. 

An investment in education is always worthwhile, but it's also important to be realistic about what that means. For many millennials, society drove home the importance of going to college. After all, who can forget the father from 2006's "Accepted" forcefully stating: "You want to have a happy and successful life, you go to college. If you want to be somebody, you go to college."

According to the Worth survey, 94% of wealthy millennials own a home. With the oldest among this cohort at 44, that means virtually all of them are paying back the bank. In contrast, baby boomers are either at the tail end of their mortgage journey or have been finished with the expense for many years (with the youngest boomers at the age of 61). The average monthly mortgage payment in 2025 is $2,329, per Rocket Mortgage. Of course, older Americans have their own budget crunches, and there's often some particularly important financial demand to consider (for seniors, this might be health care costs, for example). Yet, a persistent and unflinching mortgage payment is something that can limit mobility in other areas of the budget. Even for a wealthy worker with plenty of incoming cash, monthly mortgage payments act as a heavy weight. 

This limitation conflicts with another important spending priority of many wealthy millennials, 51% of whom would prefer a lower-paying job if that meant an improved work-life balance. Baby boomers are far less likely to feel the same way, with the number of respondents prioritizing a work-life balance over money 27% lower than among millennials. Unfortunately, with plenty of Americans spending above the recommended 30% threshold on housing expenses, that choice isn't always available, even for upper-class homeowners.

Since 71% of upper-class millennials have at least one child (according to Worth's findings), a great many households in this age group have childcare services tacked onto their budgets (unlike baby boomers, whose kids are now adults). In 2025, the annual childcare costs average at nearly $30,000 in the United States, according to a LendingTree study, with daycare fees comprising about 60% of this amount. Upper-class households may have an easier time shouldering this burden than those earning substantially less. 

But breaking into the upper class requires a blend of financial traits. Chief among them is an ability to draw a significant paycheck. Millennials see $100,000 incomes as the tipping point into this financial classification. But even those earning big paychecks can quickly find themselves living without financial flexibility, especially when they're forced to spend on childcare. For many, the only way to avoid falling into a lifestyle of high earnings hamstrung by equally high financial obligations is to maintain a two-income household. Tax Foundation found in 2013 that the vast majority of married households feature two working adults rather than one — an arrangement that dominated the lifestyles of baby boomers during the heyday of their working years.

On the other hand, if a couple decides to forgo paying the high daycare costs with one of the parents staying home to care for the child, the choice to stop working is frequently relegated to the mother. Lower earners may have no choice but to drop out of the workforce, freezing their ability to continue utilizing hard-earned skills for future job opportunities. Childcare is as much about logistics as it is about personal mobility and autonomy for one or both parents (but usually mothers). Despite being burdened with the high costs, upper-class millennials have more flexibility in this regard.