Boomer With Trust Fund Says Nobody Today Is Willing To Work Hard Enough To Make A Good Living
Perfect Wave / Shutterstock Older generations often struggle to understand the challenges younger generations are facing. They were able to go to college, buy a house, and start a family on one salary. Nowadays, working a full-time job isn't even enough to cover the rising cost of living and insurmountable debt that many workers deal with every day.
However, one boomer doesn't seem to realize this, and it's partly because he grew up with a trust fund. In his eyes, young adults are the problem, and they could simply make more money if they put in the effort.
A man shared his boomer relative's out-of-touch opinions about younger generations.
In a recent post, one man described a conversation that his father overheard between a few of their relatives. He said that one of his father's cousins, who is a boomer, complained that "Kids (and he was meaning those of his kids' age - 35-45), these days don't know how to work hard enough to make good money. Their work ethic is trash. They want everything handed to them without effort."
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Another relative was quick to ask, "Don't you have a trust fund?" It turns out that this boomer cousin was gifted a trust fund when he was roughly 18 that paid out $1,500 every month for the rest of his life. He was able to retire at 50, as the user explained, "Granted, $1,500 isn't much by today's standards, but it allowed him to get an education, buy a house at an early age, and allowed him to live debt-free his entire life."
He also acknowledged that the trust fund likely pays more each month to the boomer cousin now, due to accumulated interest over several decades. According to the user, "He didn't have to work when he graduated, but he made investments his father suggested, and because of it he's led an especially good life."
The problem isn't that people don't want to work; it's that landing a job feels nearly impossible.
Younger generations were always told to just get a college degree, and they'd be able to secure a stable job right away. Unfortunately, this isn't really the case anymore. Many are facing a tough reality where they send out hundreds of applications and still struggle to get even one interview. Most often, they end up getting passed over or totally ghosted.
As of September 2025, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that "Nearly two million job seekers have been out of the workforce for more than 27 weeks, which amounts to about a quarter of all unemployed people."
The entry-level positions that haven't already been replaced by artificial intelligence are being filled by older and more competitive candidates, which leaves recent graduates without any way to get the experience needed to get a job.
Even for people who do have jobs, many don't get paid enough to survive in the current economy.
Commenters on the post said that, even if $1,500 a month isn't a lot in the modern day, it would still be a life-changing amount of money for them. One user wrote, "I could live off $1,500 a month. I would have a very tight budget so I would probably work part time but having that as a safety net would be so nice."
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The 2024 Dayforce Living Wage Index revealed that only 56% of full-time workers in the U.S. are making a livable wage. That leaves 44% who are forced to work overtime, take on an extra job, or sacrifice basic needs to support themself and their family.
Though the boomer cousin doesn't have much control over a trust fund that was gifted to him, he shouldn't be so quick to judge those who didn't grow up with the same advantages that he had. The job market and economy are very different from when he was young, and he didn't face any of the same challenges as younger generations do.
Kayla Asbach is a writer currently working on her bachelor's degree at the University of Central Florida. She covers relationships, psychology, self-help, pop culture, and human interest topics.
