When we talk about the legacy we’re leaving our grandkids, we usually mean values, memories, maybe a wristwatch with a story.
But there’s another inheritance we don’t talk about: the pressure to succeed in a rigged financial game.
Our generation, often with the best intentions, has handed down a system where young people start their adult lives in the red—and I don’t mean emotionally. I mean debt. And not the kind you can bounce back from. The kind that sticks like a shadow.
[[ This is a summary of Scott Galloway’s rant From The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway: 30 Apr 2025. So examples and figures are from USA but this can be extrapolated across developed countries]]
🎓 The College Con
We told them that a university degree was the golden ticket.
We celebrated elite colleges that pride themselves on rejecting good kids.
We made it a badge of shame if they didn’t get in—or didn’t want to go.
So they borrowed big. Not just money, but belief: that a $100,000 degree would lead to a $100,000 job. Many ended up with $40,000 salaries and a lifetime of repayments they can’t walk away from. Not even bankruptcy offers mercy.
We call that “investing in yourself.” I call it setting them up to fail, politely.
🏠 The Adulting Illusion
Next, we handed them the myth of the mortgage: “If you don’t own a home, you’re not a grown-up.”
Never mind the $300k loan on a house worth $190k. Or the hidden costs—maintenance, property tax, the roof that waits until Christmas Eve to leak.
We turned adulting into a performance, where success was measured in square footage and kitchen islands.
💳 The Consumption Trap
Then came the “Buy Now, Pay Forever” era. Credit cards, payday loans, burritos on lay-by. (Yes, burritos.)
When your grandkids are being offered payment plans for tacos and festival outfits, it’s not empowerment. It’s economic entrapment wrapped in neon branding.
🤝 Be Their Kitchen Cabinet
They don’t need more motivational posters. They need someone who will say:
“What’s the ROI on that degree?”
“Will that car make you happy… or just broke?”
“Who benefits most from you saying yes to this loan?”
That someone could be you.
Not as the sermonizing elder who “walked uphill both ways,” but as the wise counsel who’s made your share of financial faceplants—and lived to laugh about it.
🧠 Teach the Real Curriculum
They don’t teach financial literacy in most schools. That’s our cue.
Let’s show them the difference between:
Financing an asset and financing a lifestyle.
Debt that buys opportunity and debt that buys identity.
Investing in the future and outsourcing the present.
❤️ Be the Grandad Who Gets It
Here’s what breaks Scott’s heart:
40% of Americans carry medical or dental debt.
College loans are inescapable.
We’ve created a system where even being healthy and hopeful comes with monthly interest.
Our grandkids didn’t build that system. But they’re expected to thrive in it.
So let’s not just leave them money. Let’s leave them wisdom.
Let’s not just give them stuff. Let’s give them a lens.
Let’s help them see debt for what it is: not just a financial decision, but a life decision.
Because the best grandad doesn’t just tell them what to do—he teaches them how to think.