What's a piece of obviously outdated advice from your parents that turned out to still be right

[Matthew51]

Every generation rolls their eyes at some piece of advice from their parents that sounds hopelessly old fashioned at first, and then years later you find yourself grudgingly admitting it was actually correct the entire time, so I'm curious what people's own version of that experience has genuinely been

Mine was my dad constantly insisting I keep a small emergency cash reserve on hand rather than relying entirely on cards, which felt completely pointless and unnecessary in an increasingly cashless world right up until the exact moment a payment system outage left me stranded somewhere with genuinely no way at all to pay for anything

There's a whole category of this kind of advice around genuinely basic financial habits specifically, pay yourself first before spending anything else, avoid unnecessary debt wherever possible, that all sounded hopelessly boring and outdated as a kid and then turns out to be exactly the foundational advice that actually keeps people financially stable as an adult over the long run

What's interesting is how much of this advice actually gets dismissed specifically because it sounds so simple and obvious on its face, not because it's genuinely wrong in any way, there's a real tendency to assume anything that isn't sophisticated or complicated somehow can't possibly be the correct answer to a given problem

Curious whether people think this pattern is mostly just a universal generational thing that repeats endlessly regardless of the specific era, or whether there's something genuinely different happening now given how much faster technology and general lifestyle patterns keep shifting compared to previous generations

[EdgeRatedR]

The emergency cash point is such a perfect example, felt completely paranoid and unnecessary until literally the one single time it actually mattered, and suddenly you're extremely grateful you kept ignoring your own instinct to stop bothering

[Di46]

Financial basics being dismissed purely for sounding boring rather than for actually being wrong is exactly right, sophistication isn't the same thing as correctness, most good advice actually is fairly simple on its face

[Jackson77]

My mom always insisted on a proper skincare routine from a young age, felt completely unnecessary as a teenager and now as an adult I'm extremely grateful I actually listened to her on that one specific point

[Lowkey]

Write things down instead of trusting your memory alone was the advice I dismissed hardest as outdated, and now here I am years later using digital notes constantly for literally the exact same fundamental underlying reason

[Rory_39]

Think this pattern really is universal across generations rather than being anything new specifically, every single generation assumes their own particular circumstances are so unique that older established wisdom simply can't possibly apply to them anymore

[Mike40]

Must eat your greens

[Hawk38]

Always keep a physical paper map in the car was my dad's version of this exact same lesson, felt pointless in the smartphone GPS era right up until my phone died completely at the worst possible moment on a real road trip