9 problems boomers solved with nothing but common sense and stubbornness that younger generations now consider impossible without professional guidance and honestly both approaches work but only one of them was free

Last week, my millennial neighbor spent $300 on a career coach to help her decide whether to apply for a promotion she was already qualified for. The same day, I watched my 72-year-old friend negotiate a better deal on her car insurance by simply calling and saying "This is too expensive, what else you got?" One approach involved three sessions, personality assessments, and a vision board. The other took fifteen minutes and a cup of coffee.

This got me thinking about all the problems my generation tackled with nothing more than determination and whatever wisdom we could scrape together from experience. We didn't have life coaches, wellness apps, or YouTube tutorials. We had stubbornness, neighbors who minded your business whether you wanted them to or not, and the absolute certainty that nobody was coming to save us.

1. Figuring out what to do with your life without a career coach

Remember when choosing a career meant looking at what jobs existed in your town and picking one you could tolerate? We didn't take aptitude tests or hire consultants. My first teaching job came about because the school needed someone who could diagram sentences and tolerate teenagers. During my 32 years in the classroom, I watched countless colleagues stumble into education the same way - not through careful planning but through a combination of necessity and opportunity. We learned what we were good at by doing it badly first, then slightly less badly, until eventually we were competent enough that people stopped complaining.

2. Dealing with anxiety without a therapist on speed dial

We called it "nerves" back then, and the prescription was usually to get busy. When I was going through my divorce and raising two kids alone, anxiety was a luxury I couldn't afford. You know what works remarkably well for anxiety? Having absolutely no time to indulge it. Between teaching full time, grading papers until midnight, and making sure my kids had clean clothes and something resembling vegetables on their plates, there wasn't space for panic attacks. We processed our feelings while folding laundry or crying in the car during lunch breaks. Not ideal, but surprisingly effective.

3. Managing money without financial advisors or apps

The envelope system wasn't trendy; it was survival. Rent money went in one envelope, grocery money in another, and if the envelopes were empty, you got creative. I became a master at making a chicken last four meals and convincing my kids that breakfast for dinner was a special treat rather than a sign that payday was still three days away. For two years, I swallowed my pride and accepted food stamps, learning that budgeting meant knowing exactly how many boxes of generic mac and cheese equaled one name-brand box of cereal in my kids' happiness calculations.

4. Raising children without parenting experts

We had Dr. Spock's book, usually inherited from our mothers with suspicious stains on the fever chapter, and that was about it. No mommy blogs, no attachment parenting versus cry-it-out debates. When my daughter wouldn't sleep, I tried everything from rocking to ignoring to bribing with promises of Saturday morning cartoons. Eventually, something worked, though I'm still not sure what. The real secret was that every parent was making it up as they went along, and somehow most kids turned out reasonably functional.

5. Fixing relationship problems without couples counseling

Have you ever tried to work through marital problems using only long walks, burnt casseroles thrown in anger, and eventually, grudging conversations over coffee? Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. My marriage didn't survive, and in an era when divorce still carried real stigma, I had to rebuild my entire sense of self using nothing but spite and the occasional pep talk from my mother. But I watched plenty of couples work through their problems by simply refusing to quit, talking until they were too tired to fight, and remembering why they chose each other in the first place.

6. Getting in shape without personal trainers

Jane Fonda on VHS and walking around the neighborhood was the entire fitness industry for most of us. We didn't track our steps because the only goal was to move enough that our backs didn't hurt and we could still chase our kids. Exercise was utilitarian - garden work, hauling groceries, dancing badly at weddings. Nobody optimized their workout routine because nobody knew what that meant.

7. Eating healthy without nutritionists

The food pyramid was wrong, but at least it was simple. We ate vegetables because our mothers told us to, limited dessert to special occasions when we could afford it, and called it good enough. No superfoods, no elimination diets, no careful macro counting. Just regular food, prepared at home because restaurants were for birthdays and anniversaries.

8. Finding purpose without life coaches

"What should I do with my life?" wasn't a question we had time to ask. Purpose found us in the form of bills that needed paying and kids that needed raising. As I wrote in my piece about rediscovering passion after 60, sometimes purpose isn't a calling; it's just the next right thing to do. My purpose was teaching because someone had to help those kids understand Shakespeare, and apparently, I was the only one available who knew the difference between a sonnet and a sandwich.

9. Dealing with grief and loss without grief counselors

We had casseroles from neighbors, awkward hugs from relatives, and the understanding that you just kept going because what else was there to do? Grief was processed while doing dishes, during long drives, in the shower where nobody could hear you cry. We learned that time didn't heal all wounds but it did make them bearable, and that was enough.

Final thoughts

Here's what I've learned after all these years: both approaches work. My generation's stubborn self-reliance got us through, but it also left some scars that might have been avoided with professional help. Today's generation has resources we could only dream of, and they're wise to use them. The only real difference is that our method was free, born of necessity rather than choice. We solved problems because we had to, with whatever tools were lying around. Sometimes that meant wisdom, sometimes it meant whiskey, and sometimes it just meant waiting until tomorrow to see if things looked better. They usually did, or at least different enough that we could pretend they were better.