People are flooding to social media to weigh in on a magazine advert from 1996 which depressingly ‘sums up everything from our generation onwards’.

Thirty years ago, everyone probably thought the world was going to turn out a lot more different than it has – take the coronavirus pandemic for example. And no one could’ve predicted all the tomfoolery which has occurred in just three decades, not even the living Nostradamus.

However, an insurance magazine advert from 1996 has ruffled social media users’ feathers after a few of its predictions hit a bit too close to home.

In a magazine released in 1996, the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA) and College Retirement Equities Fund (CREF) posted an advert to warn people against splashing the cash too quickly and making sure to save up for a rainy day – or just the bleak future to be honest – and start investing, saving or thinking about insurance with them in a bid to ‘outpace inflation’.

There’s only one word for this ad – bleak. (X / TIAA/CREF)

The advert read: “They say in thirty years a burger & fries could cost $16, a vacation for $12,500, and a basic car for $65,000.

“No problem. You’ll eat in. You won’t drive. And you won’t go anywhere.”

The advert added: “Granted, sitting around the house may not be your idea of the perfect retirement. But what’s your choice when inflation is slowly but surely eroding the value of your nest egg?”

And it’s not taken long for people to weigh in on just how accurate the companies’ predictions for 30 years in the future – which will be in the year 2026 – are.

The image has gone viral on social media, with one Instagrammer commenting: “They were right.”

“Lmao so accurate,” another wrote, as a third commented: “Time to eat the rich.”

Reddit user/ ThriftStoreWh*res added: “This ad in a magazine from 1996 sums up everything from our generation onwards.”

However, another noted: “Most of these are actually less, though considering it still hasn’t been 30 years yet and car manufacturers are slowly transitioning to electric cars, those at the moment cost right around that price.”

So, just how accurate is the ad?

And we’ve still got two more years to go… (Getty Stock Images/ Guido Mieth)

Well, the average cost of a burger and fries in the US as of last year went up to $15.88 by June 2023, as per new data from Toast quoted in a report by Restaurant Business Online.

So, that’s only around 20 cents off the ad’s prediction and if you add fries into the mix too? Well, I’ll just let you process that one in for a sec.

The cost of a vacation may not quite be as staggering as $12,500 – unless you decide to go on a five-star trip to the Maldives with business class flights that is – but it’ll still put a pinch on your wallet amid a cost of living crisis.

According to Pacaso, the average vacation cost for 2024 is $1,040 for two people for a week of travel.

And the average cost of a new car in the US in 2024 is ‘over $47,000’ as per Fortune, which once more, isn’t wildly far off the ad’s predictions.

Also, don’t forget there’s still two more years until 2026 too. Bleak, we know.