KEY POINTS
- “Doom spending” occurs when you spend to cope with stress from such things as the economy and your finances.
- 27% of survey respondents admitted to doom spending, and 32% have taken on more debt in the last six months.
- Doom spending may be even more common among millennials (43% reported doing it) and Gen Z folks (35% ).
- Why not doom save instead and opt for some of the many low-cost or even free ways to deal with stress?
What should you do when you are worried about your finances and the economy? Gee, how about spending even more money? Yep, that’s what many in the U.S. seem to be doing these days, with about 96% of surveyed Americans being concerned about the current state of the economy.
Indeed, 27% of respondents to a recent survey conducted by Qualtrics and commissioned by Intuit Credit Karma admitted to “doom spending,” and 32% have taken on more debt in the last six months. Welcome to the rather counterintuitive phenomenon of many people not reading the doom correctly.
“Doom spending” occurs when you are stressed about things like the growing economic disparity between you and the super-rich, the political mess in the U.S., the climate mess everywhere, and all of the other stuff that’s been making 2023 into 2020-eeee, and then end up buying more things to cope with the stress. Isn’t spending money when you are concerned about not having enough money kind of like jumping into a lake because you are worried about the rain getting your clothes wet? Naturally, forking out cash that you don’t quite have can plunge you into debt. Or deeper into debt.