There’s a new term for an illogical coping mechanism when facing anxiety, particularly about finances: Are you guilty of ‘doom spending’?
In the days since voters re-elected former President Donald Trump, doom spending is on the rise. The term applies to a trend of spending money in response to anxiety. Ironically, the anxiety in question seems to center most on the economy and one’s financial health and future.
It’s illogical because when you’re worried about your finances, you should save, not spend. But many of us know all too well that anxiety can make us do strange things.
The Telegraph used an older term in describing how Gen Z folk are behaving: retail therapy.
Consider these facts from a recent article from Relevant:
Nearly half (44%) of Americans reported feeling pessimistic about their financial future, and a substantial portion of young people are forgoing savings entirely — 19% of Americans have no savings, and over a third say they don’t feel it’s worth saving due to uncertainty.
But it’s not just a Generation Z phenomenon. The article states that while 37% of Gen Zers doom-spend, slightly more of millennials — 39% — do.
For those who don’t have a scorecard and aren’t sure which generation applies to you, I wrote this piece a while back. I’m on the Baby Boomer side of Generation X. Apparently, we don’t doom-spend near as much. That, or we’re now considered too old for anyone to bother tracking.
But consider the irony: People feel pessimistic about their own financial future. So they spend more money, going into more debt. The debt only makes them more anxious.
I can’t be the only one that sees the problem with that kind of thinking.
Sure, I’ve committed “retail therapy” in the past. But there’s a point at which you have to realize that you’re setting yourself up for more trouble if you increase your debt because you’re worried about having too much debt.
Maybe they didn’t bother listing how Gen Xers are doing because they assume we must have figured all that out by now. I don’t think that’s necessarily true.
But if there’s anyone who’s benefitting from doom spending, it’s probably the credit card companies who are only too happy to see debt loads go up.
Maybe we can start a new trend: Doom saving. That’d make a lot more sense.
