Americans are 'doom spending' — here's why that's a problem
www.cnbc.com
As financial fears mount, some Americans are "doom spending," or spending money despite their economic and geopolitical concerns, as a way to cope with stress.
  • Nommer@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    7 months ago

    No were not doom spending. We literally don’t have cash to save up. What else are we supposed to do? Live in a run down car by the river and not spend a dime on anything so we can pretend to have a retirement?

  • Star@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    0·
    7 months ago

    Why save money when the cost of everything rises exponentially faster than my savings add up?

    My dad was an immigrant juat learning English. He biked to a mechanics shop and asked for a job. He got it at $8/hr. 3 months later some guy quit and the owner asked my dad to promote and now he was making $12/hr.

    He bought a 4 bed 2 bath 2 car garage home on a quarter acre for $180,000.

    My mom bought a similar home for $80,000 because of the bubble crash. In a very populated city, not rural. Fted Meyer (an everything store) was half a mile away.

    My parents bought their last home more than 10 years ago. It’s worth almost a million now. The mortgage is $2,000. To rent a studio apartment in the same area is $1,800.

    What’s there to save for?

  • RagnarokOnline@reddthat.com
    0·
    7 months ago

    Jessica Dickler, why the FUCK would I wait for the value of my cash to disintegrate when I could get 1.08x more tacos today than if I put that money in savings and bought tacos with it next year?

  • OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee
    0·
    7 months ago

    “Doom spending” isn’t a thing. They’re just spending. It’s morally neutral but it’s a good thing if you like GDP to go up.

  • jmp242@sopuli.xyz
    0·
    7 months ago

    The thing is, I agree with striking a balance if possible - try as best as possible to hedge your bets. That said, I also think that I know plenty of people who put off stuff because of financial responsibility or saving, and then end up unable to ever get much out of that. By the time you might retire, you’re going to be 68? You might well die first, you definitely won’t be as able to travel or take on many hobbies as you could when you’re 20,30,40…

    Unless you get to be a multi millionaire - you’re basically going to be divesting any assets you have till Medicare kicks in if you get really ill at some point, or you’re going to be relying on family, or you’ll die before that happens. In any of those cases, why do you want to have more money to give to the medical system before medicare kicks in?

    If you want to leave a bunch of money to your heirs - well, figure that out I guess, but I’d suggest that genZ etc are not really interested in having 0 life so they can give a fat check to potential kids 50+ years down the road. Know what you want, but otherwise you’re hoping we manage to keep Social Security and maybe you get a 401k, but having a large normal savings account or a big personal investment account just generally seems like a losing game.