Mario Tama | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Retail therapy is thinly coating voters’ anxieties from the presidential election — and their wallets know it.
About 27% of polled shoppers say they are “doom spending” — that is, spending cash despite concerns about the economy and foreign affairs — according to a new report by Intuit Credit Karma. The habit is more prevalent among younger generations, with 37% of Gen Zers and 39% of millennials saying they do it.
More than half, or 60%, of Americans surveyed are concerned with the state of the world and economy, more than they were a year ago. The site polled 1,001 U.S. adults in late October.
Top worries among doom spenders include the cost of living (55%), inflation (43%), and the presidential election (28%), the report found.
More than a third, 36%, of respondents say they can’t rationalize saving money due to feelings of uncertainty about the world and economy, per Intuit Credit Karma. That jumps to 47% of Gen Z and 43% of millennials.
Shoppers want a ‘sense of control’
Shoppers might be looking for “a sense of control, especially in a time period where it feels like so much is out of your control,” said Courtney Alev, consumer financial advocate at Credit Karma.
“Doom spending” affects young people the most as they happen to be “chronically online,” or spend a large amount of time on the internet and social media, Alev said.
To that point, 70% of Gen Zers and 52% of millennials consider themselves to be “chronically online,” Credit Karma found.
“If you’re already online reading all about the things happening in the world, it’s more likely that you’re going to really stress out and then look for those coping mechanisms,” Alev said.
More from Personal Finance:
How the ‘vibecession’ is influencing investors this election year
Presidential election offers opportunities and risks — for ETF investors
What top advisors tell investors about the markets during elections
Shoppers who report making impulse purchases based on social media spent an average $754 over the course of a year, according to a 2023 Bankrate.com survey.
In some ways, the urge was “born out of the pandemic,” said Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at Bankrate.
The trend is especially common among younger shoppers who may feel like “the deck is stacked against them,” he said.
Young adults‘ finances may be dragged down by student loan balances, and they are finding it to be increasingly unaffordable to buy a home, let alone rent their own place, Rossman said.
‘It’s a tough cycle to break’
Doom spending can lead to bigger financial woes. Credit card balances reached $1.14 trillion in the second quarter of 2024, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
As of June, 50% of cardholders carry a balance every month on their credit cards, a recent Bankrate survey found.
“The share who pay in full now is actually the lowest in four years,”…
Read More: Presidential election prompts some Americans to ‘doom spend,’ report finds