Doom spending is not the same as caring for yourself

livemint.com:

Please don’t dabble in doom spending. The term, which first bubbled up on social media, has gained steam following a recent survey by Intuit’s Credit Karma. Consider it 2024’s sequel to last year’s “girl math." If girl math was a light-hearted buddy comedy, doom spending is a horror film.

It’s not the same as retail therapy—shopping to ease personal woes like a breakup or a bad day at work. Doom spending is “spending money despite concerns about the economy and foreign affairs to cope with stress," says Credit Karma, a credit-tracking company, and about 27% of Americans say they’re doing it. Self-reported rates of doom spending are higher among men; according to the survey, 33% of men admit to doing it compared with 21% of women.

It’s the women I’m more worried about, because they already typically face a tougher road to financial independence. They earn, save and invest less, and have more student debt. The survey finds that young women are much more likely to doom spend than their mothers and older sisters.

Throw in the financial precarity dogging millennials and Gen Z—the New York Fed noted that rising credit card and auto loan delinquencies were especially pronounced among younger borrowers—and you have a recipe for misery. “The economy sucks, there’s global warming, there’s constant political and social unrest globally," a 24-year-old told Bloomberg News, justifying her purchase of the occasional “little luxury," like the vintage Chanel bag she picked up for $2,500. “It’s just easier to spend money on things that will bring you immediate fulfilment," she continued, especially when saving doesn’t seem to bring life’s major expenditures any closer.