Gen Z and millennials are increasingly ‘doom spending.' Here's what it is and how to stop it

Some young people are splashing out on luxuries like travel and designer clothes instead of saving, in a trend that's being characterized as "doom spending" on social media.

Doom spending is when a person mindlessly shops to self-soothe because they feel pessimistic about the economy and their future, according to Psychology Today.

The practice is both "unhealthy and fatalistic," Ylva Baeckström, a senior lecturer in finance at King's Business School and a former banker, told CNBC Make It.

It's happening because young people are chronically online and feel like they're constantly receiving "bad news," she said. "It makes them feel like Armageddon."

These young people are then translating these bad feelings into bad spending habits, Baeckström added.

In fact, 96% of Americans are concerned about the current state of the economy and more than a quarter are doom spending to deal with the stress, an Intuit Credit Karma survey of over 1,000 Americans found in November 2023.

And the phenomenon is not exclusive to America.

Stefania Troncoso Fernández, a 28-year-old publicist based in Colombia who lives with her parents, told CNBC Make It that she's a recovered doom spender, but that high levels of inflation and political uncertainty make it very difficult to rationalize saving money.

"I know for a fact that food [costs] are getting higher and higher every day, and in my house we can't afford to eat the same way we did maybe a year ago because things are getting more expensive," Fernández said.

Two years ago, Fernández said she was spending carelessly on clothes and travel despite the fact that she was earning less money than she does now. It was largely because she felt like she couldn't afford to buy a house.

"We used to have this program by the government that would lend us money to invest in real estate and at a really low rate, but with the change of government, that is not available for us anymore so we will need to pay more," she said.

And Fernández said she's not alone in doom spending. "It's not just me. It's something that is happening within my circle."

Only 36.5% of adults globally feel like they're doing better than their parents financially while 42.8% think they're actually worse off than their parents, according to CNBC's International Your Money Financial Security Survey, conducted by Survey Monkey which questioned 4,342 adults globally.

"The generation growing up now is the first generation that's going to be poorer than its parents for a very long time," Baeckström said. "There's that feeling that you might never be able to achieve what your parents achieved."

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As a result, doom spending creates the illusion of control in what feels like an out-of-control world, according to Baeckström.

"But what happens really, is that it gives you less control in the future, because if you save that money instead and invest it and do all of those things, you might actually be able to buy a house," she said.

Daivik Goel, a 25-year-old startup founder living in Silicon Valley, said he was a doom spender when he worked as a product engineer at a biotech startup.

The habit originated from a sense of dissatisfaction with his work as well as peer pressure, he said. "It's just all the sense of trying to escape."

Goel, who used to spend lavishly on designer clothes, the latest technology products and going out for drinks, says doom spending is very common in Silicon Valley.

He said people will buy two of three brand-new cars, "and the reason why is because they realize that saving up for a house is going to take a very long time ... so they will spend on other different items instead."

San Francisco has some of the highest property prices in the U.S., according to a 2023 analysis by real estate website Point2. It found that 62% of properties listed in San Francisco cost over $1 million.  

Goel says that since starting his fintech company Intrepid in 2023, his doom spending habit has "completely gone" because he's found happiness in his work. "My whole mindset shifted."

Finance lecturer Baeckström stressed the importance of understanding your relationship with money if you want to overcome doom spending.

She said a relationship with money is like a relationship with people: it starts during childhood and sees people form different types of attachments.

"If you feel like you have a secure attachment with money, you can make a sound evaluation of something. You gather knowledge and you can evaluate [it] ... But if you are insecure, or if you're avoidant, then you're more likely to get lured into this unhealthy spending behavior."

These attitudes stem from a person's upbringing: whether they were rich or poor, for example, how their family managed money, and who controlled it, Baeckström said.

Fernández said part of the reason she had felt compelled to doom spend was a lack of financial literacy. She said her dad grew up poor and nobody had ever encouraged her to save.

Making a transaction more visceral and difficult can make people think twice about doom spending, Samantha Rosenberg, co-founder and COO of Belong, a wealth-building platform, told CNBC Make It.

Rosenberg explained that online shopping aggravates the doom spending issue, but looking at items in-person may prevent impulse purchases.

"The extra decision points like choosing the store, traveling there, evaluating the item in the flesh, and then having to stand in line to buy it will help you slow down and think more critically about your purchases," she said.

Additionally setting up mobile banking notifications creates an "extra pinch of pain" when you see the transaction authorizations coming through.

Rosenberg also recommended maybe going back to using cash. Seamless payment methods like Apple Pay and Google Pay "increase the risk of mindless spending," she said, because it's so quick and easy.  

"They bypass the emotion associated with the purchasing decision process. They also eliminate the pain of handing over money," Rosenberg said. You have to "increase the pain of paying," she added.

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Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Daivik Goel's previous job was as a product engineer.