Fraught with worry over high housing costs, impending student loan payments, and compounding credit card debt, millennials face financial challenges unlike other generations. Yet they’re still the generation that’s most money-obsessed—and the one that wants to show it off.
While more than half of affluent millennials say they’ve been “greatly affected” by the cost-of-living crisis, 59% feel it is important to “look or appear” financially successful to others, according to a recent Wells Fargo study. This is yet another sign of “money dysmorphia” (as Intuit Credit Karma dubs it) in which people obsess over the idea of being rich so much so that they lose sight of the actual state of their finances.
What’s even more telling is that Wells Fargo’s study actually focuses on “affluent” millennials who make at least $250,000 per year, which means it’s not just lower-income young people who feel the need to keep up with the Joneses, so to speak. More than 40% of the approximately 1,000 respondents said it’s important to have visible signs of wealth, whether it be purchasing a fancy car, clothing, or a place to live. By comparison, only 21% of Gen Xers, 8% of baby boomers, and 7% of the silent generation feel the same.
“Affluent millennials are, in fact, working hard and gaining financial success,” Emily Irwin, managing director of advice and planning for Wells Fargo, tells Fortune. “Yet, they’re grappling with this external image, and, as a result, there’s a growing trend to present themselves with an image that isn’t reflective [of] their actual financial situation. For some, it could be even a ‘fake it until you make it’ mentality.
Even some of the wealthiest millennials face “money dysmorphia,” and more than 40% of them have to rely on credit cards or loans to fund their lifestyle—all while accumulating debt, the Wells Fargo survey shows. The national average debt among credit card holders during the fourth quarter of 2023 was $6,864, according to LendingTree. And millennials are among the consumers struggling most with unpaid balances.
“Millennials have seen the largest increase in their delinquency rates and now have rates definitely above pre-pandemic levels,” New York Federal Reserve researchers said in a November 2023 press call. “Given the strong labor market and general economy, these increases are somewhat surprising.”
Las redes sociales alimentan la ansiedad por el gasto entre los millennials
Pero no es tan sorprendente cuánto gastan los millennials cuando vemos lo fácil y lo a menudo que son influenciados por las redes sociales, ya sea en forma de anuncios o insinuaciones sutiles (o no tan sutiles) de influencers.
“Vivimos en una sociedad hiper-sexualizada, distraída, visualmente confeccionada ahora estrechamente ajustada a los confines del scroll infinito”, dice Christopher M. Naghibi, vicepresidente ejecutivo y director de operaciones de First Foundation Bank, a Fortune. “Se ponen infinitas fotos y videos…frente al espectador y es simplemente naturaleza humana querer ser tan bello, bien viajado y, más que cualquier otra cosa—rico.”
Y los datos muestran que los millennials adinerados no son diferentes. Casi el 30% dijo que compran cosas que no pueden pagar para impresionar a otros o “encajar” en un cierto estilo de vida, encontró la encuesta de Wells Fargo, y otro tercio dijo que mienten o exageran sobre sus finanzas para mantener apariencias.
“Para los millennials, ser la primera generación en internet significa que ‘mantenerse al día con los Joneses’ no es simplemente tener lo mejor de algo en tu vecindario, sino sentir la presión de igualar el nivel de consumo de un grupo mucho más amplio de influencers en línea”, dice Jonathan Ernest, profesor asociado de economía en la Universidad Case Western Reserve, a Fortune. “Esto también significa que los millennials pueden percibir más beneficios de poseer artículos de lujo, ya que obtienen la admiración no solo de sus compañeros, sino también de sus amigos, familiares y seguidores en un presencia en línea más amplia”.