Funding & Finance

The Rise of Doom Spending

Gen Z is buying $580 Dyson Airwraps they can’t afford. Millennials are booking flights to Antigua on credit cards.

By Conor Healy

March 20, 2026

Gen Z is buying $580 Dyson Airwraps they can’t afford. Millennials are booking flights to Antigua on credit cards. Both generations admit they’re doing it because they feel hopeless about the future.

It’s called doom spending – impulsive purchases to cope with anxiety about the economy and the world. You know you shouldn’t. You do it anyway. Because what’s the point of saving for a future that feels impossible?

41% of Gen Z admits to doom spending, according to a 2025 Intuit Credit Karma study. 39% of millennials do it too. The numbers are up from a year ago. It’s getting worse.

The Logic Makes Sense

Houses cost 8-10x median income instead of the 3-4x your parents paid. A one-bedroom apartment runs $1,800-2,200 monthly in most cities. Student debt averages over $50,000 with 6.2% interest rates.

So you can’t buy a house. You can’t afford kids. Retirement seems like a joke. Why save?

Maria Melchor, a 27-year-old financial content creator, explained it to the New York Post in December 2023: “When older people ask me how younger people are affording nice things, I tell them it’s because we can’t afford anything else. Home ownership or starting a family is so out of reach. We’re using that down-payment money or kid money to give our dogs the most enriched puppyhood they can have.”

47% of Gen Z say they can’t rationalize saving money due to fears about the world and economy. It’s not irrational when the math doesn’t work.

Tax Refunds Get Doom Spent

62% of Gen Z expecting tax refunds in 2025 planned to spend all or most of it to cope with economic uncertainty. That’s from a Harris Poll survey conducted for Origin in March 2025.

52% of millennials planned the same thing.

Tax refunds are often the biggest windfall Americans get all year. Instead of saving it or paying down debt, they’re doom spending it on retail therapy because the future feels too uncertain to plan for.

69% of millennials and 58% of Gen Z fear a looming recession. When you expect everything to get worse, spending now feels more rational than saving for later.

Chronically Online Drives It

70% of Gen Z describe themselves as “chronically online.” 53% said seeing bad news online drives them to stress spend.

You scroll Twitter. You see climate disasters, political chaos, economic instability, wars. You feel powerless. You buy something to feel momentary control.

The algorithm feeds you ads while feeding you doom. TikTok shows you collapsing societies and then immediately shows you products. Instagram displays wealth inequality and then displays things to buy.

Aja Evans, a financial therapist, told CNN: “When you’re in the midst of scrolling, you might think: ‘You know what? Things are just really bad. I’m going to feel better if I purchase.’ You literally need to go outside sometimes. Be in nature and just remind yourself that there is a world beyond the screen.”

It Provides Temporary Relief

27% of Americans doom spend to cope with stress. 59% said stress impacts how they spend money. For Gen Z and millennials, those numbers are 47% and 42%.

Buying things produces short-term dopamine hits. The package arrives. You feel good for an hour. Then you feel worse because you spent money you needed.

Courtney Alev, consumer financial advocate at Credit Karma, said: “Time and time again, we see people spending money to cope with their emotions and relieve stress, and while it might result in short-term relief, it can have long-term negative implications on their finances.”

Everyone knows this. They do it anyway. Because the long-term implications feel less real than the short-term relief.

The Countertrend Exists

Not everyone doom spends. 44% of Americans turned to “low-buy” lifestyles in 2025. 42% committed to “no-buy” challenges – buying only items that need replacement.

More than half of Gen Z report participating in or considering these challenges. The same generation doom spending is also trying to stop doom spending.

The contradiction makes sense. They know they should save. They try. Then they see housing costs, student debt, and economic uncertainty. They give up and buy the Dyson.

76% of Americans cut back on spending in 2025, up 9% from the previous year according to Wells Fargo’s Money Study. Rising costs of groceries, gas, and housing forced tougher choices.

Some experts think this is positive long-term. Michael Liersch, head of advice and planning at Wells Fargo, said: “It’s really actually an encouraging story because Americans are being hyper-intentional about their use of money. Inflation in the economic environment is motivating that level of intentionality and being selective.”

Maybe. Or maybe people are just broke and calling it intentional.

Gen Z Pays 31% More for Housing

Gen Z pays 31% more for housing, adjusted for inflation, compared to what people the same age paid a decade ago.

Prices rose 23.7% since February 2020. Americans need $1,237 to buy what cost $1,000 in 2020.

Wages didn’t keep pace. So young people have less purchasing power, higher costs, and identical advice from older generations to just save more and work harder.

The disconnect creates resentment. Boomers bought houses in their 20s. Gen Z can’t afford rent. When Boomers criticize Gen Z spending habits, Gen Z responds that Boomers could afford to save because everything was cheaper.

Both are right. And it doesn’t matter because the economics don’t change.

Most Can’t Afford Emergencies

57% of Gen Z lack adequate emergency savings. 30% feel they don’t earn enough to save at all. Only 15% set aside a fixed percentage of income monthly.

One in five contributes to retirement accounts or 401k plans. The rest either can’t afford to or see no point when retirement feels 40+ years away.

61% of Gen Z and millennials who believe stock market investing will set them up financially are not saving for retirement each month. They know they should. They’re not doing it.

Financial insecurity runs high. 80% of Gen Z and 79% of millennials report high financial insecurity. Gen X leads at 84%. Even Boomers hit 69%.

Everyone feels financially insecure. Younger generations feel it more because their prospects are objectively worse.

The Paradox

Despite doom spending criticism, Vanguard research from late 2025 found Gen Z may be more prepared for retirement than Boomers.

Nearly half of Gen Z workers are projected to maintain their current standard of living in retirement. Only 40% of Boomers approaching retirement are on track for the same.

This seems contradictory. Gen Z doom spends but saves for retirement better than Boomers?

The explanation: Gen Z starts saving earlier even if they save less. Compound interest over 40 years beats higher savings starting at 50. Also, Gen Z has lower expectations. Maintaining current standard of living is easier when your current standard is lower.

Why It Won’t Stop

Doom spending won’t stop because the underlying conditions won’t improve. Housing won’t get cheaper. Student debt won’t disappear. Wages won’t suddenly jump 50%.

Economic uncertainty feels permanent. Climate change adds existential dread. Political instability compounds anxiety. All of this drives impulsive spending as a coping mechanism.

The advice to stop doom spending and save instead ignores why people doom spend. They know it’s financially harmful. They do it because it provides emotional relief when everything else feels hopeless.

Telling someone to stop doom spending without addressing why they feel hopeless just makes them feel worse. Now they’re anxious about the future AND guilty about spending.

Better advice: reduce exposure to bad news, build actual emergency savings even if small, find cheaper dopamine sources than shopping. But even that doesn’t fix the core problem.

The core problem is economic conditions that make traditional milestones – homeownership, retirement security, starting families – genuinely unattainable for huge percentages of young people.

Until that changes, doom spending continues.