With the glitter and tinsel of the holidays just around the corner, two out of three Americans are feeling anything but cheer as financial strain looms large, according to a new survey by Thrivent.
The biggest culprits for this ill humor are rising prices, the constraint of living paycheck to paycheck and the outsized influence from social media, the survey found.
Many survey participants said these factors are forcing them to rein in their holiday spending, with 33% planning to purchase less expensive gifts and 31% planning to buy few gifts.
Even with overall inflation clocking in at 2.4% this week, a three-year low, the damage has been done: Prices are 21.4% more expensive now than they were prior to the beginning of the pandemic in February 2020, according to Bankrate.
Fifty-five percent of respondents said they were worried about rising costs, with boomers and Gen X more concerned than Millennials and Gen Z. Sixty-one percent of boomers and 58% of Gen X were concerned versus 51% of millennials and 48% of Gen Z, the survey found.
Forty-six percent said they were living paycheck to paycheck with little or no disposable income for gift-giving this year.
Social media isn’t helping, either, as it’s outpacing both TV ads and print ads when it comes to stirring up the desires of consumers, the survey said.
“Of those who say social media influences their purchases, 64% turn to social media for shopping inspiration either daily (27%) or weekly (36%),” the survey said.
Despite the predictability of holiday spending, only 20% of survey participants said they believed that following a financial plan would help them control their spending. And 35% admitted they’re not looking for financial advice from anywhere to change their relationship with holiday spending.
Minneapolis-based Thrivent’s 2024 Holiday Spending Study was conducted in September and involved 2,180 adults in the U.S., the survey said.