What's hot in fall financial fashion this year?
Fall fashion is all about animal prints, corduroy and florals, but what's hot in fall financial fashion?
A few money experts weigh in:
Spending
The National Retail Federation is projecting that Halloween spending will rise to a record $9.1 billion, and early holiday projections from Deloitte show an uptick of 4%-4.5% in spending over last year.
While this may be taken as a good sign (Consumers have jobs, incomes are rising, and confidence is holding steady.), the reality is that “it’s far easier to spend money today than it is to save—especially given our rising costs on everything from healthcare to education,” says Pierre Habis, President of PurePoint Financial, a new digital hybrid bank (now in six cities) whose mission is to empower consumers to save more. “Our survey shows that one third of Americans spend on impulse and 3 in 10 ‘often’ spend more than they have available.”
Many of these unplanned purchases occur this time of year—on travel, gifts, holiday decorations, meals, and more.
Borrowing
Get this: Household debt just hit a record high of nearly $13 trillion!
That tops records set during the financial crisis, and there are no signs of slowing down.
“Credit card debt is the big worrisome one since it’s the most expensive way to borrow,” says Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, author of the New York Times bestseller 'Zero Debt: The Ultimate Guide to Financial Freedom.' “We’re currently carrying over $1 trillion in credit card debt - a record high - and this is a number that willinevitably rise as we enter the peak holiday spending season.”
Gigging
Know someone who currently works a gig or two? Chances are, you do. And if not, you will - after all, the number of on-demand workers in the U.S. is expected to nearly double in the next four years. That means 9.2 million Americans are expected to work in the gig economy by 2021, up from 3.8 million last year, according to combined research by Intuit and Emergent Research.
While the rise in on demand workers is fueled by start ups like Uber, LyftAirbnb and TaskRabbit, it’s the technology that’s been driving it, and things are starting to kick into high gear now as consumers look to make extra holiday cash.
Renting
“People don’t see buying a home as a rite of passage anymore,” says Habis. “It’s out of their scope of thinking.”
It’s not just millennials who are renting, says Mitch Roschelle, a partner at PwC, and the firm’s U.S. Real Estate Advisory Practice leader.
“The fallout from the financial crisis of a decade ago has contributed to the decline of home ownership levels across all generations.”
Indeed. A new study from the Pew Research Center shows that more households are headed by renters than at any point since at least 1965.
“Renting is very much in style now, and the the stigma of having a roommate (or several), is long gone - no matter your age,” says Khalfani-Cox.
Betting
We saw this over the summer with the mad rush to buy lottery tickets, and we're seeing it now with everyday Joes investing not only in the stock market, but more specifically (and dangerously), in speculative investments like cryptocurrencies.
About 80% of Americans have now heard of Bitcoin, the most well-known digital currency. Yet almost half of those are unsure if the digital coin—which has skyrocketed and then crashed several times over in recent months—is even legal, according to an online poll conducted LendEDU.
“It’s never a good idea to invest in something you don’t understand,” says Khalfani-Cox. “Too many people are chasing money without realizing that they could lose it all.”
Vera Gibbons (@NoPoDaily) is the Founder and Editor of nonpoliticalnews.com, a free daily newsletter that covers the news and curates content in Consumer/Personal Finance; Health & Wellness; Fashion/Beauty; Fitness/Diet.
She appears on national TV networks and writes for Remedy Health, PurePoint Financial, Bankrate, and FoxBusiness.com.