GREENSBORO, N.C. — The saying used to be, Just keeping up with the Joneses. But it's much more personal this summer because instead of the Jones family, it's our co-workers, friends, family members.
This summer, they are traveling to fantastic places and seeing great concerts and it's causing some discontent in a big way.
NerdWallet did a survey of 2,000 adults about money and jealousy and social media posts. About 57% said they felt envious of someone else's financial situation, making money jealousy a common struggle.
"It's so easy to scroll through social media and see a lifestyle or products that other people are using and to want those things. And it can be really frustrating when we feel like we can't afford those things, but that's why it's so important to take a step back and realize that we don't know what's going on behind the scenes. It's possible that person has spent a lot of money that they don't have either or gone into debt to have those items," said Kimberly Palmer, personal finance expert for NerdWallet.
While we only know the snapshot of someone else's finances, we do know our whole story. About 15% of those surveyed said they purchased something out of the budget because they saw it on social media. And 54% said their envy of others' financial situations negatively impacts their mental health.
So, how do you combat money envy?
"Before we go to overspending or to purchasing things in the attempt to emulate the lifestyles, we see, we wanna take a breath and think, what do we really want? What can we really afford?30 Because the worst case scenario is to compound that money envy by going into debt ourselves and by causing additional financial stress," said Palmer.
What were the most non-essential purchases that brought buyers remorse? The survey's top answers were: Things I buy for myself, Dining out, Luxury items, and Clothing or Accessories.