There is a certain type of grown-up who will shake their head and waggle their finger whenever they hear that young people are spending their money on things like matcha lattes. “I was under the impression,” they will say with mock irony, “that Gen Z couldn’t afford anything”. Or perhaps: “How do they expect to get on the property ladder if they’re wasting all their money on that green muck?”
But, as the older generation are well aware, matcha is relatively cheap and houses are not. The first rung of the proverbial property ladder is high nowadays, and most Gen Zers like me have accepted that we won’t be hoisting ourselves on to it any time soon. It’s incredibly difficult to save for anything substantial in the current economic climate, which is why many in my generation have given up on their nest eggs and turned to a more alluring proposition: “doomspending”.
Trend forecaster Sean Monahan defines this phenomenon as “spending frivolously with no concern for future financial consequences”. The thinking is that there’s very little point squirrelling away a few hundred pounds from your salary each month – which would require dedication and penny-pinching – because at the rate inflation is going, that money will be worth hardly anything in a few decades’ time.
