We Spend How Much?

The average teen spends $2,600 a year. Thats about 52 starbucks coffees or 130 shirt or 43 pairs of shoes. The spending is up about 6% since fall and 1% since last year. After looking at my personal spending habits in class, I realized I spend a lot of money on what I would deem to be a "luxury item." By that I mean things that I do not need, but like to treat myself with. That could be anything from a boba tea or a manicure. I wanted to research the breakdown of how our generation spends.

Gender plays a tremendous role in how we spend money. Studies have found that male teenagers spend about 23% on food and 14% on video games. Thinking about it, as teenagers my parents did not have the ability to purchase the new Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto Game that was released every year. These games and counsels are expensive. Technology plays a huge role in what we as teenagers choose to spend out money on.

Conversely, teen girls were more likely to shop for fashion. About 25% of their money was allotted to clothing - and in particular, shoes. With online shopping and instagram models/advertisements, new clothing items and brands are constantly being shown to teenagers. This constant ability to click a button and have shoes shipped to your front door allows for easy consumption of goods.

We are part of Generation Z - a generation which is estimated to spend a whopping $830 billion a year. But how do we get our money? Only 34% of teens in our generation have a job, compared to almost 60% of teens in 1979. This decrease is fairly large, and can be attributed to our ultra-stressful school schedule. With homework and pressure to participate in various extracurriculars from sports to volunteering, how are teens supposed to add a job on top of that - it is virtually impossible.

With the apparent increase in spending and decrease in teenagers with jobs arises a problem - teenagers are excessively taking money from their parents. There needs to be a way for teenagers to either balance their schoolwork and a job or minimize their spending. I am extremely busy during the school year so my solution is to get a job in the summer and save up for the school year. But, some people travel the whole summer of have an internship. What are some possible solutions for them?


Sources:

https://www.businessinsider.com/generation-z-teen-jobs-2018-5
https://www.valuepenguin.com/news/teen-spending-grows-making-gen-z-economic-force