It was the year of ‘loud budgeting,’ ‘soft saving’ and ‘no-spend challenges.’
Personal finance trends and terms swept social media in 2024, fuelled by Gen Z and millennial Canadians dealing with an uncertain economy and a rising cost of living.
It was hard to open a social media site without being inundated with ‘girl math,’ and ‘sweet treat economy’ entries. A quick search of 聽shows more than 900,000 posts on TikTok.
Experts agree that some of these trends can lead people to adopt healthier personal habits, while others increase financial anxiety and you should try to steer clear in 2025.聽
Girl math, for instance, rationalizes that using cash to pay for something essentially makes it 鈥渇ree.鈥澛
Soft saving聽refers to putting long-term financial goals 鈥 home ownership, retirement 鈥 on the back burner in favour of spending now on once-in-a-lifetime experiences and expenses that promote well-being.
Similarly, the sweet treat economy encourages indulging in small luxuries 鈥 an overpriced latte, a pastry from your favourite bakery, a new accessory 鈥 to cope with economic malaise.
鈥淚 think it’s very necessary to incorporate balance into our day-to-day lives 鈥 the sweet treat doesn’t have to be every day, but not restricting yourself is super important to creating sustainable budgeting habits,鈥 says Bridgette Vong, a Toronto-based content creator who frequently talks about personal finance, among other things, on TikTok. 鈥淩ight now, my hyperfixation is a chocolate chip cookie from Andrea鈥檚 Cookies.鈥
In a reversal of excessive spending and keeping up with the Joneses,聽聽encourages being vocal with friends and family when an expense聽鈥斅爈ike a vacation or dinner with friends聽鈥斅爌uts your financial goals or budget in jeopardy.
No-spend challenges encourage going as long as possible without spending any money on things other than essentials like rent and groceries.
鈥淚f you’re a beginner, or you’re new to figuring out how to budget better, no-spend challenges can be restrictive,鈥 says Vong, who goes by on TikTok. 鈥淏ut I do lean more toward the fact that I think it’s a good way for you to start thinking more about where your money’s going.鈥
Deidre Scott, another creator on TikTok, likes no-spend challenges because they encourage her to use loyalty points that she has accumulated.
鈥淚 resonated with the loud budgeting trend the most. As soon as I saw that, I was like, 鈥楬ow did I not think of this first?鈥 I just love the idea that people are talking openly about their money,鈥 says Scott, who goes by @ on TikTok.聽
Be cautious about taking a trend at face value, however, and personalize it to fit your financial situation, says Blair Lukan, a Saskatoon-based financial adviser with Edward Jones.
“Taking that time to really sit down and look at your own personal situation,” says聽Lukan, “and see if those trends work for you or are damaging to you is an important conversation to have with yourself.鈥澛
If you鈥檙e having trouble gauging whether a trend will work for you, Lukan suggests following three basic steps of financial planning: establish a goal, create a plan or strategy to meet that goal and last, set up a portfolio to execute that plan.
鈥淎 lot of times, we might put the portfolio first, but we don’t know if that portfolio is achieving a plan that we’ve set out.鈥澛
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