Millennials love to spend but don’t like paying people back, new research suggests

For many Aussies, there’s a toss up between how much or how little to spend on Christmas presents for friends and family.

But according to the 2018 Commonwealth Bank Christmas Consumer Spending Study, millennials are more than happy to splurge during the silly season.

The report found that 85% of millennials are spending up to $1,000 on gifts while 15% are spending over $1,000.

But as younger Aussies get caught up in spending big, it’s their budgets that are being left behind, with 39% only starting to save up a month in advance.

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As a nation, Christmas shopping is expected to set us back $10.7 billion and only 1 in 4 of us are keeping track of what we’re spending.

“With fantastic in-store and online shopping experiences on offer, it’s easy to get caught up in the festive frenzy and lose track of what you’re spending,” said Michael Baumman, Executive General Manager for Everyday Banking.

“The best chance of making sure you stick to your budget is to set a plan and monitor your spending.”

Keeping spending in sight

To help Aussie millennials get a better hold on their cash all year round, finance app Finch has today launched Finchsights, a free personal finance tool that tracks and provides insights on social spending, such as coffees and UberEats.

The app will give users a dashboard glance at their:

- Favourite merchants and how much they’ve spent there in the last 30 days

- Guilty pleasures and frivolous spending, which users can then decide to curb by limiting their spending at certain merchants

"This stage in life is all about friends, fun and adventure, but things can add up quickly especially, over Christmas. We’ve introduced Finchsights this Summer to help millennials track their ‘fun money’, from Christmas shopping to New Year’s celebrations, and all the festivals, restaurants and road trips that follow,” said cofounder of Finch, Shahirah Gardner.

“Finchsights is all about building your financial awareness around things that matter to you right now, in a way that’s fun, relatable and easy to understand.”

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Gift giving vs giving back

It’s clear millennials love to give their friends a reason to smile during festive season, but ironically, they’re not too keen on paying them back when it comes to group outings.

Research by instant payment app, Beem It has revealed that 48% of friendship groups have ‘that one friend’ who doesn’t pay their fair share with 61% having to be chased up for cash by the Chief Fun Officer (CFO).

According to Beem It, the CFO is the person responsible for planning and paying for trips, including booking transport, accomodation and tickets as well as putting expenses on their card and paying upfront.

And despite putting their hand up to take on the responsibility, 41% of CFO’s are being taken advantage of and are footing up to 10% more of the costs than their friends.

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