Will You Outgrow Impulse Shopping?

Creditcards.com did a survey of ~1,000 Americans asking them how often they made “an unplanned or unnecessary decision to buy a product just before the purchase was made” AKA an impulse purchase.

The results suggest that the older we are, the less likely we are to make impulsive spending decisions because the decision-center of our brains mature at age 24 or 25 and we get better at weighing consequences.

But before you believe that you’ll just outgrow impulse shopping, I have to point out why this probably won’t happen.

Number one: we’re creatures of habit. So if you get into the habit of impulse shopping when you’re younger, you’ll keep doing it as you get older except you’ll no longer call it impulse shopping because you know in advance that you’re going to do it. So this means ‘impulse shopping’ will simply turn into ‘overspending.’

Number two: we tend to earn more as we get older and people who earn $75K+ a year are more likely to do a little impulse shopping. They also make pricier purchases when they do. One-third of consumers who make more than $75,000 a year have made an impulse purchase of $1,000 or more.

Perhaps this explains why I spent $1,000+ on a personal infrared sauna a few months ago – but in my defense, it still kinda fits in my budget (a combo of medical and home furniture & appliances). But then again, “We aren’t rational beings, we rationalize our actions — especially with money,” said Brad Klontz, co-founder of the Financial Psychology Institute.

Whoops. Guilty. Just goes to show that you can be financially fit and human 😉