The Most Toxic Spending Habits
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What current money headlines set the stage for this episode?
This is your Money Briefing from The Wall Street Journal. I'm Charlie Turner in New York. In a moment, J.R. Whelan will discuss the most toxic spending habits with Ally Bank's Emily Shalal. First, here are some money headlines. Stocks took a beating Friday after China imposed new tariffs on the U.S., Also that day, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell issued a word of caution on the limits of the Fed's capabilities. The Fed has to contend with a global slowdown worsening trade tensions and, in Mr. Powell's case, a drumbeat of criticism from President Trump. Mr. Powell, in his remarks in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Friday, made it clear that the Fed is ready to respond with more rate cuts if trade tensions worsen the economic outlook.
But as the Wall Street Journal's heard on the street notes, Mr. Powell also said that when it comes to trade, there are limits to what the Fed can accomplish, and investors should be mindful of that. The trade tensions got even worse late Friday, as President Trump said he would raise tariffs to 30 percent on some Chinese imports. With their industry facing rising competition, financial advisors across the U.S.
Why does financial behavior matter more for families than singles?
have a new side hustle, college counseling. Those who offer guidance on stocks, bonds, and mutual funds view the rising cost of higher education as their best opportunity in decades to keep clients and gain new ones. They aren't just pitching tax advantage strategies. They're writing financial aid applications, rearranging assets, consulting on college applications, and even helping the children of clients pick majors and internships. College aid isn't the only way advisors are fighting to stay relevant. Few tasks are off-limits in their bid to keep clients from bolting to low-cost alternatives. One prominent wealth management advisor set up an agreement with clients over how to divide the eventual remains of their parents after they were cremated.
If you're single and struggling with your finances, you're likely only hurting yourself with bad money habits.
How can awareness and tracking stop impulsive spending?
But if you have a family, your financial missteps can impact your spouse and kids. So what are the most toxic money mistakes that people should be mindful of, and how can they solve those problems? Let's bring in Emily Shalal. She's Senior Director of Consumer Strategy and Innovation at Ally Bank, and she's on the line with us. So Emily, one of the biggest bad habits people have is pretending that they don't have money. any toxic money habits.
What we have found with people is that just kind of knowledge and acceptance is the first step to making change. And so a lot of people go through the month and they know that they're spending maybe, you know, a little more than it should be or that they're doing things that they shouldn't.
What simple tactics can cut impulsive purchases and save about $200 a month?
And just having that realization and sitting down and being mindful of that is the first step to having a better financial life in the future.
And then keeping an eye on spending is really important. And especially, we all have things we have to spend money on, but it's important to put a lasso on wasteful spending.
Just like every typical American, we can get caught up in the moment and really spend money that we're not even thinking about and being very impulsive in spending. And so one of the things that we have found works really well is just to kind of slow the roll when you're making a decision about whether you want to spend money on something, whether that's in a store and taking a second look at your shopping cart before you go through the shopping line to just make sure that everything in there are things that you really truly need or putting something into your cart online and then waiting 24 hours and coming back the next day and making sure that you still really have the same kind of feeling about that purchase.
Because a lot of times you get caught up in the moment and you'll spend money and then immediately you'll have buyer's remorse and it may be too late to do something about it. And what we found is that for people who can do that and take the time to really think about those purchases,
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What current money headlines set the stage for this episode?
0:06–1:10
2
Why does financial behavior matter more for families than singles?
1:10–2:05
3
How can awareness and tracking stop impulsive spending?
2:05–2:47
4
What simple tactics can cut impulsive purchases and save about $200 a month?
2:47–3:50
5
How should couples talk about money to avoid hiding spending?
3:50–4:45
6
How does social media ‘keeping up with the Kardashians’ affect spending choices?
4:45–7:12
Speakers
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