Treat Yo’ Self… or Trick Yo’ Self? The Cost of Influencer Culture | Millennial Money Matters

Description

Social media makes it easier than ever to find the latest trends—but is it also draining your wallet? In this episode of Millennial Money Matters, we dive into the impact of social media on millennial spending habits. From viral “must-have” products to the pressure of keeping up with influencer lifestyles, we break down how platforms like TikTok and Instagram shape financial decisions. Are these trends helping or hurting your financial goals? We explore ways to stay savvy, resist impulse purchases, and take control of your spending in the age of influencers.

Reach out to Kelly Turner at kturner@totalmortgage.com and Derek Mazzarella at dmazzarella@mygfpartner.com

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Transcription

Speaker #0
All right, we're here for another episode of Millennial Money Matters with Kelly and...
Speaker #1
Derek.
Speaker #0
All right. We are talking about a fun topic today, and it was actually very appropriate because this morning we had a two-hour snow delay in our town, and Derek and I's kids go to the same school. And during that two-hour delay, I did find myself mindlessly scrolling TikTok. Oh. Just squishing.
Speaker #1
As one does, yeah.
Speaker #0
Seeing what was there, because that's the purpose of that app, is to just consume your time. Well,
Speaker #1
it's like, I got 10 minutes. Kids are doing something stupid. Let me just poke on the phone here for a minute.
Speaker #0
See what's going on. And so what we're going to kind of talk about today is influencer purchases for millennials. Because as we talk about the millennial experience, online purchasing is such a humongous part, I think, of the millennial identity, right? What are you buying from the internet?
Speaker #1
Well, yeah, because I think we were like the first generation to really kind of fully trust it. Because I feel like our parents were like, you would never buy anything on the internet.
Speaker #0
Yeah, giving strangers your credit card number.
Speaker #1
That's crazy.
Speaker #0
My credit card number is everywhere.
Speaker #1
Yeah.
Speaker #0
I give it to anybody.
Speaker #1
Look at little Amazon Go, right?
Speaker #0
Yeah, right. And I think we, right, like what was our like. toe dip. It was like the one cent for 20 CDs from like the back of the magazine as kids, right? That was like us dipping our toe in the like mail order.
Speaker #1
Columbia House, right? Yeah.
Speaker #0
Columbia House records. You got your 20 CDs. You don't know how you canceled it. I don't use a fake address, but now you own the CDs. That was like the beginning of it. But we as millennials have embraced online shopping more than any other generation. Now, Gen Zers coming up behind us.
Speaker #1
Oh,
Speaker #0
they're coming hot. They're coming in hot. Yeah. They have also really embraced it. So you've got some stats for me, Derek. What do you got over there?
Speaker #1
Well, I don't know. Let's start with the most interesting. So, all right. 76% of people bought something on social media.
Speaker #0
On social media. So we're not even just talking about long-term. No,
Speaker #1
not like Amazon. No, no, no. We're talking like I'm on Facebook. I'm on TikTok, Instagram, you name it.
Speaker #0
I found a ad.
Speaker #1
That looks cool. Boop. 48% of people. These are all banking rates. GoBankingRates, I think, is the source. 48% of people admit to impulse buying.
Speaker #0
Oh, yeah. That's the whole purpose of those apps.
Speaker #1
Yeah. Well, because, you know, it's like we were talking about. You probably got some nacho stains on your shirt. It's like, oh, that looks nice.
Speaker #0
That looks nice.
Speaker #1
And then you hit it. But not surprisingly, 68% of those people regretted it.
Speaker #0
Ooh. And I could see that, too. So Derek and I, as we end up chatting kind of every week when we do the podcast, you know we make jokes and one of the the phrases that i use about myself all the time is i'm easily influenced on the internet so this is i'm like target audience for this conversation that we're having is i think especially as women um but derek has some stats about men too but especially as women you like see stuff and you're like oh well that will that thing make my life better well somebody that person in the video looks like happier than me um i think i want that thing and and then you it's so easy to just purchase it well because you have like a
Speaker #1
an average person, right? Like some mom out there, I don't know, like my wife watches a lot of Instagram stuff. She's like, well, our kids could use this thing, right? Like, and you're like, yeah, I mean, I kind of could see that. Like, that looks kind of cool. And like some things like do work out, some things are a piece of garbage. But like, yeah, just like an average person saying, hey, like I do use this. You're like, oh, I'm an average person.
Speaker #0
Yeah. I'm an average person. I could average like the same thing.
Speaker #1
Yeah.
Speaker #0
Yeah. And it's so interesting because, you know, when we're talking about this stuff, we have to know, number one, that this is not new, right? This is not new. So what was this for our parents' generation? TikTok shop is QVC, okay? So like, if you made fun of your parents or your grandma for purchasing you Christmas presents on QVC in the 80s and 90s, make fun of yourself for purchasing stuff on the TikTok shop, because it's exactly the same thing. It is social purchasing. Yeah. And why does this have an impact on your financial, you know, sort of situation? And why are we talking about it is because people do not realize how that sort of purchasing adds up and how it can have impacts on their budget.
Speaker #1
Yeah. Cause it's, it's, you know, $50 here. Oh, this is on sale. Let me, uh, let me, Oh, look, look what a deal I'm getting from so-and-so influencer. And I have to do it within the next 30 seconds or I'm going to get this deal.
Speaker #0
Oh my God. TikTok is notorious for that, that everything is this, like, like there's like a timer counting down. But it's never a deal because it's always the same price. There's always a new timer and a new countdown, but it's always the same price. And you're like, this is no cheaper than it was or more expensive than it was last time. But I think this concept of this social purchasing has really gotten exasperated by all of these apps that we're looking at. QVC was one thing because QVC tended to be a late night activity. That's when we QVC'd and it was larger purchases. a lot of the time. So people were buying sewing machines, like whole outfits, jewelry, kitchenwares, larger things. What gets us now on the TikTok shop and on Instagram are it's a lot of small purchases. It's a lot of small impulse purchases that you're just like, oh, yeah, I'll take that. That's 20 bucks. Like, what's 20 bucks? What's 30 bucks? What's 40 bucks? And all of a sudden, you know, you're getting your like drop ship email.
Speaker #1
Well, I think the other big difference too is when you look at like compared to QVC, right? They had a larger audience But it was like, all right, we're going to sell to everyone, maybe 10% of people like this. Yeah. Where I think we flipped that where it's like, okay, we have so much information on us. And these apps know us probably better than we think we do. And they say, okay, well, I know Kelly really likes wooden spoons. So we're going to give her all the wooden spoons she can hit off. And Derek loves combing his hair. So we're going to give him the best comb ever. Right? So like they can really hyper target like those items to people. And it's like, how did you know that? Or like, how many times have you been on the phone? You've said something. And like. Like two minutes later, an ad pops up for it.
Speaker #0
That's a story of my life. I joke that Facebook knows me better than I know myself. Well, and that's totally true because what these algorithms are doing is if you linger on a video, okay, or you rewatch a video, and you should pay attention to how often you rewatch the same video multiple times because we do it more often than we realize. As you rewatch it because you missed something or there was text, a lot of it is very subtle psychological warfare against you to get you to kind of keep engaging with that video. But you'll watch a video once, twice, three times. Maybe you'll save it. Well, now the algorithm is like, ah, we got you. We know this is something you're interested in. And it will just keep showing it to you. Or maybe you bought something on TikTok. Okay. So I'm going to use my, there's a lot of examples about myself. I bought Hilara pants. Okay, Hilara, feel free to sponsor us. I love you. You're my favorite work pants. So I bought these Hilara pants. If you are a woman and you are on TikTok, you know exactly what Hilara pants are. Um, they're lost right now. Yeah. There are these waffle weave, wide leg, uh, dress pants. I feel like PJs. They're amazing. They are, I will tell you a 40 year old mom is 100% their target audience. They're like you, you, you watch videos of parenting. You clearly have children. You watch a lot of cooking. So you need some elastic stretch in the waistband. We know, we know these pants are for you. I bought them and honestly, I love them. Well, now I, when I tell you, I get inundated by ads and they're very subtle ads. And that's what what people don't realize about things like TikTok is some TikTok ads look like an ad. Some TikTok ads just look like some woman wearing these Hilara pants being like, these are the best pants ever. So it's very subtle. Yeah,
Speaker #1
it's not in your face.
Speaker #0
It's not in your face. You're like, oh, this woman who looks like me likes these pants, right? It's not an ad. It's just a lady liking these pants. She's giving me her testimonial on the like of the pants.
Speaker #1
Yeah. And then you see another woman wearing pants.
Speaker #0
Wearing the pants.
Speaker #1
Is everyone wearing these pants?
Speaker #0
Everyone's wearing these pants, man. I got to get these pants. And then a new color comes out, right? So, Hilara is like, we got a new color and we know this lady is a Hilara Pants sucker. So, we're just going to keep going with the ads. And so, it becomes this, like, never-ending cycle. Or maybe you watch a video because you get headaches. You're like, oh, you know, there's videos on ways to treat headaches. Well, then, again, a sucker for the Renpho eye mask, okay? Here has the heated massaging eye mask. They're like, this lady's got headaches and you know what will make her feel better? The eye mask. And then I got inundated by the eye mask ads and now I own. I own the heated eye mask. Do you own the heated eye mask?
Speaker #1
Yeah, I got it as a gift from my brother. And I was like, what the hell is this?
Speaker #0
Do you use it?
Speaker #1
Well, you know, I use it for a while. It's like, I just need to charge it again. But it's actually surprising. I was like, oh, this is a weird gift. And I was like, oh, OK.
Speaker #0
Kind of great. OK. But that's kind of what happens is this sort of psychological warfare against you that you then feel like you need these things. Yeah. Right. You need them. And I also think for millennials, we watch this pattern in millennial purchasing. from how they buy houses, how they buy cars, how they buy products, vacations, that a lot of millennial purchasing is part of aspirational identity. Okay, what's aspirational identity? This is essentially you watching people, influencers, embody a lifestyle that you would like to have. Okay, so whether it's the products that they're using, the vacations they go on, what their house looks like, what kind of cars they drive, it's very aspirational. So we see those things and then we say, I want them to. I want those things. And social media is the perfect vehicle for influencers and marketing professionals to kind of get us on that theory of like, oh, right, I want you to want this thing. So I'm going to make sure that you see it continuously. And then I'm going to make it as easy to purchase as I possibly can. Because when TikTok came out, there was no TikTok shop, right? When TikTok first came out, we didn't realize it was a shopping app. yeah it was like oh a bunch of tweens dancing yeah right 2020 we were all watching the tiger king um watching people do tic tac dances in their homes during the pandemic it was a very different time right this app seemed somewhat benign and then all of a sudden we started seeing ads and we started seeing purchasing pop-up that was obviously the intent of this about long right was it was going to sell us things but they didn't want you to know that from the get-go that
Speaker #1
well they're very sneaky very sneaky but yeah because because they just have so much information on you like i said earlier just uh they are so ready to sell you something in such a subtle way You don't even realize you're doing it.
Speaker #0
Correct. And part of it is, so I was doing my research as we got ready for this episode, and I found this sort of concept of parasocial relationships. And this is what we can link right back to QVC. Okay. Parasocial relationships are you, a consumer, developing a one-sided emotional connection with an influencer. Okay. So it's you feel like this person is your trusted friend, and they're giving you trusted advice. And that was very much the place of the QVC host. So when people are buying things from QVC, like my grandma would hop on to watch her favorite QVC host because that was the lady she liked. She liked stuff this lady sold. I don't remember the lady's name. She looked like she was out of the Golden Girls. She had like short brown hair. She always wore like a tidy suit. My grandmother loved her. That's all an influencer is, right? It's the QVC host and we feel like we're going to accept their recommendations because we have built a trusted relationship with them.
Speaker #1
Yeah, you know, I think it's a little different because I feel like, you know, for our whole lives, we probably watch celebrities, right? But they were like over here, right? There were people we couldn't possibly know because they were above us and they had this platform that we never would ever have had. But now we have all these kind of quote-unquote like normal average people like always kind of constantly in our lives, whether that's for 20 seconds or 30 seconds or maybe you're listening to them on a podcast like this one. And now you're like, oh, you know, I kind of hear some anecdotes like, you know, they have two kids and, you know, like they have a dog. you know their grandma's sick and like so you like you kind of feel like you know these people um so it's much more comfortable it almost sounds like oh a friend that i've been hanging out with on one side uh has been has been talking to me about this stuff so yeah i'll check this out this seems pretty cool yeah right and you're like yeah right she said she really likes these pants man i'm gonna buy these i'm gonna buy these i own the pants i own the pants um and i think the other piece to it is how easy that these platforms have made it so um
Speaker #0
If you think about, let's go back to the 90s, right? And you were watching Full House and DJ Tanner had a shirt on. And you're like, oh, I really like DJ Tanner's shirt. There was not really a way for you to find out what shirt DJ Tanner was wearing. There was no Google. Yes, we had AOL, but there was no reverse image search or all these things. So you sort of just from afar said, I like DJ Tanner's shirt. That's a cute shirt. Maybe you found a shirt like it in the mall a few months later. But that was it. Now you watch a video because our new TV is our phone, right? We're watching TikTok, Instagram far more than we're watching traditional media at this point, especially millennials and Gen Zers. Gen Xers are getting close. But we're watching a video. You like somebody's shirt. You go, I like that shirt. And like literally you will think it and a little thing will pop up where you can click it and it will bring you to an Amazon storefront or a TikTok shop or a website where you can purchase that shirt. And it happens so fast. that you're like, you've looked at it, you've clicked it, the website pops up, your credit card information is already stored in your phone, and it's already all filled out. And you literally just have to pick the size and the color of the shirt, and you now own it. Right.
Speaker #1
And it keeps your house, you have to go anywhere to get it.
Speaker #0
Immediately, right? Immediately. And that is the piece that I think as a millennial has become so easy as these influencers are driving our purchase decisions. So 49% of millennials say they trust Influa recommendations when making purchases more than their friends.
Speaker #1
Really?
Speaker #0
More than their friends.
Speaker #1
Time to get some new friends.
Speaker #0
Yeah. You know, so you now own it. And this is, I think, sometimes where the regret comes in. You liked that cute shirt on somebody else and now you own it and it's not sized correctly. And then you can't really, like, return these things. Oh, yeah. You can on Amazon. They're making that harder, though. Like, Tic Tac Shop, like, once you've got it, it's yours.
Speaker #1
Yeah, it's coming from China. You have no idea what the quality is.
Speaker #0
You have no idea. It's yours. But it's just making purchasing so easy. And it's very thoughtless purchasing, right? You're not even thinking about it.
Speaker #1
It's mindless, right? Yeah.
Speaker #0
You're just the middle of the night, right? And I laughed. And I remember it was like a joke, right? For those of you who listen, know that I have three kids. They're very close in age. And I remember late at night in the glider, right? Rocking a baby to sleep, holding my phone, scrolling through TikTok, ordering things on Amazon. And my husband would be like, what is it? I'm like, I don't even know. I don't even know what I purchased.
Speaker #1
The amount of times I've ordered something on Amazon with two-day delivery and you're like, wait, when did I buy it? It was two days.
Speaker #0
And I remember when you were a kid, you would order something from the JCPenney's catalog and you would wait at the window sill like, hello, is the item coming? Where is it? I need my- JCPenney catalog. Yeah, I need my life.
Speaker #1
I never did that,
Speaker #0
yeah. Maybe that's a female niche memory.
Speaker #1
I'm a guy. We just go to the store and buy it and leave.
Speaker #0
And then we know girls, we we've always liked to order things. Let's be honest, ladies, we always like to order things. But I think some of it for millennials, it comes from a few different places. Right. So it's aspirational. I think that's one. I also think another place that it comes from for us is this. Will it make my life easier? OK, I think both. And that's the part that resonates for both men and women. For women, I think the aspirational piece of it maybe hits us a little bit stronger sometimes. But the will it make my life easier is. something that resonates men, women, anybody is we look for these like life hacks, these small things, right? Is the Renfo eye mask going to make my headache go away? Is this new remote controlled light going to make this better? Is like, there's so many little gadgets.
Speaker #1
Well, we're also at a weird phase in our lives, right? Like I think in some respects, we still feel like we're young. Right, even though we're probably not as young as we used to be.
Speaker #0
I'm not that young.
Speaker #1
So we're still trying to keep on top of trends, which, as you mentioned earlier, constantly change. Constantly changes, right? And then now we're parents. So I see a lot of stuff. My wife buys online. It's like, oh, well, our son's having this problem. And then all of a sudden, this parent influencer shows up with like, oh, why don't you just buy this thing and this thing? This will help him count better. You're like, all right, it's like $20. All right, here we go.
Speaker #0
If it's the $20 solution, you're willing to pay.
Speaker #1
Yeah, like I'll do it. It's worth checking out. And like, you know, half the time it works. And like half the time we got a bunch of like a drawer with a bunch of stuff that we never use. Right. So it's and it's hard to know like what's going to resonate with your kid. But it's very easy to just see this stuff constantly. And like there's so much more information in front of us, especially it's like, you know, are you being a good parent now? Because now we've got all these parenting videos like this is how you have the calm parenting thing. You're like, all right, don't yell at your kids. OK, like, all right, now you got to do this thing. You got to work. Keep on top of fashion because we don't want to look old. And now we got to have these wrinkles coming in. Like, I don't know. We're like, where are these coming from?
Speaker #0
Like, I have a red light mask. Well, and I think like that stuff is like the parenting stuff is also really hard because you see the like the hatch alarm clock is the new big thing. It's this like alarm clock with a light that like slowly wakes you. It's supposed to be better for whatever your rhythm.
Speaker #1
Maybe it's a little sunlight.
Speaker #0
And you feel like you need these things. Yeah. to parent like i oh they said this thing is better for my kid or this thing is better for me and i think you know we're under especially millennials like we're under so much pressure to be all the things to all the people all the time that we are super susceptible to that kind of marketing right that like this is going to make you better this is going to make you a better mom a better dad a better parent a better employee if i have the thing right um it's also i I also think, again, from the aspirational pieces, the person who we're watching in that video looks like they have the things. Yeah. They look like they're videoing in this like amazing house and this beautiful kitchen wearing a put together outfit with a video of their children looking put together and not covered in peanut butter and whatever.
Speaker #1
Yeah. No one's doing a video from like a trailer park with pit stains. Yeah. And they're cheating.
Speaker #0
Yeah. Exactly. So you're like, oh man, this lady says, if I do this thing and buy this thing, then I'm going to have that life that she has. And like, it's so aspirational. You want it. And again, the amount of money that is poured into our economy from these purchases is outrageous. Honestly,
Speaker #1
it's billions. I think 90 billion was the number I looked up just last year from TikTok and social media spending. Yeah. 90 billion.
Speaker #0
Now, the other flip side to this, though, is the billionaires that this is creating. So that's the other piece of the influencer culture that we have to watch out for is, again, growing up, influencers for us were celebrities. If you were an influencer, you were a celebrity. Now we're living in the rise of the homegrown celebrity where people are becoming famous just from these videos alone. Sometimes they have a quote unquote real job, but there's all these like niche celebrities that. And again, as a. tiktok aficionado like who you follow i follow nara smith and lucky blue who just moved here to connecticut um they are this beautiful model couple that is very like aspirational they're beautiful and it's almost to the point where it's like it's like a joke like nara is cooking homemade pretzel bites and like a ball sequin ball gown and it's like laughable but you're also like dang if this lady can do it so can i yeah right But then there's also like these very relatable influencers that look like just your normal everyday people. I follow this woman named Rita, who's an Italian lady from North Jersey who cooks Italian food and now has a cookbook. She's now famous, like with a cookbook.
Speaker #1
I must have the same person because I feel like she's got like two kids or whatever. I was like, oh, these look pretty good recipes.
Speaker #0
Yeah, everything looks delicious. But again, it's. she's like less aspirational more like your everyday lately that you're like oh if she says that i should buy that kind of brand of olive oil i should buy that brand of olive oil she says it looks good i'm gonna get it um and but there's also like the normal people turned celebrities like alex earl is a great example if you're familiar with alex earl she is the largest tiktok creator um currently and she's made billions i don't even know how many dollars um but she's now just a straight-up celebrity okay i don't even know who that is i'm uh you It's because you're a dude. Do you have any influence?
Speaker #1
I also don't have TikTok. So that's the other thing. Yeah. I'm
Speaker #0
TikTok-less. So you watch TikToks on Instagram like an adult? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker #1
If it's important, I see the filter will get to me eventually. So if it's really good, I'll watch it that way.
Speaker #0
Yeah. Alex Earl has 4 million followers on Instagram.
Speaker #1
And you're at 17,000. You got a ways to go, Kel.
Speaker #0
Yeah. 4 million followers. But she's now getting invited to the Emmys and on talk shows. And she was kind of your run-of-the-mill influencer for a while, but she makes her money off of an Amazon storefront. So now she makes it off brand deals and stuff. But at the beginning, it was she had an Amazon storefront. She'd essentially do a video with a product, recommend it, people go buy it. She'd make her little couple cents of commission and all of that. Couple cents of commission adds up.
Speaker #1
Absolutely.
Speaker #0
Adds up. So, you know, what can we do to combat this? So the other piece to this, especially for women, is the fast fashion part of it. That's the other kind of uglier side of it is this, especially for women, we feel like we are never trendy enough because the thing that the Internet said you had to buy last year on TikTok and Instagram is already out. Yeah. Right. So we made a joke in the last episode about skinny jeans, right? Skinny jeans were in forever and then millennials were called choogy. by by jen's ears do you know what shoogie is i do i didn't know that's how you pronounce it but yes i was like jaggy or something no it's choogie and it is it is it's it is yeah yeah you don't want to be that choogie you don't want to be um we were choogie for wearing skinny jeans we all had to get rid of all of our skinny jeans and move to wide leg pants okay which yeah millennials were here for i think every woman is like yes we love the white like boyfriend jeans bring them on amazing they were great and now we're being told we're going to go back to skinny jeans but what's going to happen in fashion is they're not going to give us the skinny jean we already owned oh no it's gonna be different it's gonna be just different enough that you cannot go back to like the tupperware tub you put away before you had kids that have skinny jeans in it you gotta buy new ones
Speaker #1
Well, I remember when we were like high school, like the bell-bottom thing kind of came in for girls again, but it was like, wasn't like full bell-bottoms. They're like slightly small. They were called flares. Flare, yeah. See, like they'll just like scooch it a little bit, be like, oh, I'm going to do this.
Speaker #0
So if you wear the old one, you look, you look choogy. Yeah. You look choogy. And that like, if you watch, if you spend any time on TikTok, you will see, especially this time of year, it's like, what's out for 2025? And it's like showing you a picture of the shoe you just bought in December. These are out now. No one's wearing them. Now we've moved on to this. And you're like, okay, well, like, I just, I just got these ones. So now I got to go get another one. And I think it's this, this is part of like the aspirational piece for women is that we always feel like we're behind, right? That, and there's like a bell curve of fashion that like, you're never in the middle of the bell curve. You're either before a trend or you're after a trend. And most of us live after the trend. By the time it's hit the middle of the bell curve, the... people who started it are already moved on to something else. So you're already, you're already.
Speaker #1
Well, I, you know, this was going to help anyone. The, I heard a phrase a long time ago that I think makes a lot of sense. Uh, if you're a slave to fashion, it's the easiest way to date yourself.
Speaker #0
I would agree with that.
Speaker #1
Right. Cause you can, you can look at any time, like you went like all in, all in on like the, you know, frosted tips and like whatever, all the style you're the kind of like, look back at your pictures, like, Oh, it looks a little funky. Huh? Right. So I think, you know, you'd be okay.
Speaker #0
with being okay with it. And I think as millennials, there is a comfort in purchasing things online. I think that this is our lives now. This is the life of 2025. I think COVID really changed our spending habits. Now there is a bit of a return to the big box store. People are shopping out more than they have in the last couple of years. But I don't think internet shopping is going anywhere. We know there's a reason why Jeff Bezos has 500 yachts and all of those. lovely things. But I also think that we just have to be really careful because it can be very hard to do the things that we talk about on this podcast, to save for retirement, to buy a house, to pay for education, to do these things if we're spending all of our time kind of a slave to these apps, right? And what to purchase.
Speaker #1
Well, I mean, because I looked up what the average spend per person was, is about $750 a year. Men actually spend almost a thousand. 999 more than women i women i want you all to listen to that yeah i'm yeah uh women spend about 518 but millennials if you look go by you know demographic gen z's at 844 a year millennials are 1016 uh gen x is uh 522 and boomers are 418 so we spend the most compared to any generation online.
Speaker #0
And again, I would probably say some of that is due to we are purchasing not only for ourselves, but millennials are often purchasing for families.
Speaker #1
Yeah. And you know, we see those numbers like, oh, dude, we have $1,000 like chill, right? And you know, it's and it's, it's, that's the average, though. So there are people that obviously spend much more than that.
Speaker #0
And people spend zero.
Speaker #1
And zero, right? Like this guy over here, right? So, you know, you know, I would just say my advice would be, if you want to slow down the regret of the impulse buy, put in the card if you want it. wait till at least a week if you still want it after the week fine if you want to you know buy it at 2am yeah nothing really good happens after 2am right so yeah i'm also so that is one of my um
Speaker #0
My shopping habits and they laugh at me all the time in my office is I am a cart abandoner. So for me, I also think that, again, as millennials, we're often looking for the like adrenaline dopamine hit. Right. That like, oh, I'm going to buy the thing. I don't actually need to press purchase to get that. I just need to cart it. So I have. Yeah, I go on, especially if I get like a web, like I'll get like an email that has like a sale, like Loft is having a sale or Vineyard Vine is having a sale. I'll go cart like a million things. And then I just abandon my cart. And it like always makes me laugh because like a month later, I'll get a new email and I'll click in and they all save your cart. And I'll be like, oh yeah, look at all that stuff I had in this car. I don't miss any of it. Cool. And then I'll do the same thing. I go in, I put all this stuff in the cart and I'm like, I'll go to, I'll get back to this later. And then I don't buy the thing.
Speaker #1
And then often they'll say, you do want to get it anyway. They're going to keep sending you coupons for that. So like the whole like countdown sales coming or ending soon, like. It doesn't exist. Like the promotional emails I get every day. It's come on. Oh, it was always a new sale.
Speaker #0
And millennials love a deal, right? We love a deal. So they know that. But yeah, put it in the car, come back to it later. I would say like, read the reviews. That's something millennials do. We do love to read reviews, but the reviews make sure that it's really what you want. It's a good product. Read the return policy. Can you return it?
Speaker #1
Big time? Yeah. If you don't want. Quality of these things at all. And I kind of looked up what was the thing people bought the most. It was apparel. And then after that was fashion stuff.
Speaker #0
Yeah. So all the... Well, and it's even just the stuff that like claw clips. And we can just get sucked down this rabbit hole of little things that add up. And that's what you have to be... Or setting yourself a budget, right? You can spend no more than $50 a month on garbage from the internet just to give yourself some guardrails.
Speaker #1
Yeah, I'm always like, if you're doing everything else correct, like you have all your budgeting done, you're saving the right amount for retirement, you're saving up for your kid's college, like all the things that are really, truly important, if you're already doing those, like then, yeah, I don't care. Spend $2,000 if you have the money for it. So not like you have to be restrictive. Just if it's coming at the expense of you doing other things that should be more important. And that's probably even doing things like experiences because we found that experiences in general are just much more valuable to people and long-lasting than just buying something on TikTok for $20.
Speaker #0
Correct. But sometimes you want the thing on TikTok and that's okay. Millennials, just again, as Derek said, make sure that it's in the budget. You've done your research and don't purchase it at 2 a.m.
Speaker #1
Yeah. Because, you know, we're better than TikTok, right? We're smarter than TikTok. We can do this.
Speaker #0
We can do it. We can do it. Well, thank you for joining us. We hope this was kind of a fun one. And yeah, Halara, again, if you'd like to sponsor me, we would love it.
Speaker #1
Yeah, yeah. We'll take your monies and your pants. Oh, well, I don't know. I guess I won't take it. Do they have men's pants?
Speaker #0
I don't think they have men's pants.
Speaker #1
Not yet.
Speaker #0
Not yet. Well, they will. You're correct. They will eventually. So no, just ladies pants for now, but I will take your pants. The waffle weave, wide leg, pleated ones. Those are my favorite. Thank you.
Speaker #1
Like Derek, he has no TikTok followers. So you're out. You're not getting your pants.
Speaker #0
You're done. Yeah.
Speaker #1
All right. Bye everybody.
Speaker #0
The opinions voiced in this podcast are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you. Consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a decision.

About Millennial Money Matters

Welcome to "Millennial Money Matters," your essential guide to navigating the world of finance as a millennial. Hosted by Kelly Turner, a mortgage loan officer, and Derek Mazzarella, a financial advisor, this podcast offers straightforward, practical advice on managing your money.

Kelly and Derek tackle topics like budgeting, student loans, real estate, and investing, breaking down complex financial concepts into easy-to-understand tips. Each episode delivers actionable insights and real-life stories to help you make smart financial decisions and secure your future.

Join Kelly and Derek each week for honest and fun discussions about the financial issues that matter to you. Subscribe to "Millennial Money Matters" and take control of your financial journey today.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

About Millennial Money Matters

Join Kelly and Derek each week for honest and fun discussions about the financial issues that matter to you. Subscribe to "Millennial Money Matters" and take control of your financial journey today.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Description

Reach out to Kelly Turner at kturner@totalmortgage.com and Derek Mazzarella at dmazzarella@mygfpartner.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Transcription

Speaker #0
All right, we're here for another episode of Millennial Money Matters with Kelly and...
Speaker #1
Derek.
Speaker #0
All right. We are talking about a fun topic today, and it was actually very appropriate because this morning we had a two-hour snow delay in our town, and Derek and I's kids go to the same school. And during that two-hour delay, I did find myself mindlessly scrolling TikTok. Oh. Just squishing.
Speaker #1
As one does, yeah.
Speaker #0
Seeing what was there, because that's the purpose of that app, is to just consume your time. Well,
Speaker #1
it's like, I got 10 minutes. Kids are doing something stupid. Let me just poke on the phone here for a minute.
Speaker #0
See what's going on. And so what we're going to kind of talk about today is influencer purchases for millennials. Because as we talk about the millennial experience, online purchasing is such a humongous part, I think, of the millennial identity, right? What are you buying from the internet?
Speaker #1
Well, yeah, because I think we were like the first generation to really kind of fully trust it. Because I feel like our parents were like, you would never buy anything on the internet.
Speaker #0
Yeah, giving strangers your credit card number.
Speaker #1
That's crazy.
Speaker #0
My credit card number is everywhere.
Speaker #1
Yeah.
Speaker #0
I give it to anybody.
Speaker #1
Look at little Amazon Go, right?
Speaker #0
Yeah, right. And I think we, right, like what was our like. toe dip. It was like the one cent for 20 CDs from like the back of the magazine as kids, right? That was like us dipping our toe in the like mail order.
Speaker #1
Columbia House, right? Yeah.
Speaker #0
Columbia House records. You got your 20 CDs. You don't know how you canceled it. I don't use a fake address, but now you own the CDs. That was like the beginning of it. But we as millennials have embraced online shopping more than any other generation. Now, Gen Zers coming up behind us.
Speaker #1
Oh,
Speaker #0
they're coming hot. They're coming in hot. Yeah. They have also really embraced it. So you've got some stats for me, Derek. What do you got over there?
Speaker #1
Well, I don't know. Let's start with the most interesting. So, all right. 76% of people bought something on social media.
Speaker #0
On social media. So we're not even just talking about long-term. No,
Speaker #1
not like Amazon. No, no, no. We're talking like I'm on Facebook. I'm on TikTok, Instagram, you name it.
Speaker #0
I found a ad.
Speaker #1
That looks cool. Boop. 48% of people. These are all banking rates. GoBankingRates, I think, is the source. 48% of people admit to impulse buying.
Speaker #0
Oh, yeah. That's the whole purpose of those apps.
Speaker #1
Yeah. Well, because, you know, it's like we were talking about. You probably got some nacho stains on your shirt. It's like, oh, that looks nice.
Speaker #0
That looks nice.
Speaker #1
And then you hit it. But not surprisingly, 68% of those people regretted it.
Speaker #0
Ooh. And I could see that, too. So Derek and I, as we end up chatting kind of every week when we do the podcast, you know we make jokes and one of the the phrases that i use about myself all the time is i'm easily influenced on the internet so this is i'm like target audience for this conversation that we're having is i think especially as women um but derek has some stats about men too but especially as women you like see stuff and you're like oh well that will that thing make my life better well somebody that person in the video looks like happier than me um i think i want that thing and and then you it's so easy to just purchase it well because you have like a
Speaker #1
an average person, right? Like some mom out there, I don't know, like my wife watches a lot of Instagram stuff. She's like, well, our kids could use this thing, right? Like, and you're like, yeah, I mean, I kind of could see that. Like, that looks kind of cool. And like some things like do work out, some things are a piece of garbage. But like, yeah, just like an average person saying, hey, like I do use this. You're like, oh, I'm an average person.
Speaker #0
Yeah. I'm an average person. I could average like the same thing.
Speaker #1
Yeah.
Speaker #0
Yeah. And it's so interesting because, you know, when we're talking about this stuff, we have to know, number one, that this is not new, right? This is not new. So what was this for our parents' generation? TikTok shop is QVC, okay? So like, if you made fun of your parents or your grandma for purchasing you Christmas presents on QVC in the 80s and 90s, make fun of yourself for purchasing stuff on the TikTok shop, because it's exactly the same thing. It is social purchasing. Yeah. And why does this have an impact on your financial, you know, sort of situation? And why are we talking about it is because people do not realize how that sort of purchasing adds up and how it can have impacts on their budget.
Speaker #1
Yeah. Cause it's, it's, you know, $50 here. Oh, this is on sale. Let me, uh, let me, Oh, look, look what a deal I'm getting from so-and-so influencer. And I have to do it within the next 30 seconds or I'm going to get this deal.
Speaker #0
Oh my God. TikTok is notorious for that, that everything is this, like, like there's like a timer counting down. But it's never a deal because it's always the same price. There's always a new timer and a new countdown, but it's always the same price. And you're like, this is no cheaper than it was or more expensive than it was last time. But I think this concept of this social purchasing has really gotten exasperated by all of these apps that we're looking at. QVC was one thing because QVC tended to be a late night activity. That's when we QVC'd and it was larger purchases. a lot of the time. So people were buying sewing machines, like whole outfits, jewelry, kitchenwares, larger things. What gets us now on the TikTok shop and on Instagram are it's a lot of small purchases. It's a lot of small impulse purchases that you're just like, oh, yeah, I'll take that. That's 20 bucks. Like, what's 20 bucks? What's 30 bucks? What's 40 bucks? And all of a sudden, you know, you're getting your like drop ship email.
Speaker #1
Well, I think the other big difference too is when you look at like compared to QVC, right? They had a larger audience But it was like, all right, we're going to sell to everyone, maybe 10% of people like this. Yeah. Where I think we flipped that where it's like, okay, we have so much information on us. And these apps know us probably better than we think we do. And they say, okay, well, I know Kelly really likes wooden spoons. So we're going to give her all the wooden spoons she can hit off. And Derek loves combing his hair. So we're going to give him the best comb ever. Right? So like they can really hyper target like those items to people. And it's like, how did you know that? Or like, how many times have you been on the phone? You've said something. And like. Like two minutes later, an ad pops up for it.
Speaker #0
That's a story of my life. I joke that Facebook knows me better than I know myself. Well, and that's totally true because what these algorithms are doing is if you linger on a video, okay, or you rewatch a video, and you should pay attention to how often you rewatch the same video multiple times because we do it more often than we realize. As you rewatch it because you missed something or there was text, a lot of it is very subtle psychological warfare against you to get you to kind of keep engaging with that video. But you'll watch a video once, twice, three times. Maybe you'll save it. Well, now the algorithm is like, ah, we got you. We know this is something you're interested in. And it will just keep showing it to you. Or maybe you bought something on TikTok. Okay. So I'm going to use my, there's a lot of examples about myself. I bought Hilara pants. Okay, Hilara, feel free to sponsor us. I love you. You're my favorite work pants. So I bought these Hilara pants. If you are a woman and you are on TikTok, you know exactly what Hilara pants are. Um, they're lost right now. Yeah. There are these waffle weave, wide leg, uh, dress pants. I feel like PJs. They're amazing. They are, I will tell you a 40 year old mom is 100% their target audience. They're like you, you, you watch videos of parenting. You clearly have children. You watch a lot of cooking. So you need some elastic stretch in the waistband. We know, we know these pants are for you. I bought them and honestly, I love them. Well, now I, when I tell you, I get inundated by ads and they're very subtle ads. And that's what what people don't realize about things like TikTok is some TikTok ads look like an ad. Some TikTok ads just look like some woman wearing these Hilara pants being like, these are the best pants ever. So it's very subtle. Yeah,
Speaker #1
it's not in your face.
Speaker #0
It's not in your face. You're like, oh, this woman who looks like me likes these pants, right? It's not an ad. It's just a lady liking these pants. She's giving me her testimonial on the like of the pants.
Speaker #1
Yeah. And then you see another woman wearing pants.
Speaker #0
Wearing the pants.
Speaker #1
Is everyone wearing these pants?
Speaker #0
Everyone's wearing these pants, man. I got to get these pants. And then a new color comes out, right? So, Hilara is like, we got a new color and we know this lady is a Hilara Pants sucker. So, we're just going to keep going with the ads. And so, it becomes this, like, never-ending cycle. Or maybe you watch a video because you get headaches. You're like, oh, you know, there's videos on ways to treat headaches. Well, then, again, a sucker for the Renpho eye mask, okay? Here has the heated massaging eye mask. They're like, this lady's got headaches and you know what will make her feel better? The eye mask. And then I got inundated by the eye mask ads and now I own. I own the heated eye mask. Do you own the heated eye mask?
Speaker #1
Yeah, I got it as a gift from my brother. And I was like, what the hell is this?
Speaker #0
Do you use it?
Speaker #1
Well, you know, I use it for a while. It's like, I just need to charge it again. But it's actually surprising. I was like, oh, this is a weird gift. And I was like, oh, OK.
Speaker #0
Kind of great. OK. But that's kind of what happens is this sort of psychological warfare against you that you then feel like you need these things. Yeah. Right. You need them. And I also think for millennials, we watch this pattern in millennial purchasing. from how they buy houses, how they buy cars, how they buy products, vacations, that a lot of millennial purchasing is part of aspirational identity. Okay, what's aspirational identity? This is essentially you watching people, influencers, embody a lifestyle that you would like to have. Okay, so whether it's the products that they're using, the vacations they go on, what their house looks like, what kind of cars they drive, it's very aspirational. So we see those things and then we say, I want them to. I want those things. And social media is the perfect vehicle for influencers and marketing professionals to kind of get us on that theory of like, oh, right, I want you to want this thing. So I'm going to make sure that you see it continuously. And then I'm going to make it as easy to purchase as I possibly can. Because when TikTok came out, there was no TikTok shop, right? When TikTok first came out, we didn't realize it was a shopping app. yeah it was like oh a bunch of tweens dancing yeah right 2020 we were all watching the tiger king um watching people do tic tac dances in their homes during the pandemic it was a very different time right this app seemed somewhat benign and then all of a sudden we started seeing ads and we started seeing purchasing pop-up that was obviously the intent of this about long right was it was going to sell us things but they didn't want you to know that from the get-go that
Speaker #1
well they're very sneaky very sneaky but yeah because because they just have so much information on you like i said earlier just uh they are so ready to sell you something in such a subtle way You don't even realize you're doing it.
Speaker #0
Correct. And part of it is, so I was doing my research as we got ready for this episode, and I found this sort of concept of parasocial relationships. And this is what we can link right back to QVC. Okay. Parasocial relationships are you, a consumer, developing a one-sided emotional connection with an influencer. Okay. So it's you feel like this person is your trusted friend, and they're giving you trusted advice. And that was very much the place of the QVC host. So when people are buying things from QVC, like my grandma would hop on to watch her favorite QVC host because that was the lady she liked. She liked stuff this lady sold. I don't remember the lady's name. She looked like she was out of the Golden Girls. She had like short brown hair. She always wore like a tidy suit. My grandmother loved her. That's all an influencer is, right? It's the QVC host and we feel like we're going to accept their recommendations because we have built a trusted relationship with them.
Speaker #1
Yeah, you know, I think it's a little different because I feel like, you know, for our whole lives, we probably watch celebrities, right? But they were like over here, right? There were people we couldn't possibly know because they were above us and they had this platform that we never would ever have had. But now we have all these kind of quote-unquote like normal average people like always kind of constantly in our lives, whether that's for 20 seconds or 30 seconds or maybe you're listening to them on a podcast like this one. And now you're like, oh, you know, I kind of hear some anecdotes like, you know, they have two kids and, you know, like they have a dog. you know their grandma's sick and like so you like you kind of feel like you know these people um so it's much more comfortable it almost sounds like oh a friend that i've been hanging out with on one side uh has been has been talking to me about this stuff so yeah i'll check this out this seems pretty cool yeah right and you're like yeah right she said she really likes these pants man i'm gonna buy these i'm gonna buy these i own the pants i own the pants um and i think the other piece to it is how easy that these platforms have made it so um
Speaker #0
If you think about, let's go back to the 90s, right? And you were watching Full House and DJ Tanner had a shirt on. And you're like, oh, I really like DJ Tanner's shirt. There was not really a way for you to find out what shirt DJ Tanner was wearing. There was no Google. Yes, we had AOL, but there was no reverse image search or all these things. So you sort of just from afar said, I like DJ Tanner's shirt. That's a cute shirt. Maybe you found a shirt like it in the mall a few months later. But that was it. Now you watch a video because our new TV is our phone, right? We're watching TikTok, Instagram far more than we're watching traditional media at this point, especially millennials and Gen Zers. Gen Xers are getting close. But we're watching a video. You like somebody's shirt. You go, I like that shirt. And like literally you will think it and a little thing will pop up where you can click it and it will bring you to an Amazon storefront or a TikTok shop or a website where you can purchase that shirt. And it happens so fast. that you're like, you've looked at it, you've clicked it, the website pops up, your credit card information is already stored in your phone, and it's already all filled out. And you literally just have to pick the size and the color of the shirt, and you now own it. Right.
Speaker #1
And it keeps your house, you have to go anywhere to get it.
Speaker #0
Immediately, right? Immediately. And that is the piece that I think as a millennial has become so easy as these influencers are driving our purchase decisions. So 49% of millennials say they trust Influa recommendations when making purchases more than their friends.
Speaker #1
Really?
Speaker #0
More than their friends.
Speaker #1
Time to get some new friends.
Speaker #0
Yeah. You know, so you now own it. And this is, I think, sometimes where the regret comes in. You liked that cute shirt on somebody else and now you own it and it's not sized correctly. And then you can't really, like, return these things. Oh, yeah. You can on Amazon. They're making that harder, though. Like, Tic Tac Shop, like, once you've got it, it's yours.
Speaker #1
Yeah, it's coming from China. You have no idea what the quality is.
Speaker #0
You have no idea. It's yours. But it's just making purchasing so easy. And it's very thoughtless purchasing, right? You're not even thinking about it.
Speaker #1
It's mindless, right? Yeah.
Speaker #0
You're just the middle of the night, right? And I laughed. And I remember it was like a joke, right? For those of you who listen, know that I have three kids. They're very close in age. And I remember late at night in the glider, right? Rocking a baby to sleep, holding my phone, scrolling through TikTok, ordering things on Amazon. And my husband would be like, what is it? I'm like, I don't even know. I don't even know what I purchased.
Speaker #1
The amount of times I've ordered something on Amazon with two-day delivery and you're like, wait, when did I buy it? It was two days.
Speaker #0
And I remember when you were a kid, you would order something from the JCPenney's catalog and you would wait at the window sill like, hello, is the item coming? Where is it? I need my- JCPenney catalog. Yeah, I need my life.
Speaker #1
I never did that,
Speaker #0
yeah. Maybe that's a female niche memory.
Speaker #1
I'm a guy. We just go to the store and buy it and leave.
Speaker #0
And then we know girls, we we've always liked to order things. Let's be honest, ladies, we always like to order things. But I think some of it for millennials, it comes from a few different places. Right. So it's aspirational. I think that's one. I also think another place that it comes from for us is this. Will it make my life easier? OK, I think both. And that's the part that resonates for both men and women. For women, I think the aspirational piece of it maybe hits us a little bit stronger sometimes. But the will it make my life easier is. something that resonates men, women, anybody is we look for these like life hacks, these small things, right? Is the Renfo eye mask going to make my headache go away? Is this new remote controlled light going to make this better? Is like, there's so many little gadgets.
Speaker #1
Well, we're also at a weird phase in our lives, right? Like I think in some respects, we still feel like we're young. Right, even though we're probably not as young as we used to be.
Speaker #0
I'm not that young.
Speaker #1
So we're still trying to keep on top of trends, which, as you mentioned earlier, constantly change. Constantly changes, right? And then now we're parents. So I see a lot of stuff. My wife buys online. It's like, oh, well, our son's having this problem. And then all of a sudden, this parent influencer shows up with like, oh, why don't you just buy this thing and this thing? This will help him count better. You're like, all right, it's like $20. All right, here we go.
Speaker #0
If it's the $20 solution, you're willing to pay.
Speaker #1
Yeah, like I'll do it. It's worth checking out. And like, you know, half the time it works. And like half the time we got a bunch of like a drawer with a bunch of stuff that we never use. Right. So it's and it's hard to know like what's going to resonate with your kid. But it's very easy to just see this stuff constantly. And like there's so much more information in front of us, especially it's like, you know, are you being a good parent now? Because now we've got all these parenting videos like this is how you have the calm parenting thing. You're like, all right, don't yell at your kids. OK, like, all right, now you got to do this thing. You got to work. Keep on top of fashion because we don't want to look old. And now we got to have these wrinkles coming in. Like, I don't know. We're like, where are these coming from?
Speaker #0
Like, I have a red light mask. Well, and I think like that stuff is like the parenting stuff is also really hard because you see the like the hatch alarm clock is the new big thing. It's this like alarm clock with a light that like slowly wakes you. It's supposed to be better for whatever your rhythm.
Speaker #1
Maybe it's a little sunlight.
Speaker #0
And you feel like you need these things. Yeah. to parent like i oh they said this thing is better for my kid or this thing is better for me and i think you know we're under especially millennials like we're under so much pressure to be all the things to all the people all the time that we are super susceptible to that kind of marketing right that like this is going to make you better this is going to make you a better mom a better dad a better parent a better employee if i have the thing right um it's also i I also think, again, from the aspirational pieces, the person who we're watching in that video looks like they have the things. Yeah. They look like they're videoing in this like amazing house and this beautiful kitchen wearing a put together outfit with a video of their children looking put together and not covered in peanut butter and whatever.
Speaker #1
Yeah. No one's doing a video from like a trailer park with pit stains. Yeah. And they're cheating.
Speaker #0
Yeah. Exactly. So you're like, oh man, this lady says, if I do this thing and buy this thing, then I'm going to have that life that she has. And like, it's so aspirational. You want it. And again, the amount of money that is poured into our economy from these purchases is outrageous. Honestly,
Speaker #1
it's billions. I think 90 billion was the number I looked up just last year from TikTok and social media spending. Yeah. 90 billion.
Speaker #0
Now, the other flip side to this, though, is the billionaires that this is creating. So that's the other piece of the influencer culture that we have to watch out for is, again, growing up, influencers for us were celebrities. If you were an influencer, you were a celebrity. Now we're living in the rise of the homegrown celebrity where people are becoming famous just from these videos alone. Sometimes they have a quote unquote real job, but there's all these like niche celebrities that. And again, as a. tiktok aficionado like who you follow i follow nara smith and lucky blue who just moved here to connecticut um they are this beautiful model couple that is very like aspirational they're beautiful and it's almost to the point where it's like it's like a joke like nara is cooking homemade pretzel bites and like a ball sequin ball gown and it's like laughable but you're also like dang if this lady can do it so can i yeah right But then there's also like these very relatable influencers that look like just your normal everyday people. I follow this woman named Rita, who's an Italian lady from North Jersey who cooks Italian food and now has a cookbook. She's now famous, like with a cookbook.
Speaker #1
I must have the same person because I feel like she's got like two kids or whatever. I was like, oh, these look pretty good recipes.
Speaker #0
Yeah, everything looks delicious. But again, it's. she's like less aspirational more like your everyday lately that you're like oh if she says that i should buy that kind of brand of olive oil i should buy that brand of olive oil she says it looks good i'm gonna get it um and but there's also like the normal people turned celebrities like alex earl is a great example if you're familiar with alex earl she is the largest tiktok creator um currently and she's made billions i don't even know how many dollars um but she's now just a straight-up celebrity okay i don't even know who that is i'm uh you It's because you're a dude. Do you have any influence?
Speaker #1
I also don't have TikTok. So that's the other thing. Yeah. I'm
Speaker #0
TikTok-less. So you watch TikToks on Instagram like an adult? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker #1
If it's important, I see the filter will get to me eventually. So if it's really good, I'll watch it that way.
Speaker #0
Yeah. Alex Earl has 4 million followers on Instagram.
Speaker #1
And you're at 17,000. You got a ways to go, Kel.
Speaker #0
Yeah. 4 million followers. But she's now getting invited to the Emmys and on talk shows. And she was kind of your run-of-the-mill influencer for a while, but she makes her money off of an Amazon storefront. So now she makes it off brand deals and stuff. But at the beginning, it was she had an Amazon storefront. She'd essentially do a video with a product, recommend it, people go buy it. She'd make her little couple cents of commission and all of that. Couple cents of commission adds up.
Speaker #1
Absolutely.
Speaker #0
Adds up. So, you know, what can we do to combat this? So the other piece to this, especially for women, is the fast fashion part of it. That's the other kind of uglier side of it is this, especially for women, we feel like we are never trendy enough because the thing that the Internet said you had to buy last year on TikTok and Instagram is already out. Yeah. Right. So we made a joke in the last episode about skinny jeans, right? Skinny jeans were in forever and then millennials were called choogy. by by jen's ears do you know what shoogie is i do i didn't know that's how you pronounce it but yes i was like jaggy or something no it's choogie and it is it is it's it is yeah yeah you don't want to be that choogie you don't want to be um we were choogie for wearing skinny jeans we all had to get rid of all of our skinny jeans and move to wide leg pants okay which yeah millennials were here for i think every woman is like yes we love the white like boyfriend jeans bring them on amazing they were great and now we're being told we're going to go back to skinny jeans but what's going to happen in fashion is they're not going to give us the skinny jean we already owned oh no it's gonna be different it's gonna be just different enough that you cannot go back to like the tupperware tub you put away before you had kids that have skinny jeans in it you gotta buy new ones
Speaker #1
Well, I remember when we were like high school, like the bell-bottom thing kind of came in for girls again, but it was like, wasn't like full bell-bottoms. They're like slightly small. They were called flares. Flare, yeah. See, like they'll just like scooch it a little bit, be like, oh, I'm going to do this.
Speaker #0
So if you wear the old one, you look, you look choogy. Yeah. You look choogy. And that like, if you watch, if you spend any time on TikTok, you will see, especially this time of year, it's like, what's out for 2025? And it's like showing you a picture of the shoe you just bought in December. These are out now. No one's wearing them. Now we've moved on to this. And you're like, okay, well, like, I just, I just got these ones. So now I got to go get another one. And I think it's this, this is part of like the aspirational piece for women is that we always feel like we're behind, right? That, and there's like a bell curve of fashion that like, you're never in the middle of the bell curve. You're either before a trend or you're after a trend. And most of us live after the trend. By the time it's hit the middle of the bell curve, the... people who started it are already moved on to something else. So you're already, you're already.
Speaker #1
Well, I, you know, this was going to help anyone. The, I heard a phrase a long time ago that I think makes a lot of sense. Uh, if you're a slave to fashion, it's the easiest way to date yourself.
Speaker #0
I would agree with that.
Speaker #1
Right. Cause you can, you can look at any time, like you went like all in, all in on like the, you know, frosted tips and like whatever, all the style you're the kind of like, look back at your pictures, like, Oh, it looks a little funky. Huh? Right. So I think, you know, you'd be okay.
Speaker #0
with being okay with it. And I think as millennials, there is a comfort in purchasing things online. I think that this is our lives now. This is the life of 2025. I think COVID really changed our spending habits. Now there is a bit of a return to the big box store. People are shopping out more than they have in the last couple of years. But I don't think internet shopping is going anywhere. We know there's a reason why Jeff Bezos has 500 yachts and all of those. lovely things. But I also think that we just have to be really careful because it can be very hard to do the things that we talk about on this podcast, to save for retirement, to buy a house, to pay for education, to do these things if we're spending all of our time kind of a slave to these apps, right? And what to purchase.
Speaker #1
Well, I mean, because I looked up what the average spend per person was, is about $750 a year. Men actually spend almost a thousand. 999 more than women i women i want you all to listen to that yeah i'm yeah uh women spend about 518 but millennials if you look go by you know demographic gen z's at 844 a year millennials are 1016 uh gen x is uh 522 and boomers are 418 so we spend the most compared to any generation online.
Speaker #0
And again, I would probably say some of that is due to we are purchasing not only for ourselves, but millennials are often purchasing for families.
Speaker #1
Yeah. And you know, we see those numbers like, oh, dude, we have $1,000 like chill, right? And you know, it's and it's, it's, that's the average, though. So there are people that obviously spend much more than that.
Speaker #0
And people spend zero.
Speaker #1
And zero, right? Like this guy over here, right? So, you know, you know, I would just say my advice would be, if you want to slow down the regret of the impulse buy, put in the card if you want it. wait till at least a week if you still want it after the week fine if you want to you know buy it at 2am yeah nothing really good happens after 2am right so yeah i'm also so that is one of my um
Speaker #0
My shopping habits and they laugh at me all the time in my office is I am a cart abandoner. So for me, I also think that, again, as millennials, we're often looking for the like adrenaline dopamine hit. Right. That like, oh, I'm going to buy the thing. I don't actually need to press purchase to get that. I just need to cart it. So I have. Yeah, I go on, especially if I get like a web, like I'll get like an email that has like a sale, like Loft is having a sale or Vineyard Vine is having a sale. I'll go cart like a million things. And then I just abandon my cart. And it like always makes me laugh because like a month later, I'll get a new email and I'll click in and they all save your cart. And I'll be like, oh yeah, look at all that stuff I had in this car. I don't miss any of it. Cool. And then I'll do the same thing. I go in, I put all this stuff in the cart and I'm like, I'll go to, I'll get back to this later. And then I don't buy the thing.
Speaker #1
And then often they'll say, you do want to get it anyway. They're going to keep sending you coupons for that. So like the whole like countdown sales coming or ending soon, like. It doesn't exist. Like the promotional emails I get every day. It's come on. Oh, it was always a new sale.
Speaker #0
And millennials love a deal, right? We love a deal. So they know that. But yeah, put it in the car, come back to it later. I would say like, read the reviews. That's something millennials do. We do love to read reviews, but the reviews make sure that it's really what you want. It's a good product. Read the return policy. Can you return it?
Speaker #1
Big time? Yeah. If you don't want. Quality of these things at all. And I kind of looked up what was the thing people bought the most. It was apparel. And then after that was fashion stuff.
Speaker #0
Yeah. So all the... Well, and it's even just the stuff that like claw clips. And we can just get sucked down this rabbit hole of little things that add up. And that's what you have to be... Or setting yourself a budget, right? You can spend no more than $50 a month on garbage from the internet just to give yourself some guardrails.
Speaker #1
Yeah, I'm always like, if you're doing everything else correct, like you have all your budgeting done, you're saving the right amount for retirement, you're saving up for your kid's college, like all the things that are really, truly important, if you're already doing those, like then, yeah, I don't care. Spend $2,000 if you have the money for it. So not like you have to be restrictive. Just if it's coming at the expense of you doing other things that should be more important. And that's probably even doing things like experiences because we found that experiences in general are just much more valuable to people and long-lasting than just buying something on TikTok for $20.
Speaker #0
Correct. But sometimes you want the thing on TikTok and that's okay. Millennials, just again, as Derek said, make sure that it's in the budget. You've done your research and don't purchase it at 2 a.m.
Speaker #1
Yeah. Because, you know, we're better than TikTok, right? We're smarter than TikTok. We can do this.
Speaker #0
We can do it. We can do it. Well, thank you for joining us. We hope this was kind of a fun one. And yeah, Halara, again, if you'd like to sponsor me, we would love it.
Speaker #1
Yeah, yeah. We'll take your monies and your pants. Oh, well, I don't know. I guess I won't take it. Do they have men's pants?
Speaker #0
I don't think they have men's pants.
Speaker #1
Not yet.
Speaker #0
Not yet. Well, they will. You're correct. They will eventually. So no, just ladies pants for now, but I will take your pants. The waffle weave, wide leg, pleated ones. Those are my favorite. Thank you.
Speaker #1
Like Derek, he has no TikTok followers. So you're out. You're not getting your pants.
Speaker #0
You're done. Yeah.
Speaker #1
All right. Bye everybody.
Speaker #0
The opinions voiced in this podcast are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you. Consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a decision.

About Millennial Money Matters

Join Kelly and Derek each week for honest and fun discussions about the financial issues that matter to you. Subscribe to "Millennial Money Matters" and take control of your financial journey today.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

About Millennial Money Matters

Join Kelly and Derek each week for honest and fun discussions about the financial issues that matter to you. Subscribe to "Millennial Money Matters" and take control of your financial journey today.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

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Reach out to Kelly Turner at kturner@totalmortgage.com and Derek Mazzarella at dmazzarella@mygfpartner.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

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Speaker #0
All right, we're here for another episode of Millennial Money Matters with Kelly and...
Speaker #1
Derek.
Speaker #0
All right. We are talking about a fun topic today, and it was actually very appropriate because this morning we had a two-hour snow delay in our town, and Derek and I's kids go to the same school. And during that two-hour delay, I did find myself mindlessly scrolling TikTok. Oh. Just squishing.
Speaker #1
As one does, yeah.
Speaker #0
Seeing what was there, because that's the purpose of that app, is to just consume your time. Well,
Speaker #1
it's like, I got 10 minutes. Kids are doing something stupid. Let me just poke on the phone here for a minute.
Speaker #0
See what's going on. And so what we're going to kind of talk about today is influencer purchases for millennials. Because as we talk about the millennial experience, online purchasing is such a humongous part, I think, of the millennial identity, right? What are you buying from the internet?
Speaker #1
Well, yeah, because I think we were like the first generation to really kind of fully trust it. Because I feel like our parents were like, you would never buy anything on the internet.
Speaker #0
Yeah, giving strangers your credit card number.
Speaker #1
That's crazy.
Speaker #0
My credit card number is everywhere.
Speaker #1
Yeah.
Speaker #0
I give it to anybody.
Speaker #1
Look at little Amazon Go, right?
Speaker #0
Yeah, right. And I think we, right, like what was our like. toe dip. It was like the one cent for 20 CDs from like the back of the magazine as kids, right? That was like us dipping our toe in the like mail order.
Speaker #1
Columbia House, right? Yeah.
Speaker #0
Columbia House records. You got your 20 CDs. You don't know how you canceled it. I don't use a fake address, but now you own the CDs. That was like the beginning of it. But we as millennials have embraced online shopping more than any other generation. Now, Gen Zers coming up behind us.
Speaker #1
Oh,
Speaker #0
they're coming hot. They're coming in hot. Yeah. They have also really embraced it. So you've got some stats for me, Derek. What do you got over there?
Speaker #1
Well, I don't know. Let's start with the most interesting. So, all right. 76% of people bought something on social media.
Speaker #0
On social media. So we're not even just talking about long-term. No,
Speaker #1
not like Amazon. No, no, no. We're talking like I'm on Facebook. I'm on TikTok, Instagram, you name it.
Speaker #0
I found a ad.
Speaker #1
That looks cool. Boop. 48% of people. These are all banking rates. GoBankingRates, I think, is the source. 48% of people admit to impulse buying.
Speaker #0
Oh, yeah. That's the whole purpose of those apps.
Speaker #1
Yeah. Well, because, you know, it's like we were talking about. You probably got some nacho stains on your shirt. It's like, oh, that looks nice.
Speaker #0
That looks nice.
Speaker #1
And then you hit it. But not surprisingly, 68% of those people regretted it.
Speaker #0
Ooh. And I could see that, too. So Derek and I, as we end up chatting kind of every week when we do the podcast, you know we make jokes and one of the the phrases that i use about myself all the time is i'm easily influenced on the internet so this is i'm like target audience for this conversation that we're having is i think especially as women um but derek has some stats about men too but especially as women you like see stuff and you're like oh well that will that thing make my life better well somebody that person in the video looks like happier than me um i think i want that thing and and then you it's so easy to just purchase it well because you have like a
Speaker #1
an average person, right? Like some mom out there, I don't know, like my wife watches a lot of Instagram stuff. She's like, well, our kids could use this thing, right? Like, and you're like, yeah, I mean, I kind of could see that. Like, that looks kind of cool. And like some things like do work out, some things are a piece of garbage. But like, yeah, just like an average person saying, hey, like I do use this. You're like, oh, I'm an average person.
Speaker #0
Yeah. I'm an average person. I could average like the same thing.
Speaker #1
Yeah.
Speaker #0
Yeah. And it's so interesting because, you know, when we're talking about this stuff, we have to know, number one, that this is not new, right? This is not new. So what was this for our parents' generation? TikTok shop is QVC, okay? So like, if you made fun of your parents or your grandma for purchasing you Christmas presents on QVC in the 80s and 90s, make fun of yourself for purchasing stuff on the TikTok shop, because it's exactly the same thing. It is social purchasing. Yeah. And why does this have an impact on your financial, you know, sort of situation? And why are we talking about it is because people do not realize how that sort of purchasing adds up and how it can have impacts on their budget.
Speaker #1
Yeah. Cause it's, it's, you know, $50 here. Oh, this is on sale. Let me, uh, let me, Oh, look, look what a deal I'm getting from so-and-so influencer. And I have to do it within the next 30 seconds or I'm going to get this deal.
Speaker #0
Oh my God. TikTok is notorious for that, that everything is this, like, like there's like a timer counting down. But it's never a deal because it's always the same price. There's always a new timer and a new countdown, but it's always the same price. And you're like, this is no cheaper than it was or more expensive than it was last time. But I think this concept of this social purchasing has really gotten exasperated by all of these apps that we're looking at. QVC was one thing because QVC tended to be a late night activity. That's when we QVC'd and it was larger purchases. a lot of the time. So people were buying sewing machines, like whole outfits, jewelry, kitchenwares, larger things. What gets us now on the TikTok shop and on Instagram are it's a lot of small purchases. It's a lot of small impulse purchases that you're just like, oh, yeah, I'll take that. That's 20 bucks. Like, what's 20 bucks? What's 30 bucks? What's 40 bucks? And all of a sudden, you know, you're getting your like drop ship email.
Speaker #1
Well, I think the other big difference too is when you look at like compared to QVC, right? They had a larger audience But it was like, all right, we're going to sell to everyone, maybe 10% of people like this. Yeah. Where I think we flipped that where it's like, okay, we have so much information on us. And these apps know us probably better than we think we do. And they say, okay, well, I know Kelly really likes wooden spoons. So we're going to give her all the wooden spoons she can hit off. And Derek loves combing his hair. So we're going to give him the best comb ever. Right? So like they can really hyper target like those items to people. And it's like, how did you know that? Or like, how many times have you been on the phone? You've said something. And like. Like two minutes later, an ad pops up for it.
Speaker #0
That's a story of my life. I joke that Facebook knows me better than I know myself. Well, and that's totally true because what these algorithms are doing is if you linger on a video, okay, or you rewatch a video, and you should pay attention to how often you rewatch the same video multiple times because we do it more often than we realize. As you rewatch it because you missed something or there was text, a lot of it is very subtle psychological warfare against you to get you to kind of keep engaging with that video. But you'll watch a video once, twice, three times. Maybe you'll save it. Well, now the algorithm is like, ah, we got you. We know this is something you're interested in. And it will just keep showing it to you. Or maybe you bought something on TikTok. Okay. So I'm going to use my, there's a lot of examples about myself. I bought Hilara pants. Okay, Hilara, feel free to sponsor us. I love you. You're my favorite work pants. So I bought these Hilara pants. If you are a woman and you are on TikTok, you know exactly what Hilara pants are. Um, they're lost right now. Yeah. There are these waffle weave, wide leg, uh, dress pants. I feel like PJs. They're amazing. They are, I will tell you a 40 year old mom is 100% their target audience. They're like you, you, you watch videos of parenting. You clearly have children. You watch a lot of cooking. So you need some elastic stretch in the waistband. We know, we know these pants are for you. I bought them and honestly, I love them. Well, now I, when I tell you, I get inundated by ads and they're very subtle ads. And that's what what people don't realize about things like TikTok is some TikTok ads look like an ad. Some TikTok ads just look like some woman wearing these Hilara pants being like, these are the best pants ever. So it's very subtle. Yeah,
Speaker #1
it's not in your face.
Speaker #0
It's not in your face. You're like, oh, this woman who looks like me likes these pants, right? It's not an ad. It's just a lady liking these pants. She's giving me her testimonial on the like of the pants.
Speaker #1
Yeah. And then you see another woman wearing pants.
Speaker #0
Wearing the pants.
Speaker #1
Is everyone wearing these pants?
Speaker #0
Everyone's wearing these pants, man. I got to get these pants. And then a new color comes out, right? So, Hilara is like, we got a new color and we know this lady is a Hilara Pants sucker. So, we're just going to keep going with the ads. And so, it becomes this, like, never-ending cycle. Or maybe you watch a video because you get headaches. You're like, oh, you know, there's videos on ways to treat headaches. Well, then, again, a sucker for the Renpho eye mask, okay? Here has the heated massaging eye mask. They're like, this lady's got headaches and you know what will make her feel better? The eye mask. And then I got inundated by the eye mask ads and now I own. I own the heated eye mask. Do you own the heated eye mask?
Speaker #1
Yeah, I got it as a gift from my brother. And I was like, what the hell is this?
Speaker #0
Do you use it?
Speaker #1
Well, you know, I use it for a while. It's like, I just need to charge it again. But it's actually surprising. I was like, oh, this is a weird gift. And I was like, oh, OK.
Speaker #0
Kind of great. OK. But that's kind of what happens is this sort of psychological warfare against you that you then feel like you need these things. Yeah. Right. You need them. And I also think for millennials, we watch this pattern in millennial purchasing. from how they buy houses, how they buy cars, how they buy products, vacations, that a lot of millennial purchasing is part of aspirational identity. Okay, what's aspirational identity? This is essentially you watching people, influencers, embody a lifestyle that you would like to have. Okay, so whether it's the products that they're using, the vacations they go on, what their house looks like, what kind of cars they drive, it's very aspirational. So we see those things and then we say, I want them to. I want those things. And social media is the perfect vehicle for influencers and marketing professionals to kind of get us on that theory of like, oh, right, I want you to want this thing. So I'm going to make sure that you see it continuously. And then I'm going to make it as easy to purchase as I possibly can. Because when TikTok came out, there was no TikTok shop, right? When TikTok first came out, we didn't realize it was a shopping app. yeah it was like oh a bunch of tweens dancing yeah right 2020 we were all watching the tiger king um watching people do tic tac dances in their homes during the pandemic it was a very different time right this app seemed somewhat benign and then all of a sudden we started seeing ads and we started seeing purchasing pop-up that was obviously the intent of this about long right was it was going to sell us things but they didn't want you to know that from the get-go that
Speaker #1
well they're very sneaky very sneaky but yeah because because they just have so much information on you like i said earlier just uh they are so ready to sell you something in such a subtle way You don't even realize you're doing it.
Speaker #0
Correct. And part of it is, so I was doing my research as we got ready for this episode, and I found this sort of concept of parasocial relationships. And this is what we can link right back to QVC. Okay. Parasocial relationships are you, a consumer, developing a one-sided emotional connection with an influencer. Okay. So it's you feel like this person is your trusted friend, and they're giving you trusted advice. And that was very much the place of the QVC host. So when people are buying things from QVC, like my grandma would hop on to watch her favorite QVC host because that was the lady she liked. She liked stuff this lady sold. I don't remember the lady's name. She looked like she was out of the Golden Girls. She had like short brown hair. She always wore like a tidy suit. My grandmother loved her. That's all an influencer is, right? It's the QVC host and we feel like we're going to accept their recommendations because we have built a trusted relationship with them.
Speaker #1
Yeah, you know, I think it's a little different because I feel like, you know, for our whole lives, we probably watch celebrities, right? But they were like over here, right? There were people we couldn't possibly know because they were above us and they had this platform that we never would ever have had. But now we have all these kind of quote-unquote like normal average people like always kind of constantly in our lives, whether that's for 20 seconds or 30 seconds or maybe you're listening to them on a podcast like this one. And now you're like, oh, you know, I kind of hear some anecdotes like, you know, they have two kids and, you know, like they have a dog. you know their grandma's sick and like so you like you kind of feel like you know these people um so it's much more comfortable it almost sounds like oh a friend that i've been hanging out with on one side uh has been has been talking to me about this stuff so yeah i'll check this out this seems pretty cool yeah right and you're like yeah right she said she really likes these pants man i'm gonna buy these i'm gonna buy these i own the pants i own the pants um and i think the other piece to it is how easy that these platforms have made it so um
Speaker #0
If you think about, let's go back to the 90s, right? And you were watching Full House and DJ Tanner had a shirt on. And you're like, oh, I really like DJ Tanner's shirt. There was not really a way for you to find out what shirt DJ Tanner was wearing. There was no Google. Yes, we had AOL, but there was no reverse image search or all these things. So you sort of just from afar said, I like DJ Tanner's shirt. That's a cute shirt. Maybe you found a shirt like it in the mall a few months later. But that was it. Now you watch a video because our new TV is our phone, right? We're watching TikTok, Instagram far more than we're watching traditional media at this point, especially millennials and Gen Zers. Gen Xers are getting close. But we're watching a video. You like somebody's shirt. You go, I like that shirt. And like literally you will think it and a little thing will pop up where you can click it and it will bring you to an Amazon storefront or a TikTok shop or a website where you can purchase that shirt. And it happens so fast. that you're like, you've looked at it, you've clicked it, the website pops up, your credit card information is already stored in your phone, and it's already all filled out. And you literally just have to pick the size and the color of the shirt, and you now own it. Right.
Speaker #1
And it keeps your house, you have to go anywhere to get it.
Speaker #0
Immediately, right? Immediately. And that is the piece that I think as a millennial has become so easy as these influencers are driving our purchase decisions. So 49% of millennials say they trust Influa recommendations when making purchases more than their friends.
Speaker #1
Really?
Speaker #0
More than their friends.
Speaker #1
Time to get some new friends.
Speaker #0
Yeah. You know, so you now own it. And this is, I think, sometimes where the regret comes in. You liked that cute shirt on somebody else and now you own it and it's not sized correctly. And then you can't really, like, return these things. Oh, yeah. You can on Amazon. They're making that harder, though. Like, Tic Tac Shop, like, once you've got it, it's yours.
Speaker #1
Yeah, it's coming from China. You have no idea what the quality is.
Speaker #0
You have no idea. It's yours. But it's just making purchasing so easy. And it's very thoughtless purchasing, right? You're not even thinking about it.
Speaker #1
It's mindless, right? Yeah.
Speaker #0
You're just the middle of the night, right? And I laughed. And I remember it was like a joke, right? For those of you who listen, know that I have three kids. They're very close in age. And I remember late at night in the glider, right? Rocking a baby to sleep, holding my phone, scrolling through TikTok, ordering things on Amazon. And my husband would be like, what is it? I'm like, I don't even know. I don't even know what I purchased.
Speaker #1
The amount of times I've ordered something on Amazon with two-day delivery and you're like, wait, when did I buy it? It was two days.
Speaker #0
And I remember when you were a kid, you would order something from the JCPenney's catalog and you would wait at the window sill like, hello, is the item coming? Where is it? I need my- JCPenney catalog. Yeah, I need my life.
Speaker #1
I never did that,
Speaker #0
yeah. Maybe that's a female niche memory.
Speaker #1
I'm a guy. We just go to the store and buy it and leave.
Speaker #0
And then we know girls, we we've always liked to order things. Let's be honest, ladies, we always like to order things. But I think some of it for millennials, it comes from a few different places. Right. So it's aspirational. I think that's one. I also think another place that it comes from for us is this. Will it make my life easier? OK, I think both. And that's the part that resonates for both men and women. For women, I think the aspirational piece of it maybe hits us a little bit stronger sometimes. But the will it make my life easier is. something that resonates men, women, anybody is we look for these like life hacks, these small things, right? Is the Renfo eye mask going to make my headache go away? Is this new remote controlled light going to make this better? Is like, there's so many little gadgets.
Speaker #1
Well, we're also at a weird phase in our lives, right? Like I think in some respects, we still feel like we're young. Right, even though we're probably not as young as we used to be.
Speaker #0
I'm not that young.
Speaker #1
So we're still trying to keep on top of trends, which, as you mentioned earlier, constantly change. Constantly changes, right? And then now we're parents. So I see a lot of stuff. My wife buys online. It's like, oh, well, our son's having this problem. And then all of a sudden, this parent influencer shows up with like, oh, why don't you just buy this thing and this thing? This will help him count better. You're like, all right, it's like $20. All right, here we go.
Speaker #0
If it's the $20 solution, you're willing to pay.
Speaker #1
Yeah, like I'll do it. It's worth checking out. And like, you know, half the time it works. And like half the time we got a bunch of like a drawer with a bunch of stuff that we never use. Right. So it's and it's hard to know like what's going to resonate with your kid. But it's very easy to just see this stuff constantly. And like there's so much more information in front of us, especially it's like, you know, are you being a good parent now? Because now we've got all these parenting videos like this is how you have the calm parenting thing. You're like, all right, don't yell at your kids. OK, like, all right, now you got to do this thing. You got to work. Keep on top of fashion because we don't want to look old. And now we got to have these wrinkles coming in. Like, I don't know. We're like, where are these coming from?
Speaker #0
Like, I have a red light mask. Well, and I think like that stuff is like the parenting stuff is also really hard because you see the like the hatch alarm clock is the new big thing. It's this like alarm clock with a light that like slowly wakes you. It's supposed to be better for whatever your rhythm.
Speaker #1
Maybe it's a little sunlight.
Speaker #0
And you feel like you need these things. Yeah. to parent like i oh they said this thing is better for my kid or this thing is better for me and i think you know we're under especially millennials like we're under so much pressure to be all the things to all the people all the time that we are super susceptible to that kind of marketing right that like this is going to make you better this is going to make you a better mom a better dad a better parent a better employee if i have the thing right um it's also i I also think, again, from the aspirational pieces, the person who we're watching in that video looks like they have the things. Yeah. They look like they're videoing in this like amazing house and this beautiful kitchen wearing a put together outfit with a video of their children looking put together and not covered in peanut butter and whatever.
Speaker #1
Yeah. No one's doing a video from like a trailer park with pit stains. Yeah. And they're cheating.
Speaker #0
Yeah. Exactly. So you're like, oh man, this lady says, if I do this thing and buy this thing, then I'm going to have that life that she has. And like, it's so aspirational. You want it. And again, the amount of money that is poured into our economy from these purchases is outrageous. Honestly,
Speaker #1
it's billions. I think 90 billion was the number I looked up just last year from TikTok and social media spending. Yeah. 90 billion.
Speaker #0
Now, the other flip side to this, though, is the billionaires that this is creating. So that's the other piece of the influencer culture that we have to watch out for is, again, growing up, influencers for us were celebrities. If you were an influencer, you were a celebrity. Now we're living in the rise of the homegrown celebrity where people are becoming famous just from these videos alone. Sometimes they have a quote unquote real job, but there's all these like niche celebrities that. And again, as a. tiktok aficionado like who you follow i follow nara smith and lucky blue who just moved here to connecticut um they are this beautiful model couple that is very like aspirational they're beautiful and it's almost to the point where it's like it's like a joke like nara is cooking homemade pretzel bites and like a ball sequin ball gown and it's like laughable but you're also like dang if this lady can do it so can i yeah right But then there's also like these very relatable influencers that look like just your normal everyday people. I follow this woman named Rita, who's an Italian lady from North Jersey who cooks Italian food and now has a cookbook. She's now famous, like with a cookbook.
Speaker #1
I must have the same person because I feel like she's got like two kids or whatever. I was like, oh, these look pretty good recipes.
Speaker #0
Yeah, everything looks delicious. But again, it's. she's like less aspirational more like your everyday lately that you're like oh if she says that i should buy that kind of brand of olive oil i should buy that brand of olive oil she says it looks good i'm gonna get it um and but there's also like the normal people turned celebrities like alex earl is a great example if you're familiar with alex earl she is the largest tiktok creator um currently and she's made billions i don't even know how many dollars um but she's now just a straight-up celebrity okay i don't even know who that is i'm uh you It's because you're a dude. Do you have any influence?
Speaker #1
I also don't have TikTok. So that's the other thing. Yeah. I'm
Speaker #0
TikTok-less. So you watch TikToks on Instagram like an adult? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker #1
If it's important, I see the filter will get to me eventually. So if it's really good, I'll watch it that way.
Speaker #0
Yeah. Alex Earl has 4 million followers on Instagram.
Speaker #1
And you're at 17,000. You got a ways to go, Kel.
Speaker #0
Yeah. 4 million followers. But she's now getting invited to the Emmys and on talk shows. And she was kind of your run-of-the-mill influencer for a while, but she makes her money off of an Amazon storefront. So now she makes it off brand deals and stuff. But at the beginning, it was she had an Amazon storefront. She'd essentially do a video with a product, recommend it, people go buy it. She'd make her little couple cents of commission and all of that. Couple cents of commission adds up.
Speaker #1
Absolutely.
Speaker #0
Adds up. So, you know, what can we do to combat this? So the other piece to this, especially for women, is the fast fashion part of it. That's the other kind of uglier side of it is this, especially for women, we feel like we are never trendy enough because the thing that the Internet said you had to buy last year on TikTok and Instagram is already out. Yeah. Right. So we made a joke in the last episode about skinny jeans, right? Skinny jeans were in forever and then millennials were called choogy. by by jen's ears do you know what shoogie is i do i didn't know that's how you pronounce it but yes i was like jaggy or something no it's choogie and it is it is it's it is yeah yeah you don't want to be that choogie you don't want to be um we were choogie for wearing skinny jeans we all had to get rid of all of our skinny jeans and move to wide leg pants okay which yeah millennials were here for i think every woman is like yes we love the white like boyfriend jeans bring them on amazing they were great and now we're being told we're going to go back to skinny jeans but what's going to happen in fashion is they're not going to give us the skinny jean we already owned oh no it's gonna be different it's gonna be just different enough that you cannot go back to like the tupperware tub you put away before you had kids that have skinny jeans in it you gotta buy new ones
Speaker #1
Well, I remember when we were like high school, like the bell-bottom thing kind of came in for girls again, but it was like, wasn't like full bell-bottoms. They're like slightly small. They were called flares. Flare, yeah. See, like they'll just like scooch it a little bit, be like, oh, I'm going to do this.
Speaker #0
So if you wear the old one, you look, you look choogy. Yeah. You look choogy. And that like, if you watch, if you spend any time on TikTok, you will see, especially this time of year, it's like, what's out for 2025? And it's like showing you a picture of the shoe you just bought in December. These are out now. No one's wearing them. Now we've moved on to this. And you're like, okay, well, like, I just, I just got these ones. So now I got to go get another one. And I think it's this, this is part of like the aspirational piece for women is that we always feel like we're behind, right? That, and there's like a bell curve of fashion that like, you're never in the middle of the bell curve. You're either before a trend or you're after a trend. And most of us live after the trend. By the time it's hit the middle of the bell curve, the... people who started it are already moved on to something else. So you're already, you're already.
Speaker #1
Well, I, you know, this was going to help anyone. The, I heard a phrase a long time ago that I think makes a lot of sense. Uh, if you're a slave to fashion, it's the easiest way to date yourself.
Speaker #0
I would agree with that.
Speaker #1
Right. Cause you can, you can look at any time, like you went like all in, all in on like the, you know, frosted tips and like whatever, all the style you're the kind of like, look back at your pictures, like, Oh, it looks a little funky. Huh? Right. So I think, you know, you'd be okay.
Speaker #0
with being okay with it. And I think as millennials, there is a comfort in purchasing things online. I think that this is our lives now. This is the life of 2025. I think COVID really changed our spending habits. Now there is a bit of a return to the big box store. People are shopping out more than they have in the last couple of years. But I don't think internet shopping is going anywhere. We know there's a reason why Jeff Bezos has 500 yachts and all of those. lovely things. But I also think that we just have to be really careful because it can be very hard to do the things that we talk about on this podcast, to save for retirement, to buy a house, to pay for education, to do these things if we're spending all of our time kind of a slave to these apps, right? And what to purchase.
Speaker #1
Well, I mean, because I looked up what the average spend per person was, is about $750 a year. Men actually spend almost a thousand. 999 more than women i women i want you all to listen to that yeah i'm yeah uh women spend about 518 but millennials if you look go by you know demographic gen z's at 844 a year millennials are 1016 uh gen x is uh 522 and boomers are 418 so we spend the most compared to any generation online.
Speaker #0
And again, I would probably say some of that is due to we are purchasing not only for ourselves, but millennials are often purchasing for families.
Speaker #1
Yeah. And you know, we see those numbers like, oh, dude, we have $1,000 like chill, right? And you know, it's and it's, it's, that's the average, though. So there are people that obviously spend much more than that.
Speaker #0
And people spend zero.
Speaker #1
And zero, right? Like this guy over here, right? So, you know, you know, I would just say my advice would be, if you want to slow down the regret of the impulse buy, put in the card if you want it. wait till at least a week if you still want it after the week fine if you want to you know buy it at 2am yeah nothing really good happens after 2am right so yeah i'm also so that is one of my um
Speaker #0
My shopping habits and they laugh at me all the time in my office is I am a cart abandoner. So for me, I also think that, again, as millennials, we're often looking for the like adrenaline dopamine hit. Right. That like, oh, I'm going to buy the thing. I don't actually need to press purchase to get that. I just need to cart it. So I have. Yeah, I go on, especially if I get like a web, like I'll get like an email that has like a sale, like Loft is having a sale or Vineyard Vine is having a sale. I'll go cart like a million things. And then I just abandon my cart. And it like always makes me laugh because like a month later, I'll get a new email and I'll click in and they all save your cart. And I'll be like, oh yeah, look at all that stuff I had in this car. I don't miss any of it. Cool. And then I'll do the same thing. I go in, I put all this stuff in the cart and I'm like, I'll go to, I'll get back to this later. And then I don't buy the thing.
Speaker #1
And then often they'll say, you do want to get it anyway. They're going to keep sending you coupons for that. So like the whole like countdown sales coming or ending soon, like. It doesn't exist. Like the promotional emails I get every day. It's come on. Oh, it was always a new sale.
Speaker #0
And millennials love a deal, right? We love a deal. So they know that. But yeah, put it in the car, come back to it later. I would say like, read the reviews. That's something millennials do. We do love to read reviews, but the reviews make sure that it's really what you want. It's a good product. Read the return policy. Can you return it?
Speaker #1
Big time? Yeah. If you don't want. Quality of these things at all. And I kind of looked up what was the thing people bought the most. It was apparel. And then after that was fashion stuff.
Speaker #0
Yeah. So all the... Well, and it's even just the stuff that like claw clips. And we can just get sucked down this rabbit hole of little things that add up. And that's what you have to be... Or setting yourself a budget, right? You can spend no more than $50 a month on garbage from the internet just to give yourself some guardrails.
Speaker #1
Yeah, I'm always like, if you're doing everything else correct, like you have all your budgeting done, you're saving the right amount for retirement, you're saving up for your kid's college, like all the things that are really, truly important, if you're already doing those, like then, yeah, I don't care. Spend $2,000 if you have the money for it. So not like you have to be restrictive. Just if it's coming at the expense of you doing other things that should be more important. And that's probably even doing things like experiences because we found that experiences in general are just much more valuable to people and long-lasting than just buying something on TikTok for $20.
Speaker #0
Correct. But sometimes you want the thing on TikTok and that's okay. Millennials, just again, as Derek said, make sure that it's in the budget. You've done your research and don't purchase it at 2 a.m.
Speaker #1
Yeah. Because, you know, we're better than TikTok, right? We're smarter than TikTok. We can do this.
Speaker #0
We can do it. We can do it. Well, thank you for joining us. We hope this was kind of a fun one. And yeah, Halara, again, if you'd like to sponsor me, we would love it.
Speaker #1
Yeah, yeah. We'll take your monies and your pants. Oh, well, I don't know. I guess I won't take it. Do they have men's pants?
Speaker #0
I don't think they have men's pants.
Speaker #1
Not yet.
Speaker #0
Not yet. Well, they will. You're correct. They will eventually. So no, just ladies pants for now, but I will take your pants. The waffle weave, wide leg, pleated ones. Those are my favorite. Thank you.
Speaker #1
Like Derek, he has no TikTok followers. So you're out. You're not getting your pants.
Speaker #0
You're done. Yeah.
Speaker #1
All right. Bye everybody.
Speaker #0
The opinions voiced in this podcast are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you. Consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a decision.

About Millennial Money Matters

Join Kelly and Derek each week for honest and fun discussions about the financial issues that matter to you. Subscribe to "Millennial Money Matters" and take control of your financial journey today.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

About Millennial Money Matters

Join Kelly and Derek each week for honest and fun discussions about the financial issues that matter to you. Subscribe to "Millennial Money Matters" and take control of your financial journey today.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Description

Reach out to Kelly Turner at kturner@totalmortgage.com and Derek Mazzarella at dmazzarella@mygfpartner.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Transcription

Speaker #0
All right, we're here for another episode of Millennial Money Matters with Kelly and...
Speaker #1
Derek.
Speaker #0
All right. We are talking about a fun topic today, and it was actually very appropriate because this morning we had a two-hour snow delay in our town, and Derek and I's kids go to the same school. And during that two-hour delay, I did find myself mindlessly scrolling TikTok. Oh. Just squishing.
Speaker #1
As one does, yeah.
Speaker #0
Seeing what was there, because that's the purpose of that app, is to just consume your time. Well,
Speaker #1
it's like, I got 10 minutes. Kids are doing something stupid. Let me just poke on the phone here for a minute.
Speaker #0
See what's going on. And so what we're going to kind of talk about today is influencer purchases for millennials. Because as we talk about the millennial experience, online purchasing is such a humongous part, I think, of the millennial identity, right? What are you buying from the internet?
Speaker #1
Well, yeah, because I think we were like the first generation to really kind of fully trust it. Because I feel like our parents were like, you would never buy anything on the internet.
Speaker #0
Yeah, giving strangers your credit card number.
Speaker #1
That's crazy.
Speaker #0
My credit card number is everywhere.
Speaker #1
Yeah.
Speaker #0
I give it to anybody.
Speaker #1
Look at little Amazon Go, right?
Speaker #0
Yeah, right. And I think we, right, like what was our like. toe dip. It was like the one cent for 20 CDs from like the back of the magazine as kids, right? That was like us dipping our toe in the like mail order.
Speaker #1
Columbia House, right? Yeah.
Speaker #0
Columbia House records. You got your 20 CDs. You don't know how you canceled it. I don't use a fake address, but now you own the CDs. That was like the beginning of it. But we as millennials have embraced online shopping more than any other generation. Now, Gen Zers coming up behind us.
Speaker #1
Oh,
Speaker #0
they're coming hot. They're coming in hot. Yeah. They have also really embraced it. So you've got some stats for me, Derek. What do you got over there?
Speaker #1
Well, I don't know. Let's start with the most interesting. So, all right. 76% of people bought something on social media.
Speaker #0
On social media. So we're not even just talking about long-term. No,
Speaker #1
not like Amazon. No, no, no. We're talking like I'm on Facebook. I'm on TikTok, Instagram, you name it.
Speaker #0
I found a ad.
Speaker #1
That looks cool. Boop. 48% of people. These are all banking rates. GoBankingRates, I think, is the source. 48% of people admit to impulse buying.
Speaker #0
Oh, yeah. That's the whole purpose of those apps.
Speaker #1
Yeah. Well, because, you know, it's like we were talking about. You probably got some nacho stains on your shirt. It's like, oh, that looks nice.
Speaker #0
That looks nice.
Speaker #1
And then you hit it. But not surprisingly, 68% of those people regretted it.
Speaker #0
Ooh. And I could see that, too. So Derek and I, as we end up chatting kind of every week when we do the podcast, you know we make jokes and one of the the phrases that i use about myself all the time is i'm easily influenced on the internet so this is i'm like target audience for this conversation that we're having is i think especially as women um but derek has some stats about men too but especially as women you like see stuff and you're like oh well that will that thing make my life better well somebody that person in the video looks like happier than me um i think i want that thing and and then you it's so easy to just purchase it well because you have like a
Speaker #1
an average person, right? Like some mom out there, I don't know, like my wife watches a lot of Instagram stuff. She's like, well, our kids could use this thing, right? Like, and you're like, yeah, I mean, I kind of could see that. Like, that looks kind of cool. And like some things like do work out, some things are a piece of garbage. But like, yeah, just like an average person saying, hey, like I do use this. You're like, oh, I'm an average person.
Speaker #0
Yeah. I'm an average person. I could average like the same thing.
Speaker #1
Yeah.
Speaker #0
Yeah. And it's so interesting because, you know, when we're talking about this stuff, we have to know, number one, that this is not new, right? This is not new. So what was this for our parents' generation? TikTok shop is QVC, okay? So like, if you made fun of your parents or your grandma for purchasing you Christmas presents on QVC in the 80s and 90s, make fun of yourself for purchasing stuff on the TikTok shop, because it's exactly the same thing. It is social purchasing. Yeah. And why does this have an impact on your financial, you know, sort of situation? And why are we talking about it is because people do not realize how that sort of purchasing adds up and how it can have impacts on their budget.
Speaker #1
Yeah. Cause it's, it's, you know, $50 here. Oh, this is on sale. Let me, uh, let me, Oh, look, look what a deal I'm getting from so-and-so influencer. And I have to do it within the next 30 seconds or I'm going to get this deal.
Speaker #0
Oh my God. TikTok is notorious for that, that everything is this, like, like there's like a timer counting down. But it's never a deal because it's always the same price. There's always a new timer and a new countdown, but it's always the same price. And you're like, this is no cheaper than it was or more expensive than it was last time. But I think this concept of this social purchasing has really gotten exasperated by all of these apps that we're looking at. QVC was one thing because QVC tended to be a late night activity. That's when we QVC'd and it was larger purchases. a lot of the time. So people were buying sewing machines, like whole outfits, jewelry, kitchenwares, larger things. What gets us now on the TikTok shop and on Instagram are it's a lot of small purchases. It's a lot of small impulse purchases that you're just like, oh, yeah, I'll take that. That's 20 bucks. Like, what's 20 bucks? What's 30 bucks? What's 40 bucks? And all of a sudden, you know, you're getting your like drop ship email.
Speaker #1
Well, I think the other big difference too is when you look at like compared to QVC, right? They had a larger audience But it was like, all right, we're going to sell to everyone, maybe 10% of people like this. Yeah. Where I think we flipped that where it's like, okay, we have so much information on us. And these apps know us probably better than we think we do. And they say, okay, well, I know Kelly really likes wooden spoons. So we're going to give her all the wooden spoons she can hit off. And Derek loves combing his hair. So we're going to give him the best comb ever. Right? So like they can really hyper target like those items to people. And it's like, how did you know that? Or like, how many times have you been on the phone? You've said something. And like. Like two minutes later, an ad pops up for it.
Speaker #0
That's a story of my life. I joke that Facebook knows me better than I know myself. Well, and that's totally true because what these algorithms are doing is if you linger on a video, okay, or you rewatch a video, and you should pay attention to how often you rewatch the same video multiple times because we do it more often than we realize. As you rewatch it because you missed something or there was text, a lot of it is very subtle psychological warfare against you to get you to kind of keep engaging with that video. But you'll watch a video once, twice, three times. Maybe you'll save it. Well, now the algorithm is like, ah, we got you. We know this is something you're interested in. And it will just keep showing it to you. Or maybe you bought something on TikTok. Okay. So I'm going to use my, there's a lot of examples about myself. I bought Hilara pants. Okay, Hilara, feel free to sponsor us. I love you. You're my favorite work pants. So I bought these Hilara pants. If you are a woman and you are on TikTok, you know exactly what Hilara pants are. Um, they're lost right now. Yeah. There are these waffle weave, wide leg, uh, dress pants. I feel like PJs. They're amazing. They are, I will tell you a 40 year old mom is 100% their target audience. They're like you, you, you watch videos of parenting. You clearly have children. You watch a lot of cooking. So you need some elastic stretch in the waistband. We know, we know these pants are for you. I bought them and honestly, I love them. Well, now I, when I tell you, I get inundated by ads and they're very subtle ads. And that's what what people don't realize about things like TikTok is some TikTok ads look like an ad. Some TikTok ads just look like some woman wearing these Hilara pants being like, these are the best pants ever. So it's very subtle. Yeah,
Speaker #1
it's not in your face.
Speaker #0
It's not in your face. You're like, oh, this woman who looks like me likes these pants, right? It's not an ad. It's just a lady liking these pants. She's giving me her testimonial on the like of the pants.
Speaker #1
Yeah. And then you see another woman wearing pants.
Speaker #0
Wearing the pants.
Speaker #1
Is everyone wearing these pants?
Speaker #0
Everyone's wearing these pants, man. I got to get these pants. And then a new color comes out, right? So, Hilara is like, we got a new color and we know this lady is a Hilara Pants sucker. So, we're just going to keep going with the ads. And so, it becomes this, like, never-ending cycle. Or maybe you watch a video because you get headaches. You're like, oh, you know, there's videos on ways to treat headaches. Well, then, again, a sucker for the Renpho eye mask, okay? Here has the heated massaging eye mask. They're like, this lady's got headaches and you know what will make her feel better? The eye mask. And then I got inundated by the eye mask ads and now I own. I own the heated eye mask. Do you own the heated eye mask?
Speaker #1
Yeah, I got it as a gift from my brother. And I was like, what the hell is this?
Speaker #0
Do you use it?
Speaker #1
Well, you know, I use it for a while. It's like, I just need to charge it again. But it's actually surprising. I was like, oh, this is a weird gift. And I was like, oh, OK.
Speaker #0
Kind of great. OK. But that's kind of what happens is this sort of psychological warfare against you that you then feel like you need these things. Yeah. Right. You need them. And I also think for millennials, we watch this pattern in millennial purchasing. from how they buy houses, how they buy cars, how they buy products, vacations, that a lot of millennial purchasing is part of aspirational identity. Okay, what's aspirational identity? This is essentially you watching people, influencers, embody a lifestyle that you would like to have. Okay, so whether it's the products that they're using, the vacations they go on, what their house looks like, what kind of cars they drive, it's very aspirational. So we see those things and then we say, I want them to. I want those things. And social media is the perfect vehicle for influencers and marketing professionals to kind of get us on that theory of like, oh, right, I want you to want this thing. So I'm going to make sure that you see it continuously. And then I'm going to make it as easy to purchase as I possibly can. Because when TikTok came out, there was no TikTok shop, right? When TikTok first came out, we didn't realize it was a shopping app. yeah it was like oh a bunch of tweens dancing yeah right 2020 we were all watching the tiger king um watching people do tic tac dances in their homes during the pandemic it was a very different time right this app seemed somewhat benign and then all of a sudden we started seeing ads and we started seeing purchasing pop-up that was obviously the intent of this about long right was it was going to sell us things but they didn't want you to know that from the get-go that
Speaker #1
well they're very sneaky very sneaky but yeah because because they just have so much information on you like i said earlier just uh they are so ready to sell you something in such a subtle way You don't even realize you're doing it.
Speaker #0
Correct. And part of it is, so I was doing my research as we got ready for this episode, and I found this sort of concept of parasocial relationships. And this is what we can link right back to QVC. Okay. Parasocial relationships are you, a consumer, developing a one-sided emotional connection with an influencer. Okay. So it's you feel like this person is your trusted friend, and they're giving you trusted advice. And that was very much the place of the QVC host. So when people are buying things from QVC, like my grandma would hop on to watch her favorite QVC host because that was the lady she liked. She liked stuff this lady sold. I don't remember the lady's name. She looked like she was out of the Golden Girls. She had like short brown hair. She always wore like a tidy suit. My grandmother loved her. That's all an influencer is, right? It's the QVC host and we feel like we're going to accept their recommendations because we have built a trusted relationship with them.
Speaker #1
Yeah, you know, I think it's a little different because I feel like, you know, for our whole lives, we probably watch celebrities, right? But they were like over here, right? There were people we couldn't possibly know because they were above us and they had this platform that we never would ever have had. But now we have all these kind of quote-unquote like normal average people like always kind of constantly in our lives, whether that's for 20 seconds or 30 seconds or maybe you're listening to them on a podcast like this one. And now you're like, oh, you know, I kind of hear some anecdotes like, you know, they have two kids and, you know, like they have a dog. you know their grandma's sick and like so you like you kind of feel like you know these people um so it's much more comfortable it almost sounds like oh a friend that i've been hanging out with on one side uh has been has been talking to me about this stuff so yeah i'll check this out this seems pretty cool yeah right and you're like yeah right she said she really likes these pants man i'm gonna buy these i'm gonna buy these i own the pants i own the pants um and i think the other piece to it is how easy that these platforms have made it so um
Speaker #0
If you think about, let's go back to the 90s, right? And you were watching Full House and DJ Tanner had a shirt on. And you're like, oh, I really like DJ Tanner's shirt. There was not really a way for you to find out what shirt DJ Tanner was wearing. There was no Google. Yes, we had AOL, but there was no reverse image search or all these things. So you sort of just from afar said, I like DJ Tanner's shirt. That's a cute shirt. Maybe you found a shirt like it in the mall a few months later. But that was it. Now you watch a video because our new TV is our phone, right? We're watching TikTok, Instagram far more than we're watching traditional media at this point, especially millennials and Gen Zers. Gen Xers are getting close. But we're watching a video. You like somebody's shirt. You go, I like that shirt. And like literally you will think it and a little thing will pop up where you can click it and it will bring you to an Amazon storefront or a TikTok shop or a website where you can purchase that shirt. And it happens so fast. that you're like, you've looked at it, you've clicked it, the website pops up, your credit card information is already stored in your phone, and it's already all filled out. And you literally just have to pick the size and the color of the shirt, and you now own it. Right.
Speaker #1
And it keeps your house, you have to go anywhere to get it.
Speaker #0
Immediately, right? Immediately. And that is the piece that I think as a millennial has become so easy as these influencers are driving our purchase decisions. So 49% of millennials say they trust Influa recommendations when making purchases more than their friends.
Speaker #1
Really?
Speaker #0
More than their friends.
Speaker #1
Time to get some new friends.
Speaker #0
Yeah. You know, so you now own it. And this is, I think, sometimes where the regret comes in. You liked that cute shirt on somebody else and now you own it and it's not sized correctly. And then you can't really, like, return these things. Oh, yeah. You can on Amazon. They're making that harder, though. Like, Tic Tac Shop, like, once you've got it, it's yours.
Speaker #1
Yeah, it's coming from China. You have no idea what the quality is.
Speaker #0
You have no idea. It's yours. But it's just making purchasing so easy. And it's very thoughtless purchasing, right? You're not even thinking about it.
Speaker #1
It's mindless, right? Yeah.
Speaker #0
You're just the middle of the night, right? And I laughed. And I remember it was like a joke, right? For those of you who listen, know that I have three kids. They're very close in age. And I remember late at night in the glider, right? Rocking a baby to sleep, holding my phone, scrolling through TikTok, ordering things on Amazon. And my husband would be like, what is it? I'm like, I don't even know. I don't even know what I purchased.
Speaker #1
The amount of times I've ordered something on Amazon with two-day delivery and you're like, wait, when did I buy it? It was two days.
Speaker #0
And I remember when you were a kid, you would order something from the JCPenney's catalog and you would wait at the window sill like, hello, is the item coming? Where is it? I need my- JCPenney catalog. Yeah, I need my life.
Speaker #1
I never did that,
Speaker #0
yeah. Maybe that's a female niche memory.
Speaker #1
I'm a guy. We just go to the store and buy it and leave.
Speaker #0
And then we know girls, we we've always liked to order things. Let's be honest, ladies, we always like to order things. But I think some of it for millennials, it comes from a few different places. Right. So it's aspirational. I think that's one. I also think another place that it comes from for us is this. Will it make my life easier? OK, I think both. And that's the part that resonates for both men and women. For women, I think the aspirational piece of it maybe hits us a little bit stronger sometimes. But the will it make my life easier is. something that resonates men, women, anybody is we look for these like life hacks, these small things, right? Is the Renfo eye mask going to make my headache go away? Is this new remote controlled light going to make this better? Is like, there's so many little gadgets.
Speaker #1
Well, we're also at a weird phase in our lives, right? Like I think in some respects, we still feel like we're young. Right, even though we're probably not as young as we used to be.
Speaker #0
I'm not that young.
Speaker #1
So we're still trying to keep on top of trends, which, as you mentioned earlier, constantly change. Constantly changes, right? And then now we're parents. So I see a lot of stuff. My wife buys online. It's like, oh, well, our son's having this problem. And then all of a sudden, this parent influencer shows up with like, oh, why don't you just buy this thing and this thing? This will help him count better. You're like, all right, it's like $20. All right, here we go.
Speaker #0
If it's the $20 solution, you're willing to pay.
Speaker #1
Yeah, like I'll do it. It's worth checking out. And like, you know, half the time it works. And like half the time we got a bunch of like a drawer with a bunch of stuff that we never use. Right. So it's and it's hard to know like what's going to resonate with your kid. But it's very easy to just see this stuff constantly. And like there's so much more information in front of us, especially it's like, you know, are you being a good parent now? Because now we've got all these parenting videos like this is how you have the calm parenting thing. You're like, all right, don't yell at your kids. OK, like, all right, now you got to do this thing. You got to work. Keep on top of fashion because we don't want to look old. And now we got to have these wrinkles coming in. Like, I don't know. We're like, where are these coming from?
Speaker #0
Like, I have a red light mask. Well, and I think like that stuff is like the parenting stuff is also really hard because you see the like the hatch alarm clock is the new big thing. It's this like alarm clock with a light that like slowly wakes you. It's supposed to be better for whatever your rhythm.
Speaker #1
Maybe it's a little sunlight.
Speaker #0
And you feel like you need these things. Yeah. to parent like i oh they said this thing is better for my kid or this thing is better for me and i think you know we're under especially millennials like we're under so much pressure to be all the things to all the people all the time that we are super susceptible to that kind of marketing right that like this is going to make you better this is going to make you a better mom a better dad a better parent a better employee if i have the thing right um it's also i I also think, again, from the aspirational pieces, the person who we're watching in that video looks like they have the things. Yeah. They look like they're videoing in this like amazing house and this beautiful kitchen wearing a put together outfit with a video of their children looking put together and not covered in peanut butter and whatever.
Speaker #1
Yeah. No one's doing a video from like a trailer park with pit stains. Yeah. And they're cheating.
Speaker #0
Yeah. Exactly. So you're like, oh man, this lady says, if I do this thing and buy this thing, then I'm going to have that life that she has. And like, it's so aspirational. You want it. And again, the amount of money that is poured into our economy from these purchases is outrageous. Honestly,
Speaker #1
it's billions. I think 90 billion was the number I looked up just last year from TikTok and social media spending. Yeah. 90 billion.
Speaker #0
Now, the other flip side to this, though, is the billionaires that this is creating. So that's the other piece of the influencer culture that we have to watch out for is, again, growing up, influencers for us were celebrities. If you were an influencer, you were a celebrity. Now we're living in the rise of the homegrown celebrity where people are becoming famous just from these videos alone. Sometimes they have a quote unquote real job, but there's all these like niche celebrities that. And again, as a. tiktok aficionado like who you follow i follow nara smith and lucky blue who just moved here to connecticut um they are this beautiful model couple that is very like aspirational they're beautiful and it's almost to the point where it's like it's like a joke like nara is cooking homemade pretzel bites and like a ball sequin ball gown and it's like laughable but you're also like dang if this lady can do it so can i yeah right But then there's also like these very relatable influencers that look like just your normal everyday people. I follow this woman named Rita, who's an Italian lady from North Jersey who cooks Italian food and now has a cookbook. She's now famous, like with a cookbook.
Speaker #1
I must have the same person because I feel like she's got like two kids or whatever. I was like, oh, these look pretty good recipes.
Speaker #0
Yeah, everything looks delicious. But again, it's. she's like less aspirational more like your everyday lately that you're like oh if she says that i should buy that kind of brand of olive oil i should buy that brand of olive oil she says it looks good i'm gonna get it um and but there's also like the normal people turned celebrities like alex earl is a great example if you're familiar with alex earl she is the largest tiktok creator um currently and she's made billions i don't even know how many dollars um but she's now just a straight-up celebrity okay i don't even know who that is i'm uh you It's because you're a dude. Do you have any influence?
Speaker #1
I also don't have TikTok. So that's the other thing. Yeah. I'm
Speaker #0
TikTok-less. So you watch TikToks on Instagram like an adult? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker #1
If it's important, I see the filter will get to me eventually. So if it's really good, I'll watch it that way.
Speaker #0
Yeah. Alex Earl has 4 million followers on Instagram.
Speaker #1
And you're at 17,000. You got a ways to go, Kel.
Speaker #0
Yeah. 4 million followers. But she's now getting invited to the Emmys and on talk shows. And she was kind of your run-of-the-mill influencer for a while, but she makes her money off of an Amazon storefront. So now she makes it off brand deals and stuff. But at the beginning, it was she had an Amazon storefront. She'd essentially do a video with a product, recommend it, people go buy it. She'd make her little couple cents of commission and all of that. Couple cents of commission adds up.
Speaker #1
Absolutely.
Speaker #0
Adds up. So, you know, what can we do to combat this? So the other piece to this, especially for women, is the fast fashion part of it. That's the other kind of uglier side of it is this, especially for women, we feel like we are never trendy enough because the thing that the Internet said you had to buy last year on TikTok and Instagram is already out. Yeah. Right. So we made a joke in the last episode about skinny jeans, right? Skinny jeans were in forever and then millennials were called choogy. by by jen's ears do you know what shoogie is i do i didn't know that's how you pronounce it but yes i was like jaggy or something no it's choogie and it is it is it's it is yeah yeah you don't want to be that choogie you don't want to be um we were choogie for wearing skinny jeans we all had to get rid of all of our skinny jeans and move to wide leg pants okay which yeah millennials were here for i think every woman is like yes we love the white like boyfriend jeans bring them on amazing they were great and now we're being told we're going to go back to skinny jeans but what's going to happen in fashion is they're not going to give us the skinny jean we already owned oh no it's gonna be different it's gonna be just different enough that you cannot go back to like the tupperware tub you put away before you had kids that have skinny jeans in it you gotta buy new ones
Speaker #1
Well, I remember when we were like high school, like the bell-bottom thing kind of came in for girls again, but it was like, wasn't like full bell-bottoms. They're like slightly small. They were called flares. Flare, yeah. See, like they'll just like scooch it a little bit, be like, oh, I'm going to do this.
Speaker #0
So if you wear the old one, you look, you look choogy. Yeah. You look choogy. And that like, if you watch, if you spend any time on TikTok, you will see, especially this time of year, it's like, what's out for 2025? And it's like showing you a picture of the shoe you just bought in December. These are out now. No one's wearing them. Now we've moved on to this. And you're like, okay, well, like, I just, I just got these ones. So now I got to go get another one. And I think it's this, this is part of like the aspirational piece for women is that we always feel like we're behind, right? That, and there's like a bell curve of fashion that like, you're never in the middle of the bell curve. You're either before a trend or you're after a trend. And most of us live after the trend. By the time it's hit the middle of the bell curve, the... people who started it are already moved on to something else. So you're already, you're already.
Speaker #1
Well, I, you know, this was going to help anyone. The, I heard a phrase a long time ago that I think makes a lot of sense. Uh, if you're a slave to fashion, it's the easiest way to date yourself.
Speaker #0
I would agree with that.
Speaker #1
Right. Cause you can, you can look at any time, like you went like all in, all in on like the, you know, frosted tips and like whatever, all the style you're the kind of like, look back at your pictures, like, Oh, it looks a little funky. Huh? Right. So I think, you know, you'd be okay.
Speaker #0
with being okay with it. And I think as millennials, there is a comfort in purchasing things online. I think that this is our lives now. This is the life of 2025. I think COVID really changed our spending habits. Now there is a bit of a return to the big box store. People are shopping out more than they have in the last couple of years. But I don't think internet shopping is going anywhere. We know there's a reason why Jeff Bezos has 500 yachts and all of those. lovely things. But I also think that we just have to be really careful because it can be very hard to do the things that we talk about on this podcast, to save for retirement, to buy a house, to pay for education, to do these things if we're spending all of our time kind of a slave to these apps, right? And what to purchase.
Speaker #1
Well, I mean, because I looked up what the average spend per person was, is about $750 a year. Men actually spend almost a thousand. 999 more than women i women i want you all to listen to that yeah i'm yeah uh women spend about 518 but millennials if you look go by you know demographic gen z's at 844 a year millennials are 1016 uh gen x is uh 522 and boomers are 418 so we spend the most compared to any generation online.
Speaker #0
And again, I would probably say some of that is due to we are purchasing not only for ourselves, but millennials are often purchasing for families.
Speaker #1
Yeah. And you know, we see those numbers like, oh, dude, we have $1,000 like chill, right? And you know, it's and it's, it's, that's the average, though. So there are people that obviously spend much more than that.
Speaker #0
And people spend zero.
Speaker #1
And zero, right? Like this guy over here, right? So, you know, you know, I would just say my advice would be, if you want to slow down the regret of the impulse buy, put in the card if you want it. wait till at least a week if you still want it after the week fine if you want to you know buy it at 2am yeah nothing really good happens after 2am right so yeah i'm also so that is one of my um
Speaker #0
My shopping habits and they laugh at me all the time in my office is I am a cart abandoner. So for me, I also think that, again, as millennials, we're often looking for the like adrenaline dopamine hit. Right. That like, oh, I'm going to buy the thing. I don't actually need to press purchase to get that. I just need to cart it. So I have. Yeah, I go on, especially if I get like a web, like I'll get like an email that has like a sale, like Loft is having a sale or Vineyard Vine is having a sale. I'll go cart like a million things. And then I just abandon my cart. And it like always makes me laugh because like a month later, I'll get a new email and I'll click in and they all save your cart. And I'll be like, oh yeah, look at all that stuff I had in this car. I don't miss any of it. Cool. And then I'll do the same thing. I go in, I put all this stuff in the cart and I'm like, I'll go to, I'll get back to this later. And then I don't buy the thing.
Speaker #1
And then often they'll say, you do want to get it anyway. They're going to keep sending you coupons for that. So like the whole like countdown sales coming or ending soon, like. It doesn't exist. Like the promotional emails I get every day. It's come on. Oh, it was always a new sale.
Speaker #0
And millennials love a deal, right? We love a deal. So they know that. But yeah, put it in the car, come back to it later. I would say like, read the reviews. That's something millennials do. We do love to read reviews, but the reviews make sure that it's really what you want. It's a good product. Read the return policy. Can you return it?
Speaker #1
Big time? Yeah. If you don't want. Quality of these things at all. And I kind of looked up what was the thing people bought the most. It was apparel. And then after that was fashion stuff.
Speaker #0
Yeah. So all the... Well, and it's even just the stuff that like claw clips. And we can just get sucked down this rabbit hole of little things that add up. And that's what you have to be... Or setting yourself a budget, right? You can spend no more than $50 a month on garbage from the internet just to give yourself some guardrails.
Speaker #1
Yeah, I'm always like, if you're doing everything else correct, like you have all your budgeting done, you're saving the right amount for retirement, you're saving up for your kid's college, like all the things that are really, truly important, if you're already doing those, like then, yeah, I don't care. Spend $2,000 if you have the money for it. So not like you have to be restrictive. Just if it's coming at the expense of you doing other things that should be more important. And that's probably even doing things like experiences because we found that experiences in general are just much more valuable to people and long-lasting than just buying something on TikTok for $20.
Speaker #0
Correct. But sometimes you want the thing on TikTok and that's okay. Millennials, just again, as Derek said, make sure that it's in the budget. You've done your research and don't purchase it at 2 a.m.
Speaker #1
Yeah. Because, you know, we're better than TikTok, right? We're smarter than TikTok. We can do this.
Speaker #0
We can do it. We can do it. Well, thank you for joining us. We hope this was kind of a fun one. And yeah, Halara, again, if you'd like to sponsor me, we would love it.
Speaker #1
Yeah, yeah. We'll take your monies and your pants. Oh, well, I don't know. I guess I won't take it. Do they have men's pants?
Speaker #0
I don't think they have men's pants.
Speaker #1
Not yet.
Speaker #0
Not yet. Well, they will. You're correct. They will eventually. So no, just ladies pants for now, but I will take your pants. The waffle weave, wide leg, pleated ones. Those are my favorite. Thank you.
Speaker #1
Like Derek, he has no TikTok followers. So you're out. You're not getting your pants.
Speaker #0
You're done. Yeah.
Speaker #1
All right. Bye everybody.
Speaker #0
The opinions voiced in this podcast are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you. Consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a decision.

About Millennial Money Matters

Join Kelly and Derek each week for honest and fun discussions about the financial issues that matter to you. Subscribe to "Millennial Money Matters" and take control of your financial journey today.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

About Millennial Money Matters

Join Kelly and Derek each week for honest and fun discussions about the financial issues that matter to you. Subscribe to "Millennial Money Matters" and take control of your financial journey today.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

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