More than one in four millennials plans to increase their holiday spending this year compared to last year, making them more likely than any other generation to up their holiday budget, according to a new study from Bankrate.com.
“With some millennials, even loads of student debt and little savings won’t hold them back from splurging during the holiday shopping season,” Bankrate chief financial analyst Greg McBride said in a statement.
Related: 10 Ways Holiday Shopping Has Changed This Year
“(Millennials) keep throwing us a curve, don’t they?" Gail Cunningham, a spokesperson for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, told Bankrate. “I hope that these folks have a job and are responsibly paying back their student loan debt, and they’re not letting the emotion of the holiday season carry them away into a financial disaster zone.”
Overall, just 16 percent of Americans plan to spend more on the holidays this year, with 5 percent of them attributing their bigger gift budgets to lower gas prices.
Bankrate’s monthly Financial Security Index registered at 102, the highest level since March. (Any reading below 100 indicates deterioration in financial security over the preceding year.) The index showed improvement in net worth and strength in job security and comfort with debt. Savings levels have remained unchanged for most of the year.
Related: 3 Reasons to Cheer the ‘Blockbuster’ Jobs Report
Last week’s strong jobs numbers were just the latest sign that the economy is continuing to gain steam.
The country’s real gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of 3.5 percent in the third quarter, following a 4.6 percent annualized rate of expansion in the second quarter, marking the strongest six-month performance since the end of 2003.
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