SINGAPORE: Step aside Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials because Gen Z is leading the way to greater financial security with “Loud budgeting.”
The phenomenon started on where else but TikTok earlier this year when the video of a young man named Lukas Battle declaring that “quiet luxury is out and loud budgeting is in” began to trend.
“It’s not ‘I don’t have enough,’ it’s ‘I don’t want to spend,’” he said.
@lukasbattle #greenscreen here is my 2024 IN/OUT list
Gone are the days of accepting every invitation to events or dinners with friends because you’re too shy or embarrassed to admit you’re hard-pressed to afford to go. It’s time to declare out loud your budgetary constraints, and it’s only for your own good.
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“Loud budgeting is a money-saving technique that involves declining social opportunities — such as grabbing dinner with a friend or going to that destination wedding — when it puts your financial goals in jeopardy, and telling people that’s the reason you aren’t going,” this article on the trend explains.
What loud budgeting does is empower people to be comfortable to say no to a social event while talking about their financial priorities—and to be loud and proud about it.
It allows people to take a positive perspective toward a missed special opportunity because they do so with a specific goal in mind.
However, it doesn’t mean people say no to every social event because these are important to a person’s well-being. It simply means not feeling obligated to attend each one and saying so matter-of-factly.
And if anyone needs to practice loud budgeting, it may just be Singaporeans living in one of the most expensive cities in the world where not everyone is a Crazy Rich Asian.
Owning your financial situation and goals can be a pretty powerful thing, no matter how old you are.
Talking about your financial situation without embarrassment and transparency is a good thing. However, Singaporeans from older generations may find it difficult, especially since they’ve lived with specific ideas of material wealth all their lives.
And the way things are going across the globe, it’s unlikely that the economic situation will change any time soon, so it looks like loud budgeting is here to stay, for now, anyway. /TISG
Read also: ST draws flak for placing article on how to stretch grocery budget behind paywall
Featured image: Depositphotos