Viral TikTok trend ‘Girl math’ is fun, but don’t let that fool you – The Washington Post
It’s ‘girly’ math. In the latest viral trend on TikTok, young women share money habits or spending choices that don’t make mathematical sense.
Here’s how one TikTok user explains math for girls:
You’re losing money if you don’t buy something when it’s on sale.
You’re losing money if you don’t spend enough to qualify for free shipping.
You earn money whenever you skip your daily coffee or soda.
Anything in your Venmo or Apple wallet that isn’t spent right away is free par
The clips and comments are comical as long as everyone is in on the joke.
“I hate to see this perception that women are wasteful or not good with money,” said Christine Benz, director of personal finance and retirement planning for Morningstar.
I asked my 22-year-old daughter what she thought about girls’ math.
“They’re ridiculous,” she said, anticipating my outrage at the absurdity of the financial distortions.
“Watch what you say, Mom, because older people take the fun out of these things,” she warned when I told her I wanted to write about the trend.
My daughter was right; At first I was dismissive. But the videos in their ridiculousness are fun.
There’s no need to have a “moral panic” about this trend, says Dan Egan, vice president of behavioral finance and investing for Betterment, a digital investment advisory firm.
Egan says that what is at play is psychology. And it’s obvious that it has nothing to do with gender.
Kidding aside, girly math represents the type of mental accounting that many people, including boys, do. This is how we compartmentalize financial decisions. It’s also how we justify overspending.
“Mental accounting is an aspect of human psychology,” Egan said. “It’s not necessarily good or bad. It’s that we keep money in separate little mental accounts that exist only in our head. And these mental calculations make us act very differently when we think about spending or saving. ”
Companies use mental accounting on us all the time, Egan points out.
For example, consider the times when you make a return and the retailer offers you two options — a cash refund or an in-store gift card.
If enough time passes, you might think of that store credit as “free money.” It’s not, of course. This allowed the retailer to keep your money on its books, Egan points out. We also know that when people use a gift card, they often end up spending more money when they finally redeem it. And with a gift card, they’re more likely to spend impulsively.
Egan isn’t fazed by some of the tactics described in the videos. Sometimes it’s good not to worry about small purchases that won’t have significant long-term wealth-building implications, he said.
“Having a few things that I can say, ‘It’s okay to spend this,’ where I don’t have to be nervous and anxious about it, is pretty nice,” Egan said. “You don’t have to beat yourself up about coffee every day or spending a little here, spending a little there.”
However, there is a “but” to this way of thinking.
“Don’t spend time on small things that are a waste of your time,” he said. “Spend time stressing about the big things.”
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You only have so much mental capacity to make financial decisions, Egan said. So, focus on those choices, like housing and healthcare costs, or whether you need to figure out a way to make more money….
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‘Girl math’: TikTok’s latest financial craze is helping young people justify all kinds of spending
Yahoo Finance
Girl math may be a new term, but the concept is well-documented in
cognitive psychology. The field calls it “mental accounting,” a way of thinking…
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EXPLANATION: What’s the deal with the ‘Girl Math’ TikTok trend – YouTube
YouTube
First there was a girl’s dinner. Now there’s Girl Math. Does any of it ring true with reality? Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss The Young …
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