🇺🇲Daniel Fisk Bennett

Posted Tuesday, November 18, 2025

27d

ENTJ

Virgo

3

2

Save your money!

Every year around this time, the pressure to spend ramps up like clockwork. The same playlists loop in every store, the same scented candles hit the shelves, the same ads flood every screen you own. None of that is accidental. According to the American Psychological Association, companies use sensory priming during the holidays to trigger emotional spending. They rely on nostalgia, seasonal cues, and repetition because it keeps people buying things they would normally walk right past. It is not generosity they are trying to encourage. It is consumption. And it is happening at a time when groceries, housing, and basic necessities are more expensive than at any point in recent memory. The uncomfortable truth is that billionaires depend on this spending frenzy to hit their growth targets. According to Deloitte’s annual retail forecast, the holiday quarter accounts for up to one third of yearly retail profit. That is why the messaging gets louder, more sentimental, and more manipulative as December approaches. You are pushed to believe that love is measured in receipts and that your worth is tied to the number of packages that arrive on your doorstep. But look at your own life. Do you remember half the gifts you received three holidays ago? People remember experiences, connection, and time spent together. The rest usually ends up forgotten, donated, or thrown away. Meanwhile, workers are stretched thinner. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, real wages have barely grown when adjusted for inflation. People are spending more just to stay afloat, yet the messaging tells them to spend even more in the name of “holiday spirit.” It is a trap designed to widen the gap. When corporations push you to buy things you cannot afford, it is not an act of goodwill. It is a business model. And the more desperate the economy becomes beneath the surface, the harder they push that model. The worst part is how easy it is to fall into debt without even noticing. Apps like Klarna, Affirm, Afterpay, and Apple Pay Later use what economists call frictionless financing. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, these buy now pay later services sharply increase impulse purchases and significantly raise the chances of consumers carrying long term debt. They make it feel painless to split a fifty dollar purchase into four smaller payments, but those small payments pile up with interest and late fees until people are drowning. It is death from a thousand cuts and the companies know that. The more you borrow, the more interest they collect, and the harder it becomes to climb out. This is why it is so important to stay intentional with your spending this season. Billionaires do not suffer when you go into debt. They profit from it. They are not the ones choosing between rent and groceries or worrying about overdraft fees. You are. The stock market is already propped up by the wealthiest households and a handful of tech giants, not the financial health of the average person. According to the Federal Reserve’s Distribution of Financial Accounts, the top ten percent own nearly ninety percent of all stocks. The system is built for them. So ask yourself who benefits when you swipe your card on something no one will remember in a year. So I am saying this as plainly as I can. Do not feed the machine. Feed yourself. Feed your family. Protect your home, your savings, your mental space. Choose experiences over excess. Choose presence over presents. You are being psychologically manipulated into thinking you must spend to show love. But you do not. The most powerful decision you can make this holiday season is to step out of the cycle and refuse to finance someone else’s yacht. Be smarter with your money. Be intentional. And know that walking away from manufactured consumerism is one of the strongest acts of independence you can make.