Every few months, a new money phrase takes over TikTok, and suddenly everyone’s either Moneymaxxing, “loud budgeting” their friends out of brunch or admitting they “doom spent” their tax refund on a weighted blanket and a flight to Cabo.
These trends look like jokes, and some of them are jokes. But string them together and they tell a pretty accurate story of how people actually felt about their money and the economy from 2020 through 2026.
Here, Finder provides the real timeline: when each trend started, what it actually means, whether it’s still worth trying and how it played out for the people who did it.
What it is: Using affirmations, mantras and abundance mindset rituals to try to attract wealth, no spreadsheet required.
What it’s about: Say it, believe it, receive it. TikTok’s #MoneyManifestation corner leans on Law of Attraction ideas: Visualize the bank balance you want, repeat a mantra and the universe allegedly handles logistics.
How it started:
Still around? Yes, it’s arguably the most durable trend on this list, resurfacing with new hashtags every year since 2020.
How it turned out: The positives about this trend are that it costs nothing and can nudge people toward a more optimistic, action-taking mindset. On the other hand, this isn’t an actual financial strategy. Wishing for more money isn’t a substitute for a well-thought out plan to better your situation.
What it is: The gap between what the economic data says and what everyday life feels like.
What it’s about: Financial educator Kyla Scanlon coined the term in a June 2022 newsletter, calling it “the vibes of a recession, but maybe not the economic reality of one.” Unemployment was near a 50-year low and GDP kept climbing, but consumer sentiment cratered anyway.
How it started:
Still around? The word itself has cooled off, but the mismatch it describes hasn’t; consumer prices are still running well ahead of pre-pandemic levels.
How it turned out: There’s no personal “outcome” here since it’s a mood, not a money move. However, it did give people language for something real they were feeling. Consumer prices are about 29% higher than they were in February 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ CPI Inflation Calculator, meaning $1,000 in pre-pandemic spending power now costs roughly $1,290.86.
The numbers behind the vibe: The Fed’s own data backs up the mismatch. Only 63% of U.S. adults said they could cover a surprise $400 expense with cash, down from a high of 68% in 2021, according to the Federal Reserve’s 2025 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking. Just 55% had three months of expenses set aside in a rainy-day fund, per the same report. And 68% of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck as of August 2025, according to PYMNTS Intelligence.
What it is: The old money, logo-free aesthetic. Think unbranded cashmere and quiet tailoring that signals wealth by hiding it, instead of showing it off.
What it’s about: A reaction against loud, logo-heavy status symbols, fueled almost entirely by HBO’s “Succession” and a cost-of-living crisis that made flashy spending feel tone-deaf.
How it started:
Still around? Not as a headline trend; by early 2024, fashion critics and Paris Fashion Week had already called it outdated in favor of louder styles. However, the less flashy instinct carried straight into loud budgeting.
How it turned out: This trend nudged people toward investing in fewer, better-made basics instead of fast fashion. However, quiet luxury pieces were often just as expensive as logo-heavy ones, if not more so. It was a trend about the wealthy and not designed as a money-saving one for everyone else.
What it is: Creators telling followers what not to buy, flipping the usual haul or recommendation video on its head.
What it’s about: Pushing back on overhyped products, hidden sponsorships and the sheer volume of must-haves flooding social feeds.
How it started:
Still around? The specific hashtag has cooled, but the instinct evolved directly into underconsumption core and no-buy years.
How it turned out: A good mindset to help people gauge whether they really need something, and it gives you permission to ignore hype. It made “I don’t need that” content genuinely popular. On the other side, critics pointed out de-influencers often still recommended cheaper alternatives, meaning the trend redirected spending more than it actually reduced it.
What it is: Deliberately illogical “math” used to justify spending: cash purchases don’t count, returns are “profit,” anything under $5 is free.
What it’s about: Pure comedy about a real habit: rationalizing purchases.
How it started:
Still around? As a meme, mostly retired, but the underlying habit of rationalizing spending never left.
How it turned out: This trend actually got people discussing those small money decisions they’d normally hide. However, some pointed out it leaned on old stereotypes about women being bad with money, and taken too literally, “girl math” logic is a fast way to blow a budget on purchases that only feel free.
What it is: A slower, gentler approach to saving that prioritizes today’s quality of life over maxing out a retirement account.
What it’s about: A rejection of hustle-culture, FIRE-style extreme frugality, in favor of “the soft life’s answer to finance.”
How it started:
Still around? Yes, and it’s held up better than most; later surveys through 2025 and 2026 kept finding similar numbers.
How it turned out: A positive trend that could help prevent burnout and create more room for actual joy and flexibility in a budget. But, taken too far, it can mean under-saving for retirement or emergencies at exactly the age when compound interest matters most.
What it is: The envelope budgeting method, but aesthetic — cash divided into labeled envelopes or a decorative binder for each spending category.
What it’s about: Using physical cash and envelopes to see your progress and organize spending.
How it started:
Still around? Yes, and it’s one of the more sustainable trends here. It’s old-school budgeting with better branding.
How it turned out: This trend/budgeting method makes overspending hard, since you use the cash in the envelope, lets you see your progress and forces you to budget. It works especially well for impulse spenders. On the downside, cash at home doesn’t earn interest, and carrying or storing it comes with real theft and loss risk.
What it is: Saying out loud, without shame, that you don’t want to spend money instead of quietly pretending you can’t afford something.
What it’s about: The opposite of quiet luxury, the hushed old-money aesthetic that dominated 2023.
How it started:
Still around? Yes, and financial commentators generally think it has staying power, since it’s financial boundary-setting with a catchy name.
How it turned out: Talking about money out loud tends to build accountability and can make saving feel less isolating. However, it can tip into performative frugality, and not everyone finds it comfortable to announce their budget to friends and family.
What it is: A distorted view of your own finances that doesn’t match reality. For example, feeling broke despite a healthy income or feeling behind despite solid savings.
What it’s about: Comparing your financial life to a curated highlight reel of other people’s wealth on social media.
How it started:
Still around? Yes, coverage through 2026 keeps finding similar or higher numbers, and the term has stuck as shorthand for financial anxiety that doesn’t match the actual numbers.
How it turned out: This trend gives the feeling a name and has helped some people separate perception from their real financial picture. But oddly, 95% of people who experience it say it actively hurts their finances by holding them back from saving and pushing them toward overspending.
What it is: Impulsive purchases, often items people don’t need or can’t afford, made to cope with anxiety about the economy or the news.
What it’s about: Chronic online exposure to bad news translating directly into bad spending habits.
How it started:
Still around? Yes — it tends to spike around elections, tariff news and holiday shopping seasons.
How it turned out: Impulse spending can give you a short-term mood boost and a sense of control in an uncertain moment. But spending without a care can land you in more debt that offsets the emotional payoff. Total U.S. household debt hit a record $18.8 trillion in the second quarter of 2026, and credit card balances climbed to $1.26 trillion, with 6.97% in serious delinquency (90+ days past due), a level not seen since the Great Recession.
What it is: Content that celebrates using what you already own. For example, the nearly empty lotion bottle or the years-old phone case instead of buying more.
What it’s about: A direct reaction to years of haul culture and viral product recommendations, wrapped in a cost-of-living crisis that made buying less feel both financially necessary and culturally cool.
How it started:
Still around? Yes, and it’s aged well because it doesn’t require buying anything new to participate.
How it turned out: It’s one of the few viral trends here that’s genuinely free to try and tends to save people money without much downside. A few folks have noted a little irony in “aspirational” underconsumption videos still shot on expensive cameras, phones and curated homes.
What it is: Installment payment BNPL services like Klarna, Afterpay and Affirm that split a purchase into interest-free payments at checkout.
What it’s about: Making bigger purchases, and increasingly everyday ones, feel smaller and easier to say yes to.
How it started:
Still around? Yes, and still growing.
How it turned out: Interest-free installments can genuinely help people manage cash flow for planned purchases, and delinquency rates have generally stayed below credit cards. But it’s not all great: About a third of BNPL users have a credit score below 620, a rejected credit application or a delinquent loan, and because most providers don’t report to credit bureaus, “phantom debt” can pile up across multiple apps without anyone tracking the full picture.
What it is: Aggressively rebuilding savings, often as a direct reaction to years of revenge spending splurges on travel and experiences after the pandemic.
What it’s about: Fear of layoffs, tariffs and a recession that kept threatening to arrive.
How it started:
Still around? Yes, the underlying caution has stuck as job-market and tariff headlines keep rolling in.
How it turned out: Bigger emergency funds and a real sense of financial security for people who followed through. But taken to an extreme, it can mean skipping meaningful experiences or over-restricting spending out of fear rather than an actual plan.
What it is: A self-imposed rule to stop buying nonessential items for a set stretch of time.
What it’s about: Resetting an overconsumption habit and freeing up cash for savings, debt or basic needs.
How it started:
Still around? Yes, and January “no-buy” resolutions have become an annual TikTok ritual.
How it turned out: Author Ashlee Piper, who ran her own version of the challenge, says she paid off $22,000 in debt and saved $36,000. However, strict no-buy rules are hard to sustain long-term, and some people rebound into a spending spree the moment the challenge ends.
What it is: A joking catchphrase — “that’s a recession indicator” — slapped onto anything from flash mobs to a pop star’s new single as tongue-in-cheek proof the economy is tanking.
What it’s about: Turning real economic anxiety into a running internet bit, the same way people joke about doomscrolling.
How it started:
Still around? Yes, and it tends to flare up any time economic headlines get worse, functioning almost like a running economic mood ring for the internet.
How it turned out: Overall, it’s a low-stakes joke and a way for people to process real economic anxiety together, and a form of collective coping. On the other hand, some economists have warned the joke could become a bit self-fulfilling, since enough public pessimism about spending can itself contribute to an actual slowdown.
What it is: Optimizing every corner of your finances — high-yield savings, cashback stacking, bill negotiation, credit card points — to squeeze the most value out of every dollar.
What it’s about: The “-maxxing” suffix, borrowed from looksmaxxing and other self-optimization trends, applied to money instead.
How it started:
Still around? It’s the newest trend here, so the jury’s still out, but multiple financial experts are calling it more durable than the usual trend cycle.
How it turned out (so far): Jack Howard, head of money wellness at Ally Bank, told CNBC it focuses on “creating everyday habits” rather than chasing quick fixes, and it works even without a raise. But treating every transaction like an optimization problem can get exhausting, and some critics note it risks turning money into a constant background stressor rather than something you occasionally just don’t think about.
Zoom out on all these trends and a pattern shows up fast: they’re about the same handful of feelings, rebranded every year or so.
Why do so many money trends start on TikTok specifically?
TikTok's format rewards short, punchy, relatable framing, and money is one of the few topics almost everyone has strong, private feelings about. Millennials and Gen Zers often get financial advice from social media, so the platform has become a lot of people's actual source of financial information.
What's the difference between doom spending and revenge spending?
Doom spending is impulsive buying meant to cope with anxiety about the economy or the news, and it tends to spike around bad headlines. Revenge spending is different: it specifically describes the post-pandemic splurge on travel and experiences people felt they'd missed out on during lockdowns.
Why do these trends keep swinging between ‘spend more’ and ‘spend less’?
When people feel like the future is uncertain, trends like doom spending and girl math tend to spike. When that anxiety turns into fear of a recession or job loss, the pendulum swings to revenge saving and no-buy years. The vibecession trend explains the feeling that while the economy has looked fine on paper for years, a lot of people haven't felt fine at all.
This guide has been edited by Bethany Hickey and reviewed by Richard Laycock, a member of Finder's Editorial Review Board.
This story was produced by Finder and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
