Why Gen Z Says YOLO and Spends Everything, According to the Budgetnista Tiffany Aliche

Generation Z is understandably discouraged. There’s the horrible job market. There’s the home affordability crisis. For many, there are crushing mounds of student debt. No wonder many make bad financial decisions, living by the motto, “you only live once” (YOLO).

“These things that used to be promised to us, if you behave yourself, you can get a cookie,” said Tiffany Aliche, the financial educator known as The Budgetnista. “And now there’s no cookie. So why should I behave myself? YOLO.”

Aliche totally understands the impulse, having gone through her own financial crisis. She was a preschool teacher who lost her house in the 2008 financial crisis. Debt collectors called her family to shame her into payment, and she had to learn to write cease and desist letters to make them stop.

“I’m seeing a lot of financial irresponsibility, not because they’re irresponsible, but they can’t see a future,” Aliche said recently on the Afford Anything podcast with host Paula Pant. “So I might as well enjoy now.”

Americans are indeed spending more and saving less. The personal saving rate has fallen from 6% in the first quarter of 2024 to 4% in the first quarter of 2026, as consumers are squeezed by inflation and stagnant wage growth. Retail sales hit $752.1 billion in March, up 4% from the year prior.

Pant pointed to housing as a major cause of financial nihilism. “There’s this sense of a house is out of reach,” she said. “So why not get the avocado toast?” She noted that millennials may be the first generation that won’t do better than their parents.

Aliche said that a global sense of burnout is also a factor. “Burnout is about disconnection between the thing you’re doing and the thing you’re wanting to do,” she said. “Yes, on paper, things are good, I guess. But that’s not what’s actually happening. So there’s this disconnect.” Pant added: “I think a lot about why is it that on paper people’s net worths are higher, but in lived experience, it doesn’t feel like that?”

Aliche describes the current moment as fundamentally different from past economic crises, noting that financial conversations have shifted from discretionary spending cuts to basic survival. “It used to be I could tell people … Do you really need to get your nails done every two weeks?” she said. “We’re not having that conversation. We’re talking about eggs and bread now.”

Aliche encouraged listeners to reframe their thinking. “Is it the only truth available?” she asked.”If you only sit in the darkness of it, you know what I mean? Is there any light available is what we’re basically asking.” She recalled the steps she took to get out of debt: renting a $500-a-month room and getting free Wi-Fi from the public library next door.

Aliche said shame can also keep people stuck. To anyone carrying it for past money mistakes, she asked, “Did you kill somebody? Like, what are we talking about here? We need you to forgive yourself. You did it from a good place.”

Aliche acknowledged that people may not have access to family support or cheap rent during tough times. But she insists everyone has different advantages. “I promise you, you have something that I probably didn’t have access to.” She points out that living in New York might be expensive, but eliminates car expenses, while someone in Kansas might need a car just to get to work. “That’s a huge expense taken off.” The key is identifying your specific advantages rather than fixating on what you lack.

For example, potential homebuyers can acknowledge that housing math is harder than it was for their parents. But they can still set up an automatic transfer, even $25 a week, into a high-yield savings account. The cookie may be smaller than it was for previous generations. But refusing to bake your own because the recipe changed doesn’t make sense.