SoFi surveyed Americans and found that seventy-two percent would rather enjoy their lives than optimize a spreadsheet. Groundbreaking stuff. Next they'll discover people like breathing.
The survey claims these Americans want to prioritize family, travel, and meaningful experiences over financial progress. That's what we're calling it now. Meaningful experiences. Used to be called spending money you don't have on shit you don't need, but some marketing department got involved.
Here's what actually happened. SoFi asked people "Would you rather have money later or fun now?" and three-quarters of respondents said fun. This is news the same way "Americans prefer pizza over dental surgery" is news.
The other twenty-eight percent are either lying or dead inside. Probably both.
What SoFi won't tell you is that slowing financial progress is just a fancy term for staying broke longer. You're not making a philosophical choice between Stoicism and Epicureanism. You're buying plane tickets on a credit card at nineteen percent interest so you can take a photo in front of the Eiffel Tower that seven million other people took this year.
But SoFi needs this data. They need to know exactly how to market debt products to people who've convinced themselves that financial irresponsibility is actually mindfulness. It's brilliant. Rebrand poor planning as life optimization and suddenly everyone's a guru.
The survey probably cost six figures to conduct. Money well spent learning that Americans would rather go to Cancun than contribute to their 401k. Revolutionary research.
Seventy-two percent of Americans just told a financial services company they're bad with money, and that company will now use that information to sell them more ways to be bad with money.
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