“Credit Karma defends financial progress for all.” And to “help us” in that goal, the American credit platform has invented the term dysmorphia of money that has no clinical or scientific base, but which has been talking about the last weeks after the publication of a survey of the Credit Karma company.

After talking with 1,006 Americans at the end of 2023, the study has concluded that the Z generation and Millennials They are obsessed with being rich and that could lead to a dysmorphia of money.

Dymorphia of money or why wealth obsess

Money

The term dysmorphophobia It is defined by the RAE as a phobia to suffer some defect, anomaly or disease that aesthetically affects a part of the body, especially to the face, from which the body dysmorphic disorder linked to vigorexia, a type of Obsessive-compulsive disorder which could affect more than seven million people alone in the United States.

Based on the characteristics of this disorder, those responsible for the study have called the dysmorphia of money or financial dysmorphia the obsession to be compared to others, especially with celebrities, generating “Feelings of financial insufficiency”, In the words of Courtney Alev, product director and“ financial defender ”in Credit Karma.

Therefore, it is not about any clinically certified psychological disorder or scientifically studied, but rather of A simile that seeks to attract attention to behavior in relation to personal finances that, in the most serious cases, could undoubtedly have psychological consequences for the individual.

Alev points out a “distortion Between the perception and reality that can prevent people from taking measures (adequate and responsible) to achieve their financial objectives ”, an insecurity about the financial situation that is not always realistic, but is based on comparison with assumptions”financial ideals”

Thus, while a person who suffers from body dysmorphia looks in the mirror and, by comparison with an assumption of physical (which does not exist in practice), feels insecure, depressed and/or anxious, the person who “suffers” money dysmorphia looks at his portfolio or his current account and, by Comparison with Millionaires That they are always in the candlestick, feels insecure, depressed and/or anxious despite the fact that their financial situation can be moderately positive.

That is, you do not need more money to meet your basic needs and develop a normal life project that does not include yachts or private planes. And, even with everything, feel bad in relation to the money he has.

Obsessed with being rich: why feel financially ‘failed’?

According to the survey, almost half of the respondents (belonging to generation Z or Milleniallsthat is, under 45 years old) they are obsessed with being rich and feel financially behind. Among them, 37% have more than $ 10,000 of savings and 23% are more than $ 30,000 which “is well above the average amount of savings of Americans that are stated at $ 5,300.”

And what is it due financial dissatisfaction Despite having more savings than average? It seems that it is due to the comparison with the celebrities, the influence of social networks, of all those characters that exhibit their wealth through the Internet or on television and that have little to do with the daily lives of the “middle citizen.”

The era financially ‘irresponsible’ will end …

Spend money – Source: Pexels

A new Credit Karma survey published in March is complemented by the precedent suggesting that the obsession with being rich and the financial insecurity of generation Z and the Millennials It seems to have had another consequence: 73% of respondents who have been financially irresponsible say that their financially irresponsible was, the redundancy is worth it.

What does this suppose? That one in five members of generation Z and millennials will participate “in the Year of “Not Buy” In 2024 ”, that is, they will stop spending more than they should.

And it is that according to the survey, 33% of Americans under 45 admitted to being addicted to purchases, blaming 69% of them to social networks for feeding their bad habits, accumulating 18% debts of more than $ 5,000.

Paradoxically, almost 50% of the members of the Z generation and the Millennials They point out that personal financing trends on social networks have motivated them to adopt good financial habits, such as high budgets and “years without purchases”, stop buying “luxury items” and trends articles in social networks.

Finally, 28% of respondents indicate feeling tired of live over their possibilities. So, 72% of respondents are not yet tired of living above their possibilities?

Do we want to be rich or be free? Do we want wealth or dignity?

Dolin ticket – Source: Pexels

Beyond the conclusions that can be taken from this double survey that offers difficult data to compare and that does not leave in a very good place the capacity to reason of the average American, it is possible to pete by the cause of that supposed dysmorphia of money that is none other than the obsession to be rich. But is it an obsession with being “rich”, or a Obsession with having enough money To build a basic life project that includes, for example, a house in property?

Because if you need money to buy a house, but that house has an indecent price, Failure is not in your current accountbut in the system that allows a large number of citizens not to have “enough money” to access a home.

So don’t feel failing for not having enough money or not earning enough. The failure, in any case, is general, social, of all, for allowing money to become an obsession due to injustice and social inequality.

And yes, that obsession derived from injustice and social inequality can lead to serious psychological problemsbut not in a dysmorphia of money, which is nothing more than a simile that can serve us, in the first place, to call the financial “responsibility and sense”.

And, secondly, and more importantly, it must serve to call social claim by a more just society, also from an economic point of view, a society in which An individual never feels failed for not having money To pay a house and do not have to dream of being “rich” to buy it, but assume that it is a general social failure that a person has to be “rich” to buy a basic (and constitutional) good as a home.

Another issue to analyze and different from the previous one, which we leave for later, is why those who already have enough money to develop a life project want keep accumulating more money still? Why do we want more money, although we don’t really need it?

Perhaps because of that dysmorphia of money (and everything else), that permanent dissatisfaction, not only with our finances, but with everything. We always want a little more, which makes it paradoxical, after all, that we claim equality when we only want to be the same as those above … never to those below. Or not?