They Spend Time on TikTok To Stop Living Check to Check
Payday videos provide public accountability, which can lead to better habits, researchers say
BY OYIN ADEDOYIN
Some brave souls are trying a novel strategy to tackle the age-old struggle to stop living paycheck to paycheck: itemizing their spending for all to see on TikTok. In short videos, people begin by revealing their take-home pay, and in under 60 seconds whittle it down to near zero by enumerating the bills for food, rent, credit cards, utilities, saving and streaming. Described as “payday routines,” they go into minute detail on spending on groceries, dining out, drinks, car payments and travel. The hashtag #paydayroutine has 52.9 million views to date.
The creators behind these videos say going public creates accountability to stay on track, and hopefully helps others, too. Behavioral finance researchers say they may be on to something. Daniela Martinez, 25 years old, earns about $105,000 as a safety manager in Miami. She began sharing her spending after each of her weekly paychecks in 2022. “It’s Friday, you know what that means,” she says at the start of each video. In a recent video, Ms. Martinez described how she split her $1,414 paycheck: She used $607 for her bills, put $425 in savings and used $322 to pay down her credit cards. Added to $46 remaining from the previous week, that left her with about $106. Ms. Martinez and her parents immigrated to the U.S. from Armenia, Colombia, when she was 9 years old. As a first-generation college student, she didn’t know the first thing about saving, she said. She noticed a lot of her friends didn’t save much and her parents didn’t have a plan to save for retirement. “I wanted to give salary transparency on what actually is saved from my paycheck,” she said. Living on her own was more expensive than expected, she said. In one recent video, after paying her bills, credit cards and contributing to her savings account she was left with about $80 until her next paycheck.
A run of high inflation and rising interest rates have taken a toll on Americans. Nearly a third of adults wouldn’t have been able to cover an unexpected $400 expense with cash or its equivalent, according to a Federal Reserve survey. About 60% of all Americans lived paycheck to paycheck in March, according to a recurring survey by digital lender LendingClub, and Pymnts, a data-analysis company. Younger to midcareer adults are more likely to experience life events, such as relocating or starting a family, that can spark financial shocks, from relocating to a new city to getting married and starting a family to navigating a job loss or divorce, the survey found. Among millennials, 73% reported living paycheck to paycheck, often as they juggle child care and caring for aging relatives, the highest of any group. “The reality is paycheck to paycheck is the predominant way that everybody is living now,” said Anuj Nayar, financial health officer at LendingClub.
Saprina Allen, a 38-year-old corporate recruiter who makes roughly $130,000 a year, started posting payday routine videos in October. She said she wanted to expand the representation to include women of color and mothers. Though she crossed the six-figure threshold years ago, she was living paycheck to paycheck until she adopted a new budgeting technique that she explains in her videos. Every time Ms. Allen gets paid, she pays all of the bills that are due between that day and the next paycheck. That was a game changer for Ms. Allen, who is the primary caretaker for her 17-year-old son. “I try to approach budgeting always from that lens of not everybody is making the money that I make and not everybody has enough to cover all of their bills, and so how can I help those people,” she said.
How accountability can rein in your spending
For those living paycheck to paycheck, financial planners recommend tracking your spending money, automating the fixed expenses that come out of your paycheck, and tackling the low-hanging fruit such as memberships or subscriptions that you no longer use that are eating at your budget. The payday videos provide public accountability, which behavioral researchers say can help people commit to better habits. Having to share your results publicly makes you less likely to stray, said Katy Milkman, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who studies behavioral change. She compared it to the fitness benefits of having a gym buddy.
This is another appeal of the payday videos, viewers say—the chance to see how your peers are wrestling with the same money struggles. Deanna Griffin, a 24 year-old freelance cinematographer in Atlanta, gravitated toward payday- routine videos because she says her friend group doesn’t talk much about money, even though many of them make roughly the same amount. Ms. Griffin says her income can vary anywhere from $3,000 to $6,000 for the month. Watching a payday-routine video from someone who makes less than $3,000 a month helps her not feel alone. “It’s just really nice seeing people living off of $2K or $3K a month and still being able to survive because sometimes that’s how it is for me,” she said.
Daniela Martinez, 25 years old, started posting payday-routine videos on TikTok last year.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: MELODY TIMOTHEE FOR WALL STREET JOURNAL ( 2); SYDNEY SEABRON; SAPRINA ALLEN
Saprina Allen, left, wanted to create videos to which women of color and mothers could relate. Deanna Griffin says her friend group doesn’t talk about finances.
