NRF Survey Finds 48% Of Consumers Plan To Save Their Tax Refund

A survey from the National Retail Federation finds many consumers plan to put their tax refunds into savings rather than spend. Denham Springs financial planner Matt Kennedy says we’ve seen this trend over the past eight years ever since the 2008 stock market crash.

“When so many Americans, especially middle class Americans, come into a little extra money, we’re not as fast to spend it as we once were because those scars from that economic meltdown 9 years ago are still very fresh in our mind.”

The survey says of 66% of those getting a refund, only 21% plan to spend it on everyday expenses. Kennedy says surprisingly, millennials are the ones saving more than the baby boomers. He says younger people saw their parents suffer in the 2008 economic downturn and don’t want to risk it in the stock market.

“And they’re saving it for a rainy day. We have a whole new generation of young people coming up who are actually more conservative than their parents when it comes to money and comes to spending.”

48% of Americans plan to put their money into savings, second only to last year’s record high of 49%. Kennedy says a big reason consumers are saving is for debt reduction. He says this is especially true in Louisiana after last August’s historic flooding.

“In the past, there may have been this tendency to go ahead and spend the money and worry about the debt later. But there has been a fundamental mind shift and part of that shift is, eradicate that debt first, spending on myself later.”