How People Who Budget Based On Vibes Use Emotion To Grow Their Money
Experts say that money is all about mindset. These two trends take that maxim in another direction.
Kaboompics.com | Pexels | Canva Pro According to a 2025 study by Intui Credit Karma, almost half of Americans use vibe-based budgeting to manage their money, relying on emotion to determine their spending. While that may seem like an irresponsible thing to do, if you listen to a lot of financial gurus, you'll hear constantly that money is really just about mindset.
Take an avoidant, fear-based, or defeatist approach to your finances, and you'll never get ahead. Shift your brain to a more growth-oriented mindset, and the riches will flow. There's some truth to the power of mindset in all settings, of course, but when it comes to our finances, it can feel real reductive, real fast. No amount of positive thinking is going to make up for, say, a federal minimum wage that's only $7.25 an hour!
Two new money trends, however, take this mindset approach in a new direction by doing what many gurus would say is a no-no: letting your emotions manage your money. It can actually be a game changer, however.
Trends like 'revenge saving' and 'vibes-based budgeting' use emotions to grow and secure your money.
Typically, financial experts advise AGAINST using emotions when it comes to money. After all, it's often emotions that get us in trouble. That's literally what financial trauma is about: letting our negative past emotional experiences surrounding money dictate our financial moves.
Social media is also full of terrible financial advice from unqualified people, but while the recent trends of "revenge saving" and "vibes-based budgeting" have similarly snappy monikers like, say, "girl math," they're actually sound advice.
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Because the unavoidable truth is that we are all living through economic chaos. The last presidential administration spent two years insisting the economy was good while grocery and housing costs were going through the roof, and the new one insists that the constant volatility of the stock market from on-again, off-again tariff threats is good, actually. (Tell that to everyone who watched their 401(k) evaporate this spring.)
The trends of "revenge saving" and "vibes-based budgeting" seem to have emerged from precisely this situation. They take the ways we're at the mercy of the economy's whims and flip the script to put us back in control.
'Revenge saving' is all about reframing saving money from a chore to a strategy.
Let's just call it like it is: saving sucks. It often requires sacrifice, saying no, and "making smart decisions" when what we really want to do is jet off to Mykonos or buy another "Real Housewives" theme sweatshirt off Instagram just to feel something (that last one might be autobiographical).
But revenge saving takes that frustration and turns it around on the economy itself. It reframes saving into a middle finger at the economy that is punishing us all so much. As finance expert Kelly Ernst put it, it's using savings as a "'screw you!' to economic uncertainty and the high cost of living."
Or to put my own spin on it: I hate politicians with every fiber of my being, so I'm going to start thinking of my savings as a giant middle finger to all the politicos who have let this economy happen. Go ahead and try to cow me with your economic parlor tricks, but as for me and my dollars, we shall park in a high-yield savings account and certificates of deposit!
It feels particularly subversive since being good "consumers" is a core value of our bizarre country, and we are repeatedly told that buying things is good for the economy. Oh yeah? Well, I shan't participate in your little game of going into debt so gazillionaires can benefit off all the interest. I will be parking my money, thank you! (Until I get really desperate and can no longer refrain from the aforementioned HYPOTHETICAL "Real Housewives" merch.)
'Vibes-based budgeting' uses our gut feelings to determine our spending.
Similarly, "vibes-based budgeting" is all about taking your own word above that of the financial "experts" and the economic numbers. Basically, it's being led by your own experience, not the gurus'.
For instance, the job market is supposedly "good" based on the data, but the reality doesn't seem to reflect that. Every day, there's a new story about layoffs, and if you've talked to anyone in the job market lately, they can tell you how insanely hard it is to find a job.
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Likewise, prices on everything remain high despite inflation having gone down in the past year. (There is a very simple explanation for this, which is that disinflation and deflation are two completely different things, and the latter usually only happens in an economic collapse, but that's a whole other article.)
So we're not gonna go quit our jobs on a whim and stop caring about our spending, right? We're gonna tune into the "vibes" and be a lot more intentional. Or, to put it more vulgarly, you know that old saying "don't pee on my foot and tell me it's raining?" Well, we're going to base our financial decision on the pee, not the supposed rain we keep being told is falling.
And even experts say this is actually a good approach. Speaking to CNBC, Equilibrium Wealth Advisors founder Matthew Blocki said we should all, regardless of income or financial status, be taking a "money temperature" and letting it guide us accordingly, in both our present spending and our plans for the future. Turns out "vibes" can indeed be a good adviser, even where money's concerned.
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
