OnePoll conducted a study on behalf of Upwise that looked into millennials’ financial habits. The researchers found that many of them don’t check their accounts. The poll of 2000 U.S millennials found that most of them would rather scroll through social media than check their finances. Unfortunately, the average millennial would spend about 150 hours more on social media every year than they spend looking through their finances.

The researchers also noted that social media wasn’t the only thing they put ahead of examining their finances. Millennials also seemed to prefer searching for new TV shows, looking after plants, making meal decisions and playing with their pets.

Making payments has become easier

About 27% of respondents only looked at their accounts once every week. Another 45% weren’t sure about the money in their bank accounts. Moreover, researchers discovered that making easing payments contributed to the problem.

Making payments has become relatively easy with millennials using their computers or smartphones to make automatic monthly payments. About 57% of millennials admitted to using autopay.

The participants gave reasons for why they preferred autopay. These included making their payments on time (38%), saving money (39%), and convenience (45%). However, there were also disadvantages to using autopay. For example, 81% of respondents would make more impulsive purchases as they could use auto-pay to settle their bills.

Americans want to take charge of their finances

For this reason, a majority of respondents were trying to take charge of their finances. About 51% said they would have more control if they limited their use of autopay. Another 75% stated that they didn’t want to rely on other people financially.

About 80% of the respondents believed that good financial decisions begin when someone is younger. Despite this, most millennials who weren’t as good with money were trying to make better decisions.

One way millennials were trying to improve their spending was by establishing a monthly budget (45%). Others used finance apps (48%) and finance planners (50%).

Many participants experienced debt during the pandemic, with 62% adding $10,000 to their current debt. Others (54%) managed to add this amount to their savings.