Hey, Rima, and this is Uncomfortable podcast, people. I'm calling in to share my financial

struggle that I face, and it's walking the fine line between never feeling like I have

enough money, while also feeling like I have money now, I cannot take it to the grave with me and tomorrow is

never promised. And the way that I tend to cope with that feeling is to go spend money.

Hi, I'm Rie Mechres and welcome to This is Uncomfortable, the weekly show from Marketplace about

life and how money messes with it.

That message came from a listener named McKenzie, and she's getting at something that I think a lot of us are feeling right now.

It's easy to look around, at the economy, at politics, at the environment, at the general instability of it all, and think,

why not spend some money now to enjoy my life while I can?

People refer to this phenomenon as doom spending.

It's that everything's on fire, tomorrow isn't promised, I'll probably never be able to retire,

so may as well go on vacation or at least get my nails done mentality.

And hey, I'm not here to tell you to cancel your nail appointment or vacation,

but maybe we should think more deeply about that kind of spending. Like, could doom spending

be meeting a real need in our lives? And is there a version of it that isn't self-destructive?

I'm getting into all of that and a lot more with Chelsea Fagan and Judd Kessler.

Chelsea is the co-founder of the financial diet, a publication focused on women's relationship

with money.

And Judd is a behavioral economist at the Wharton Business School.

He studies why people make the choices they do around money.

So first, before we jump into things, when you hear that voicemail from McKenzie, what comes up for you?

Chelsea, I'll start with you.

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