The Feel-Good Economy

New data from Frich shows Gen Z is Spending $200+ a month on wellness. But they’re prioritizing quick fixes over professional help.

Screenshot of Frich on Instagram.

New data from Frich – a social finance app meant to help Gen Zers manage their money by boosting financial literacy and sparking conversation about spending, saving, and investing – shows that young people are spending upwards of $200 a month on wellness.

Their habits illuminate a fascinating trend: 14% of Gen Z users say their mental health is a top issue when it comes to spending, but more than half say therapy is too expensive.

These insights come as economic uncertainty looms. At a time when young people are craving control and stability, they’re spending more on immediate, short-term solutions.

The app’s community, which invites users to anonymously benchmark their financial habits against others on the platform, is meant to destigmatize conversations about money and encourage transparency in spending, saving, and investing. This data is based on an analysis of the spending habits of over 1 million Gen Zers on the platform.

Frich’s recent research found that the average Gen Zer is spending $204 a month on costs affiliated with “health, beauty, and mental wellbeing,” a shift from previous data showing that millennials were spending $115 on wellness, while Gen Zers were spending just $95.

Frich asked Gen Z users what they were willing to splurge on. Here’s what they shared:

· 27% said skincare, hair and beauty

· 21% said stress relief and sleep

· 20% said vitamins and probiotics

· 17% said fitness and weight loss

· 14% said mental health

Meanwhile, 21% of Gen Z users said they “fully support” and “regularly do” Botox, while 31% said they “fully support” and “would use” weight loss drugs like Ozempic.

Supplements > sessions: Gen Z leans toward instant wellness over professional help

And yet, when it comes to professional mental health care or personal trainers, the splurge isn’t worth it, they said.

· More than half – 53% – of Frich’s Gen Z users say therapy is not worth the cost, while just 47% say it is.

· And Frich’s Gen Z users are split 50/50 on whether a personal trainer is worth the cost.

To learn more about their insights, I spoke with Frich Co-Founder and CPO, Aleksandra Medina. Medina started Frich with Katrin Kaurov after she moved to the United States from Europe and realized just how difficult it can be to navigate financial autonomy and conversations about money as a young person in the U.S.

She said the app is designed to approach personal finances in a very human and relatable way. “We will have people writing questions like, ‘Who should pay for Plan B?... Or what am I supposed to be doing with my student loans? How do I save up for a car?,” Medina shared, rather than “How do you maximize your crypto day trades?”

Frich’s latest data mostly accounts for Gen Z Americans in big cities in their early to mid twenties.

“Try to conceptualize what these people have gone through in the past couple of years. There’s just so much uncertainty and so much change every single day. Every single day someone’s yelling in their face that the world is about to end. So our interpretation of this, and what we've also seen, is that this is just some sort of desperate search for control,” Medina said about the data.

The takeaway: Though young people often feel powerless over big issues like student loans, climate change and tariffs, they take control by spending on things that provide immediate comfort — usually opting for quick, momentary fixes.

Mood boosts and micro-spends

Medina said she wanted to examine the wellness fixation because she’s noticed a ton of content geared toward Gen Z about things that make you feel good in the moment, and wondered how that was taking hold in Gen Z’s spending habits.

Think, for example, about the rise of “little treat” content or “hot girl walks” on Instagram and TikTok. How are viral trends shaping Gen Z’s spending?

“It’s all about, ‘Oh if I buy this because it’s for my mental health, it’s ok.’ And I think more and more companies use that as an advertising strategy, and that really irks me. So we really wanted to do a deeper dive on what wellness actually is and have this super honest conversation about what is just a marketing strategy, what is brought on by FOMO, and what is something that actually makes you feel better about yourself, or feel better in general,” Medina said of Frich’s research and findings.

“With all the anxieties happening around us right now,” Medina said: “There’s ‘wellness spending’ to make you feel better, to disconnect from the world, to feel like you’re staying safe.”

Noteworthy reads

• Colleges revamp career services to address Gen Z’s work-life expectations, Laura Pappano for The Washington Post

• Why Everything Is ‘Coded’ Now, Emma Goldberg for The New York Times

• Gen Z is turning to ChatGPT for outfit advice, Eve Upton-Clark for Fortune