MANY AMERICANS BELIEVE SPENDING CASH ISN’T REAL SPENDING

Almost one-third of Americans buy into the idea that “cash doesn’t count,” according to new research.

A survey of 2,000 U.S. adults split evenly by gender and generation revealed that because their account balance doesn’t decrease, 29% of Americans believe that spending cash doesn’t actually “count” as spending money.

While this may be chalked up to just another “girl math” trend, 35% say that carrying cash makes them feel more prepared and only 5% admit that they never have some on their person.

Despite the stereotype that younger generations only prefer digital payments, the results revealed that baby boomers (24%) and Gen Xers (23%) are twice as likely to “rarely” carry cash than Gen Zers (12%).

The younger generations also prefer to carry a larger amount of cash than the older generations: Gen Z and millennials like to have an average of about $82 and $71 respectively, while Gen X carries $57 and baby boomers carry $48.

Interestingly, men tend to carry around $78, while women stick to an average of $51.

Still, all Americans are almost equally likely to carry cash out of paranoia or in fear that they might need it (27%) as they are to use it as “fun money” (26%).

Interestingly, 18% of Gen Z keep a cash fund because they frequent cash-only businesses, more than any other generation.

Conducted by Talker Research on behalf of Chime, the survey also looked to settle the debate over whether cash is considered to be the best of all payments or whether its reign has come to an end in the 21st Century.

Results found that cash might be making the comeback of the year as 52% agree that cash is king, compared to only 25% who believe it’s dead.

Taking that a step further, if Americans could eliminate one form of payment forever, both checks (36%) and credit cards (16%) ranked above cold, hard cash (12%).

Two-thirds of Americans even admit they’d rather find a $20 bill in their pocket than receive a $20 refund on their credit card (27%).

By SWNS/// nypost.com