The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index fell to 81.9 in September, yet credit and debit card spending per household rose 6.2% from a year earlier. A financial advisor writing the piece attributes this gap mainly to psychology rather than inflation or interest rates. He lists five factors: social media fuels comparison with others' lifestyles, financing makes large purchases seem affordable, spending gains are uneven between high-income households with investments and those stretching their paychecks, people spend more on the present when worried about the future, and displaying wealth is mistaken for actual wealth.
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