For many parents, back-to-school shopping has become much more than an annual expense — it’s become a source of debt.
Forbes Advisor recently featured findings from Beyond Finance’s nationwide survey of 2,000 U.S. parents of school-aged children, revealing the significant financial strain families face as their children return to the classroom.
According to the Beyond Finance study, 39% of parents expected to take on debt to cover back-to-school expenses, while 38% said they had already gone into debt for school shopping in previous years.
The financial pressure extends beyond traditional credit card spending. The study found 23% of parents have used buy now, pay later services to cover back-to-school costs.
Beyond Finance’s research also reveals the emotional pressure driving some of that spending. Seven in 10 parents said back-to-school shopping is the most financially stressful time of the year, and 61% admitted buying something because they feared their child would otherwise feel left out.
The findings received additional attention in a separate Forbes Advisor story examining ways families can reduce school-shopping costs.
The coverage reinforces an important financial wellness message: Planning ahead, setting spending priorities and separating genuine needs from social pressure can help families avoid turning a new school year into long-term financial stress.
Read the story in Forbes Advisor.
About Dr. Erika Rasure
Dr. Erika Rasure, PhD, CFT™ is an internationally recognized financial therapist, educator, and researcher with over two decades of experience helping people transform their relationship with money. She holds a doctorate in Personal Financial Planning from Kansas State University and is a Certified Financial Therapist™ — one of a small number of practitioners in the country to hold both credentials. As Chief Financial Wellness Advisor at Beyond Finance, she leads five weekly financial wellness sessions with clients navigating debt and is the creator of Beyond Finance’s Financial Wellness RESET™ Framework, Assessment, and Curriculum — a proprietary, clinically-informed model that addresses the behavioral and emotional reasons financial advice so often fails to stick, helping people change not just what they do with money, but how they relate to it. She serves on the Financial Review Boards of Investopedia, The Balance, VeryWell Family, and VeryWell Parents, chairs the Financial Therapy Clinical Institute Research Board, and her expertise has been featured on NBC’s Today Show, CNBC, CNN, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Barron’s, the Associated Press, and USA Today.