Dr. Erika Rasure, PhD, CFT™, Chief Financial Wellness Advisor at Beyond Finance, is helping Americans rethink their summer spending habits in a new lifestyle and personal finance story published by AOL, examining why Millennials are especially vulnerable to seasonal overspending.
The article, “The Hidden Summer Spending Trap Millennials Fall Into — and How to Escape It,” explores how vacations, concerts, weddings, dining out, and other seasonal experiences can quietly derail financial goals. Dr. Rasure explains that the biggest spending risks often aren’t impulsive purchases — they’re emotionally driven decisions fueled by social pressure and the fear of missing out.
In the story, Dr. Rasure encourages consumers to pause before making discretionary purchases and ask whether the expense aligns with their personal priorities rather than outside expectations. She notes that creating memorable experiences doesn’t have to mean abandoning a financial plan, and that setting realistic boundaries before the summer season begins can help people enjoy themselves without carrying financial regret into the fall.
The advice aligns with Beyond Finance’s ongoing focus on the behavioral side of financial wellness. While budgeting remains important, Dr. Rasure emphasizes that lasting financial success comes from understanding the emotions and habits that influence spending decisions. By recognizing common psychological triggers — such as comparison, optimism bias, and the desire to participate in every social event — people can make more intentional choices that support both their financial and emotional well-being.
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.