Money worries are consuming days out of our lives, from Gen Z to the Baby Boomers and everyone in between

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Opinion

Victoria Devine Money columnist September 28, 2025 — 5.01am

Between day-to-day cost-of-living expenses, record-high rents and mortgages, an unstable global economy and shaky job prospects for young adults, it’s not surprising to learn that people now dedicate a lot of brain space to thoughts about money.

If we’re anything like Americans, who according to one recent study spend four hours a day on average thinking about money, we’ve turned our obsession into a part-time job. Except this one leaves you mad, sad, stressed out and feeling uncertain – arguably the worst part-time gig of all time.

Put another way, those four hours a day equal almost 61 days over the course of a year. That’s two months of the year in which finance consumes our every tho