What Is A Money Anxiety Disorder?

When Sir Elton John managed to quit cocaine, he replaced his addiction with consumption of a more material kind. In 2000, he admitted to spending almost £300,000 on flowers, hoarding cupboards full of unworn clothes and finding boxes of shoes he didn’t remember buying. The rockstar’s compulsive buying habit saw him spend close to £30 million in under two years. 

People like to trot this story out at dinner parties and have a disbelieving laugh at the staggering amount of money Elton John spent, but many of us feel a twinge of recognition. Compulsive buying, or chronic overspending is a form of “money anxiety disorder”, a term sometimes used to describe a condition of constant worry and unease about money.

Jessica Sier is a financial journalist who currently heads up the content strategy at Sendle. Prior to that she led content at Spaceship and was a reporter at the AFR where she discovered that breaking down financial jargon was a public good.