Financial experts offer guidance about how much of your income to spend on rent (no more than 30 percent) and how much to put into savings (about 20 percent). But how much should we be spending on fitness and health?
Many Gen Z and Millennial consumers view exercise as a financial priority, and they say they are investing significant portions of their income into fitness. Chris Rondeau, former chief executive of Planet Fitness, has said Gen Z membership at the chain was “off the charts.”
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Taylor Price, 23, who calls herself the “Gen Z Money Expert,” advises spending around 5 to 10 percent of income toward health and fitness. “This ensures you keep your health as a priority without overshadowing other crucial financial responsibilities,” said Price, who makes financial advice videos for 1.1 million followers on TikTok.
Why is fitness a spending priority for younger generations? Price said her age group equates fitness with not only physical well-being, but also mental health. She also pointed to the internet. “There is also the appeal of fitness culture and aesthetics on social media platforms, which largely influences Gen Z,” she said.
Fitness is now “really connected to this kind of mind-body project as a whole,” said Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, author of “Fit Nation: The Gains & Pains of America’s Exercise Obsession” and associate professor of history at the New School in New York. “I think a lot of people see it as: This is smart spending. This is spending on your health and well-being.”
Investing in exercise
Nicole MacMillan, 36, of D.C. is one of the members of the Gen Z and millennial cohorts who spend hundreds or even thousands per month on gym memberships, personal training sessions or exercise classes. MacMillan, who works for a health-care technology company, said she spends about 10 percent of her income — around $18,000 per year — on gym memberships and training.
Without a doubt, she said, it’s worth it.
“Exercise has become a functional cornerstone in my life,” she said. “It gives me a chance to compete against myself, to have goals that I can set and surpass, and frankly a lot of purpose outside my job.”
MacMillan explained that when she started strength training, she needed to find something to help her grow, accomplish things and unlock new skills.
“When all of my friends started pouring so much of their time, energy and selves into having and trying to have children, I wanted to find something that I could pour my time and energy into nurturing,” she said.
Emily Guthrie, 26, of Oceanside, Calif., spends $950 per month on a personal trainer and gym membership. The software engineer said her spending on fitness ends up being around 15 percent of her after-tax income. She does it, in part, because it gives her the opportunity to socialize outside the confines of a phone screen.
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“I work from home. The gym is kind of the only consistent social time I have,” Guthrie said. “It’s the one thing that I can do consistently to keep my mood stable, plus good diet and sleep. When you exercise, any lows in life are not that low, especially compared to the couch-potato life. Negative things just don’t affect you quite as much.”
Still, her own spending sometimes gives her sticker shock. “It feels pretty absurd to spend on fitness what a lot of people my age spend to rent a room,” she said.
Going into debt for fitness
But some young exercisers say their commitment to fitness has been costly. One 23-year-old from Tennessee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her financial privacy, said she spent $600 a month out of her $55,000 annual salary on a gym membership, personal trainer and self-defense classes, putting herself into debt.
She said she hopes her investment in exercise can help her future self have an easier life. She’s already used her workouts to help her lose 66 pounds after being diagnosed with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. “I haven’t bought new clothes in over two years. I even moved to a lower price of living [area], an hour away from my job, to be able to afford it,” she said.
Lukas Pakter posted a TikTok video in June 2022 about why he was paying $350 a month for a gym membership in Los Angeles “as a broke college student.” He paid for the first month with only around $500 in his bank account until his next paycheck hit, while he crashed with his then boss.
“One conversation at a gym like this can lead to a life-changing experience,” he said in the video, calling his gym membership “the best investment I’ve ever made.”
The comments lit up with disbelief and ridicule, but Pakter, 22, now living in Austin, was unfazed. Now he pays $400 a month for a private application-only gym called Kollective. Why? It’s made his entire life better, not just his body.
Pakter is the co-founder of athletic apparel brand SquidHaus, and he said multiple connections he’s made at the gym have had a positive effect on his business.
That ethos still holds true, he told The Washington Post. “All of these really successful local entrepreneurs, especially in the fitness and health and wellness space, go to this gym.”
Pakter feels similarly about how exercise has affected his entire sense of self.
“When I was younger, I was in a very bad place mentally. I didn’t feel confident in myself. I wasn’t happy,” he said. “I know that the gym and fitness as a whole gave me the confidence to go out and try things that are a little bit harder. I like to treat the gym as little wins that contribute to the bigger picture of becoming a better person.”
Mikala Jamison publishes the best-selling Substack newsletter Body Type. She is also working on her first book, which is about reframing how to think about exercise and body image.
Do you have a fitness question? Email YourMove@washpost.com and we may answer your question in a future column.
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