Why You Won’t Be Splurging This April

About 80% of Americans who filed taxes got back a refund last year, averaging just under $2,800. Usually, even though it’s our money to begin with, we treat it kind of like a windfall, buying appliances, going on vacation or spending it in other fun ways.

That’s not happening this year.

According to an annual National Retail Federation survey, nearly half of Americans who plan to get a refund say they’re going to be socking part of all of it away into savings — the highest percentage ever recorded. About 40% say they’re going to pay down debt with part of all of their refund, a three-year high. Perhaps surprisingly, it’s young adults leading the charge, with 55% of those under 24 years old planning to save their refund money, the highest percentage of any age bracket.

About 13% of respondents do say they’ll use the money on a vacation, which is a high not seen since 2007’s tax season, before the recession hit. Only about 10% say they’re making a big purchase like a TV or a fridge, a slightly smaller number than last year and the lowest percentage in the survey’s history. About the same number say they’ll splurge on things like dinners out, spa treatments and new clothes.

“Americans are thinking of the future, and remaining financially secure is a big part of that,” NRF president and CEO Matthew Shay said in a release. Getting our hands on those refund checks is another part — when the survey was conducted in early February, almost a quarter of people said they’d already filed their taxes (although 15% are procrastinators who admit they’ll wait until April).

The good news, relatively speaking, is that fewer Americans are relying on their tax refunds to pay for everyday expenses. It’s still about a quarter of survey respondents, but that’s better than the 30% who said they needed that money for everyday expenses just two years ago.

Even with this year’s intention to be diligent about our tax refunds, though, Americans aren’t nearly out of the woods when it comes to the security of their savings accounts. A Bankrate.com survey published this week finds that nearly one in four Americans have more credit card debt than they do money in savings, while another 13% have no credit card debt, but no savings, either. Fewer than 60% have more savings than credit card debt, a situation Bankrate chief financial analyst Greg McBride describes in a release as “teetering on the edge of financial disaster.”