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CHILDREN TOP AMERICANS' HOLIDAY SPENDING LIST

(December 22, 2004; New York, NY)  A recent MONEY Magazine/ICR poll revealed Americans plan to spend the most money on their families during the holidays with children topping the list at 51%. Their spouse or partner came in second at 20%.

Holiday Spending

When asked whom they planned to spend the most money on when buying gifts, respondents said:

            Children                                  51%
            Spouse or Partner                   20%
            Parents                                  11%
            Friends                                    3%
            Someone else                        12%

Females are more likely to spend the most on their children (60%) than males are, while males are more likely to spend the most on their spouse or partner (29%) or their parents (14%) than females.

Americans plan to spend an average of $700 on Christmas gifts this season.  That spending figure increases among those with a household income of $75K+ ($1,124), a college education or more ($872), or are between the ages of 35-54 ($842).

 

A plurality of Americans think they will spend the same amount on gifts this holiday compared to what they spent last year:

            More on gifts                          21%
            Less on gifts                          32%
            The same amount on gifts       45%

Americans who claim they will spend the same amount on gifts this year as last year report they will spend $722 on average on gifts this year.  Those who claim they will spend less on gifts this year believe they will spend approximately $503, while those claiming they will spend more, think they will spend $956 on average.

The U.S. Economy

When asked about the U.S. economy now that President Bush has been re-elected to a second term, respondents said:    

            The economy will improve                            34%
            The economy will remain the same               26%
            The economy will get worse                         35%     

Republicans (67%) and males (39%) are more likely to believe the economy will improve.  More democrats (58%) and independents (40%) feel the U.S. economy will worsen over the next 12 months.

When asked if they think their personal financial situation will improve, remain the same or get worse in the next 12 months, respondents said:

            Your personal financial situation will improve                      43%
            Your personal financial situation will remain the same         38%
            Your personal financial situation will get worse                   17%

Those who agree their personal finances will improve include:

            Republicans   (62%)
            $75K+ household incomes (58%)
            Under age 55 (49%)

Those who feel their personal financial situation will remain the same consist of:

            Ages 55+ (48%)

Those who think their personal finances will worsen include:

            High school degree or less (21%)
            Democrats (25%) and independents (20%)
            Those with household incomes under $75K (20%)
            Those with some college education (16%)

About the Poll

The Money/ICR poll was conducted with a nationwide sample of 1021 Americans during December 15 - 19, 2004. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.07 percentage points.

The poll was fielded by International Communications Research (ICR) using its EXCEL^sm telephone omnibus survey of adults. ICR is one of the nation's leading market and opinion research firms and is headquartered in Media, Pennsylvania. For more information on this methodology please go to: http://www.icrsurvey.com/omni_srv.html.

MONEY is published by Time Inc.  With a circulation of 1.9 million and a total readership of over 7 million.