For Canada, activity has had its peaks and valleys but has generally been trending upwards, with more and more posts in the Canadian personal finance subreddit. There was a significant fall at the beginning of 2023, but the conversation is starting to pick up again. In the Australian subreddit, activity has steadily been trending upwards. Both trends remain relatively stable for the US and the UK, with the US conversation fluctuating significantly more than the UK one.

Overall, there’s growth, though.

From April 1 2022 to April 1 2023, the combined total of mentions across the four subreddits reached 5.22 million, marking a 29% increase compared to the previous 12-month period.

Popular topics in Reddit discussions

What’s been fueling personal finance discussions on Reddit in the last year?

We used Brandwatch’s Topic Cloud to visualize the most popular discussion topics in the four selected subreddits.

Looking at the topic cloud, discussions relating to mortgages and buying houses were particularly popular in personal finance subreddits in the last 12 months. The topic accumulated close to 243k mentions, a 29.8% increase from April 1 2021 – April 1 2022.

It’s no surprise that the subreddit’s growth has been remarkable. Given the recent volatility in the housing market, more and more people are inclined to discuss it on Reddit.

Among other topics discussed in conversations over the last 12 months, consumers also mentioned:

• Income: ≈ 372k mentions
• Jobs: ≈ 322k mentions
• Cost and prices: ≈ 306k mentions
• Cars: ≈ 278k mentions
• Saving and savings: ≈ 251k mentions
• Loans: ≈ 209k mentions
• Advice: ≈ 130k mentions

Clearly, Reddit is a popular platform for crowdsourcing financial advice and gaining inspiration for managing money. With significant mentions in areas such as income, jobs, cars, savings, and seeking advice, users rely on the collective wisdom of the Reddit community.

Finding more insights with Reddit Social Panels

We used new, ready-to-use Reddit Social Panels to break down the conversation by generation.

When looking at the personal finance conversations between April 1 2022 and April 1 2023, we found that Gen Y were the most vocal about personal finances on Reddit (970k mentions). Gen X followed with 245k mentions, Gen Z accumulated 214k mentions, and baby boomers – 80k mentions.

While it could definitely be argued that this primarily reflects the user demographics and the largest age groups on Reddit, it’s worth exploring the key interests within each age group.

Unique interests broken down by generations

We used the Brandwatch Topic Wheel and Reddit Social Panels to surface the topics that are more likely to be talked about by each generation.

When looking across all four topic wheels broken down by generation, we saw some subtle differences in interests.

• Baby boomers expressed more interest in topics relating to savings and their credit.
• Gen X seemed to be more concerned with cars and car payments.
• Millennials are big on discussing paying rent and paying off loans.
• Finally, Gen Z, whose oldest are just starting their post-education years, most often discussed personal finances, salary levels, living arrangements, and personal expenses.

In a time where talking about money over dinner still feels taboo to many, Reddit offers a place where people can anonymously delve into their finances and crowdsource advice for anything related to money.

Contemplating a big purchase? Now you know where to go.

Note from the Editor: We’re changing the cadence of our bulletin

Going forward, the bulletin is shifting to a monthly cadence, specifically on the first Friday of the month. This change will allow us to go even deeper with our research and offer more comprehensive coverage of topics – twelve times a year.

If you want to access our insights on a more frequent basis, check out our regularly released blog, reports, and guides.

Until we read again on June 2.

What should we cover next?

Is there a topic, trend, or industry you’d like us to feature in the Brandwatch Bulletin? We want to hear your ideas to make sure our readers are getting what they want. We may even ask to interview you if you’re involved with the topic.

Send any and all ideas to [email protected] and let’s talk.

Thanks for reading

If you were forwarded today’s bulletin and want to get them yourself, you can subscribe to the Brandwatch Bulletin here.

See you next time,

The Brandwatch Bulletin team