Olivia, a 31-year-old recruitment manager from Manchester, is questioning her own financial choices after seeing her best friend's lavish lifestyle on social media. The friend, who earns a similar salary of around £45,000 a year, has been posting about business-class flights, five-star hotels in Dubai and Mykonos, designer clothes, and is now talking about buying a Range Rover. Olivia asked Metro's consumer champion, Sarah Davidson, for a reality check.
Possible explanations for the friend's spending
Davidson outlined several possibilities: a lottery win, an inheritance, spending on credit cards or buy now pay later schemes, making money online through advertising products, or a lucrative OnlyFans side hustle. She suggested the most likely explanation is that the friend is earning money from advertising products to her social media followers, given her background in PR.
Davidson advised Olivia to look for commercial clues in her friend's posts. In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority requires content creators to clearly identify advertising when they have been incentivised in any way, including payment, gifts, free stays, affiliate commission, and discount codes. The Advertising Standards Authority says ads should be labelled prominently and upfront, not hidden among hashtags.
Separating access from ownership
Davidson also noted that a car in a reel could be a lease, a company car, or a one-day hire, and a weekend in Mykonos might be a press trip. She warned that credit cards, buy now pay later, personal loans, and overdrafts can make an expensive lifestyle look effortless for a while, and suggested Olivia sit down with her friend to ask about it if she suspects debt is behind the spending.
Regarding Olivia's own feelings, Davidson referenced a report from Money and Mental Health stating that 29% of respondents had experienced financial difficulty after overspending because of adverts or sponsored social-media content. She recommended a simple test before putting a holiday on a credit card: would Olivia still want the trip if nobody could see the photos? If the answer is yes, she should price it properly and save for it; if it is mainly about keeping up, she should stop scrolling for a while.
