INSTAGRAM MADE ME GO BROKE!
Millennial went $10K in debt to collect likes
When Lissette Calveiro moved to New York from Miami in 2013 for an internship, she felt like she was living the “Sex and the City” dream.
The now-26-year-old was having brunch with friends and buying new outfits online — and documenting it all on her Instagram account.
“I wanted to tell my story about this young millennial living in New York,” Calveiro, who has more than 12,000 followers on Instagram, told The Post. “I was shopping . . . for clothes to take ‘the perfect ’gram.’ ”
Although her social media looked glamorous,, she was struggling financially,ially, given that her in-nternship only paid for a transporta-tion stipend. Livingg off her savings, shehe also got a part-timeme retail job. Even afterter she moved back to Miami in fall 2013013 and landed a full-timeime publicist gig, Calveiroveiro sank $10,000 into debt trying to live an Ins-nstagram-worthy life.e.
“I was livingng above my means,”s,” she said.
As Instagram in-nthe fluencers latest show fashion off f trends and their ex-xotic vacations, mereere mortals are breakinging the bank trying to keep up. Accordingg to Fashionista, you would need to spendpend about $31,400 a yearar to “to maintain the stan-standards of physical beautybeauty represented daily in our Instagram feeds.”
Calveiro can relate. While living withh her par-parents in Miami, mostst of her sal-salary went to diningng out, shopping sprees and travelingng — all to curate a covetable life online.ne. life “I was living a lie,” she said. Although she was earning in the low- to mid-five figures, “Debt was looming over my head.” Calveiro would treat herself to monthly $200 shopping sprees so she wouldn’t be seen on Instagram wearing the same outfit twice. Every month, she’d also splurge on a designer item, such as a $1,000 vintage Louis Vuitton bag or an accessory from Kate Spade, so she could show it off to her followers. Then there was the desire to look like a jet-setter, traveling to a new location — such as Las Vegas, the Bahamas and Los Angeles — every month for a year. “Snapchat had these [geo-] filters [like digital passport stamps] and I wanted to collect at least 12,” Calveiro said. Her biggest splurge was a $700 round-trip ticket to Austin, Texas, for a Sia concert in November 2016. Although she traveled some for work, Calveiro said, “If you break it down, a lot of the travel I was doing in 2016 was strictly for Instagram.” She had a sobering reality check toward the end of 2016, when she landed a p.r. job in Manhattan. “I knew that
moving to New York, I had to get my act together or I wasn’t going to survive,” she said. She pulled a 180 with her finances, and went into a “mini-isolation from the world,” slowing down her Instagram activity. “A lot of it was recycled content,” Calveiro said of her posts. She moved with a roommate to an Inwood apartment, where her rent was $700 a month. And she began cooking — giving herself a grocery budget of $35 a week. Fourteen months in, she was able to pay off her debt. After working with a financial coach, she now uses an app called Digit, which funnels money from her paycheck to a savings accountcount after she’s paid her rent and livinging expenses (she keepske a cushion of $300 in checking). Old habits die hard, although Calveiro’s trying to make them more realistic. In place of her old shopping sprees, she shells ouout $130 for a Rent the Runway monthly membership — so she can have a revolvingr door of new clothes for hire. She moved to Soho in February, but shares a pad with two roommates; they each pay under $1,300 a month. “Nobody tatalks about [his or her] finances on Instagram,” she ssaid. “It worries me how much I see girls care about image.” Looking back, CaCalveiro regrets “I had a lot of oppoportunities to savsave,” she said. “I coucould’ve invested thathat money in somethinthing.” NNow, she added, “I find mmore meaning in what II’m doing. It goes back tto me being more authauthentic. Whenever somsomeone says they like my coat I say, ‘Oh, can you be$50?’ ”
I was shopping . . . too live the perfect ect Instagramam life. — Lissettete Calveiro