Meet the DINKWADs, HENRYs and Elder Millennials Spending Their Own Way

The economy has a growing collection of oddly named consumers. One has two incomes, no children and a dog. Another earns plenty but has yet to build much wealth. A third is old enough to remember dial-up internet and young enough, apparently, to spend heavily on craft supplies.

Meet the DINKWADs, HENRYs and elder millennials. Their names invite a laugh, but their purchases offer a useful reminder. People of similar ages can have very different claims on their money.

Start with the elder millennials. A Bank of America Institute study found in August that older millennials spend more per customer on hobbies than any other generation. Yet older millennials also have the least amount of leisure time, about four hours and 15 minutes a day.

The bank defined its older millennial group as people born from 1978 through 1988. Someone born in 1978 might reasonably object to the millennial designation. That little border dispute is part of the point. A generation’s edges depend on who drew the chart.

Bank of America suggested older millennials may be buying supplies for their children as well as themselves. Across all its customers, hobby spending rose 7.9% in August from a year earlier, while the number of purchases rose 3.4%.

The difference implies that even modest pastimes are becoming more expensive. A family can choose an afternoon of crafts over a vacation and still discover that fun has found a way to raise its prices.

Then there are the DINKWADs, or dual-income (couples), no kids, with a dog. A OnePulse survey of 250 DINKWADs in the United Kingdom found in August that 44% said they had planned a holiday entirely around their dog. Nearly a third had chosen a car based on how well the dog fit inside. Those are U.K. survey findings, not a measure of all American dog owners, but the spending logic travels easily. The passenger with four legs can influence the vehicle, the vacation and the insurance policy.

The parent category is substantial. Pew Research Center found that 12% of married couples in the United States with at least one spouse in their 30s or 40s had two incomes and no children in 2023, up from 8% a decade earlier. Pew did not count how many owned dogs. The DINKWAD label captures a narrower household within that larger change.

HENRYs are high earners who are “not rich yet.” Their income and accumulated wealth tell different stories. In July, insurer Chubb published data from a survey of 1,000 self-identified HENRY collectors, ranging from their early 20s to age 45. Among these collectors, 64% owned watches or jewelry and 51% collected art or antiques. Some said they see their collections as sources of pleasure and potential stores of value. Chubb found that 47% had insured them. A high salary may fund the purchase, while protecting it creates another financial decision.

The label with the least comic potential may have the biggest implications for financial services. Solo agers are older adults living without a spouse or partner at home. AARP research found last year that many solo agers value the freedom and control this brings. Their circumstances can also change how they choose financial advice, plan for care, guard against scams and decide who can act on their behalf.

These groups overlap. An elder millennial could be a DINKWAD or a HENRY. The names are useful when they point to a real decision, not when they become costumes for an ad campaign. For merchants, banks and payment providers, the better clue may be what a customer is trying to support, such as a child’s hobby, a beloved dog, a valuable collection or an independent life. The birth year tells only part of that story.