Money impacting the number of new year's cards being sent

Since this is City-Cost and we often write about money-themed topics and issues, I thought some people might find this interesting!

Recent research by Futaba Corporation looked at changes in sending out new year's cards, and there were a few financially-motivated points that were mentioned in their study.

Image created via Canva

One key theme was the impact of increased postage rates on the number of cards people planned to send. Some respondents mentioned that they were actively reducing the number of cards due to rising costs, showing that the financial burden of postage is becoming a deterrent for many.

Another point in reducing the number of cards sent was that people were assessing the relationships they had with people for physical mailouts. It seemed like people were prioritizing their face-to-face relationships for cards, rather than acquaintances.

On that note, some people mentioned they would be looking for cheaper alternatives to express their new year's greetings, such as electronic messages via LINE. Obviously this has benefits for the environment, too!

Have you sent out physical new year's cards this year? If so, have you reduced the number of them because of the ongoing cost of living increases?