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Prize Money In Tennis: ATP, WTA & Challenger Insights 2023

So, you want to know about prize money in tennis? You are wondering how much elite players earn, and are curious about life as a professional. Is it a life of privilege for all, earning millions while playing the game we love? Well, wonder no more, the Bros have you covered with our detailed breakdown.

Our analysis will almost certainly make you envious, but it may surprise you for very different reasons too. Prize money in tennis varies wildly. From grand slam winning, multi-millionaires, to journeymen and fledgling pros, life on tour can mean very different things depending on your level.

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Tennis Prize Money at the Different Levels of the Game

The big names and the biggest stages on which they play are familiar to us all. And thanks to social media we have a window into their world beyond the court. Private jets, lucrative brand deals, and A-list friends are commonplace, but this is not real life for tennis players at every level. 

For the majority of players, life on tour is tough. Prize money seldom covers a player’s expenses and it may come as a surprise just how little some professionals earn. Here we explore each level of the professional game and assess what prize money is on offer.   

Prize Money on the ITF Tours 

Life in the paid ranks starts with the ITF Futures Tour for men and for female players, the ITF Women’s Tour. This level is the foundation from which many of today’s superstars have graduated.

It is home for many new professionals and elite juniors allowing them to earn official ranking ATP points as they begin their quest to join the higher echelons.

Prize money at this level is very modest with both men and ladies competing for tournament funds totaling between $15,000 and $25,000.

Winners take home anything between $2000 and $4000 while first-round losers earn a meager cheque relative to the expense associated with travel, accommodation, and all sundry costs. Expenses that can often include equipment with many players having no brand deals at this level. Consequently, early-round losses for ITF Futures players can often result in a net loss for that week.

And if you want a real-life example of how tough things are for players at this level, we dive into this – later in this article.

Prize Money on the Challenger Tours 

The next level for professional players is the ATP Challenger Tour and WTA Challenger Series for men and ladies respectively. Here the prize money increases significantly. But again, players are battling for prize pots that are a fraction of what is made available to the game’s elite. 

In 2021, ATP Challenger Tour players competed for prize money ranging from $36,680 to $156,240 per tournament, whereas their WTA counterparts contested similar purses. For tournament winners, on average, this equated to a payday of around $21,000 to go with the winner’s trophy.

Things will change dramatically in 2023 however. A huge cash injection being made by the ATP Tour is set to elevate prize money by 60% for Challenger Tour players. 

The ATP recently announced an increase in total prize money for the 2023 season which sees their total commitment reach $21.1m over 195 tournaments. Furthermore, they have simplified the tournament ranking system.

You may hear of tournaments being classified as ATP 125 or ATP 150 and have wondered if that has something to do with prize money. Well, it refers to ranking points. The winner of an ATP 125 event garners 125 ATP ranking points. Naturally, prize money tends to increase in correlation with the ranking points on offer. 

The availability of more ranking points attracts better players, better players mean bigger audiences. Therefore the caliber of sponsors improves and so the tournament coffers grow. Thus, we generally see a direct correlation between ranking points and the prize money on offer. 

And along with increasing prize money, the ATP Tour will also revamp its ranking point classifications for Challenger Tour level tennis. In 2023 players will compete in ATP 50, ATP 75, and ATP 100 tournaments with some of the more obscure classifications (ATP 90, ATP 110) now defunct.

Finally, 2023 also sees the introduction of three ‘premium’ ATP Challenger Tour events. Players will not only play for 175 ranking points but will also duel over a $220,000 prize fund per tournament – unprecedented at this level.

Clearly (and by their own admission), the ATP Tour comprehends the importance of tennis at this level and its responsibility to help incubate future superstars. With increased financial commitment the tour is attempting to attract burgeoning talent, making it a more desirable and watchable pursuit.

Prize Money on the Main Tours

As we have seen, tennis can be complicated when it comes to the many levels and associated prize money. And once we graduate to the main tours, the theme of tiers continues with tournaments ranging from ATP 250 to Grand Slam events.

In terms of how the various tournament levels translate into prize money, the below table gives a flavor of what players at most levels play for.

To illustrate the divide between levels, we can see that a winner of a Challenger 125 tournament roughly earns the same prize money as a first-round loser in an ATP 1000 tournament. Of course, you have to be pretty exceptional to be eligible for an ATP 1000 event, having ascended the ranks through ability, and in that respect, tennis can be considered a merit-based hierarchy.

Grand Slam Prize Money

The ultimate ambition for a tennis professional is to win one of the four Grand Slam tournaments. And while most players will say that tennis at this level is about history not prize money, the financial rewards are eye-watering as the below table shows.

Simply by reaching each of the four slams a player can earn over $250,000 and for many players that alone is a primary objective – to get through qualifying and potentially progress enough to help bankroll future months of travel, hotels, and coaching.

Sponsorship and more: Riches that transcend prize money

For those gifted enough to take home one of the most coveted trophies in tennis, the prize money is mere frosting on what is a very rich cake.

Emma Raducanu is the most recent example of how snagging a slam can transform a player’s profile and indeed bank balance. The young Brit pocketed a cool $2.5m for her 2021 US Open win, but that figure has been eclipsed many times thanks to a queue of blue-chip sponsors eager to capitalize on her success. A list that includes Tiffany, British Airways, Nike, Evian and Porsche. 

Additionally, Emma’s sponsors also include Wilson Tennis. She uses their Blade frame and if you are curious about her racket of choice we have a comprehensive resource dedicated to the Blade line.

Raducanu reportedly earns north of $9m each year from her portfolio of sponsors, a figure that dwarfs her 2022 on-court earnings of $697,000. A theme that is best illustrated if we study Roger Federer’s lifetime earnings.

During his career Roger Federer used his Wilson RF97 to earn over $130m earned from prize money alone. However, it is believed that Roger’s ‘total’ lifetime earnings comfortably surpasses $1bn, garnered from endorsement deals, lucrative appearance fees and merchandise sales. Proof indeed, that grand slam success is only the start – a gateway to a world that Futures players can only dream about.

And if this was not enough, the eight most successful players at the season-end (also the year’s highest earners) qualify for the season-ending ATP and WTA Finals tournaments. These limited field events see players from each respective tour battle for prize money totalling $14.7m for the men and $5m for the ladies.

If you still have an appetite for yet more wealth, there are always exhibition matches and bespoke tournaments such as the Laver Cup. It is not uncommon for elite players to command north of $500,000 for personal appearances and for those selected for the Laver Cup, they can pocket between $150,000 and $250,000 depending on the result.

For the majority of players, the struggle is real 

Media outlets tend to focus primarily on major tournaments, narrowing the public’s focus exclusively upon the higher echelons of tennis. The reality however, is stark and for every Emma or Roger, there are countless players who routinely lose money in their quest to play professional tennis.

Serving for the Wimbledon title is pressure but playing to merely pay this week’s bills and to travel next week is something else entirely. Expenses (per season) for a traveling professional can range from $40,000 for those on the strictest of budgets, to $200,000 for players electing to take their coach and/or physical trainer on tour. Figures that few lower-tier players can cover without winning consistently.

Recently, BBC Sport interviewed Algerian WTA player Ines Ibbou, who highlighted the struggle faced by players outside of the top 200. A world where prize money fails to cover all expenses and luxuries like free rackets and strings are non-existent. A sobering read that highlights the huge gulf between aspiring pros and the established elite.

Prize Money In Tennis and the Gender Debate 

No discussion of prize money in tennis would be complete without considering the topic of gender inequality in tennis – a perennial hot topic.

Both women and men enjoy the same pay scale when it comes to the Grand Slams, albeit that was a protracted process with Wimbledon becoming the last slam to invoke parity in 2007, decades after the US Open adopted this policy in 1973. But beyond the major tournaments, there still exists a significant disparity in prize money between both sexes.

Even though tennis has the lowest gender pay gap of all professional sports, men still earn 34% more prize money on average than their female counterparts. Of course, many argue WTA players consistently play less tennis (a maximum of 3-sets) compared to men who can play a maximum of 5-sets (in Grand Slams only), but nonetheless, it will remain a contentious issue until the gap narrows even further.

Prize money in tennis: The Big Questions 

Tennis is fundamentally a business competing for the interest of sports fans in general. Naturally, elite players who generate attention and attract the biggest audiences monopolize the prize money ranks. But nonetheless, it still feels as though the gulf between elite-level players and new professionals is disproportionate – notwithstanding the disparity in prize money between genders. 

It would be criminal for a player with genuine talent to leave tennis due to affordability issues, and this is not just the Bros opinion. 

Novak Djokovic and fellow pro, Vasek Pospisil, launched a players-only council in 2020 with the remit of giving a voice to and being supportive of, players at all levels. The premise was not a redistribution of wealth, more so the creation of a body that is more aware and supportive of lower-tier tennis – notably to help create sponsorship opportunities for more players. 

The Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) as it is called was not widely accepted, however. Considered by many to be a breakaway and divisive faction it has yet to receive widespread support, even though its intentions appear credible. 

And so the existing dynamic and the same questions remain about an imbalance in the sport and how best to address it. But one thing is true, the rewards for those who make it are life-changing and available to all, providing you have the required tools to reach the summit. 

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Challenge Tour unveils 2023 schedule with record-breaking prize fund and 29 events

11.26am 15th December 2022 - Sponsorship & Events

The European Challenge Tour has announced its schedule for 2023, with Europe’a second tier tour set to feature a record overall prize fund and a minimum of 29 tournaments staged across three continents in 18 different countries.

Players will compete for total prize money of €8.2m, which will begin with the Bain’s Whisky Cape Town Open in February, the first of four co-sanctioned events with the Sunshine Tour in South Africa.

India returns as a host country for the first time since 2013 with two events in March, the Duncan Taylor Black Bull Challenge followed by The Challenge presented by KGA.

The Challenge Tour also returns to the UAE in April for the first time since 2018 with back-to-back events, including the Abu Dhabi Challenge, as part of the European Tour group’s long-term partnership with the Emirates Golf Federation.

It will then head to Spain in May for the Challenge de España, which will kick-start a run of 20 tournaments in 22 weeks and see the Road to Mallorca travel through 15 countries in Europe, including Italy for the Italian Challenge at Golf Nazionale, the venue which will then host the first two days of the 2023 Junior Ryder Cup in September.

The 2023 season will conclude with the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final supported by The R&A, at Club de Golf Alcanada from November 2-5, as the top 45 players on the Rankings battle it out for one of the life changing 20 DP World Tour cards.

Those 20 players who benefit from this formal pathway to the DP World Tour will then be eligible for the DP World Tour’s Earnings Assurance Programme, guaranteeing them minimum earnings of $150,000 for the 2024 season if they play in 15 or more events. The top five graduates will also benefit from the John Jacobs Bursary, similarly designed to provide security and a strong platform for their first season on the European Tour group’s top tier.

T he full Challenge Tour schedule for 2023 can be viewed by clicking  here .

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Marco Penge completes Challenge Tour double to earn DP World Tour promotion

Marco penge claimed promotion to the dp world tour with by winning the challenge tour's grand final and the season-long points race..

Marco Penge rounded off a special week by becoming the second Englishman in as many years to win the Challenge Tour grand final and the season-long Road to Mallorca rankings double. The 25-year-old posted a closing three under par round of 69 to move to ten under par for the week and secure an emphatic six stroke victory over Frenchman Tom Vaillant.

Vaillant finished in solo second at Club de Golf Alcanada to also break into the Road to Mallorca top 21 and clinch promotion to the DP World Tour . Penge follows in the footsteps of countryman Nathan Kimsey who triumphed at the season finale 12 months ago to win the rankings, and he becomes the 13th Challenge Tour Number One to hail from England. Penge started the day one-shot ahead of Vaillant but a bogey at the par five first hole saw his lead disappear, however he would bounce back brilliantly.

Four birdies in seven holes around the turn and another at the par four 15th saw him move clear at the top of the leaderboard and secure promotion to the DP World Tour. "To be standing here and saying I've won twice on the Challenge Tour and also winning the rankings is hard to imagine," he said.

"But, after three holes, I said to my caddie 'I feel normal now, so let's try and get our foot down and move as far forward as we can' and obviously I did that. "I think birdieing hole seven kind of settled everything really and, once I got through eight, I knew I would be okay. once I got through eight holes and hadn’t made a big number, I felt I was going to be fine. "My coach, Gary King, has been here all week and he’s been saying to me that I was hitting it great, even though I didn't feel I was swinging it great but he said I was."

Penge, who was in 60th place in the rankings before his maiden win at the Open de Portugal at Royal Óbidos six weeks ago, finished just seven points ahead of South African Casey Jarvis, who came second on the Rankings, with Spaniard Manuel Elvira finishing third. Frenchman Ugo Coussaud graduated in fourth place with Swedish duo Jesper Svensson and Adam Blommé finishing fifth and sixth respectively. Italian Lorenzo Scalise earns promotion in seventh place, with fellow countrymen Andrea Pavan – a two-time DP World Tour winner – and Matteo Manassero – a four-time DP World Tour winner and the youngest in DP World Tour history – returning to Europe’s top tier in eighth and ninth.

What it means to secure your @DPWorldTour card #RolexGrandFinal pic.twitter.com/9hn5kJ5mY6 — Challenge Tour (@Challenge_Tour) November 5, 2023

Portuguese Ricardo Gouveia finished tenth on the Road to Mallorca Rankings and England's  Alex Fitzpatrick 11th. Vaillant climbed 21 places to 12th following his second place finish in Mallorca, with fellow Frenchman Frederic Lacroix finishing third this week to move up to 13th. Italian Francesco Laporta returns to the DP World Tour in 14th, Englishman Will Enefer earns his first promotion in 15th and Spaniard Ivan Cantero goes up in 16th. Englishman Sam Bairstow made a final day move, up five places to 18th with a fourth place finish.

Two-time DP World Tour winner Brandon Stone finished 19th on the rankings, while German Maximilian Rottluff who has won twice on the Challenge Tour this season finished 20th. Welshman Stuart Manley secured the final DP World Tour card on offer.

2023 DP World Tour Money List

Leading money winners on DP World Tour for 2023 season. List of tournament results and prize money won for each player from 2023 tournaments.

How much money each PGA Tour player earned at the 2023 Hero World Challenge

I t pays to play well in limited-field, unofficial events, especially ones hosted by 15-time major champion Tiger Woods. Just ask this week’s winner, Scottie Scheffler .

After coming up short to Viktor Hovland in each of the last two years, the 27-year-old claimed the 2023 Hero World Challenge at Albany Golf Club in the Bahamas by three shots over Sepp Straka. For his efforts, Scheffler took home the top prize of $1 million in the $4.5 million event. Straka earned $450,000 as a consolation prize.

Check out how much money each PGA Tour player earned this week at the 2023 Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.

Prize money payouts

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Challenge Tour announces 2023 global schedule

12/14/2022 by Elena Reiter

The Challenge Tour announces its tournament schedule for the coming year. Even more tournaments and a record prize money are waiting for the players.

Challenge Tour schedule 2023. (Photo: Getty)

The European Challenge Tour today announced its global 2023 Road to Mallorca schedule, featuring a record overall prize fund and a minimum of 29 tournaments, staged across three continents in 18 different countries.

Players will compete for total prize money of €8,200,000 on the 2023 Road to Mallorca, which will begin with the Bain’s Whisky Cape Town Open in February, the first of four co-sanctioned events with the Sunshine Tour in South Africa.

India returns as a host country for the first time since 2013 with two events in March, the Duncan Taylor Black Bull Challenge followed by The Challenge presented by KGA.

The Challenge Tour also returns to the United Arab Emirates in April for the first time since 2018 with back-to-back events, including the Abu Dhabi Challenge, as part of the European Tour group’s long-term partnership with the Emirates Golf Federation.

The Challenge Tour will head to Spain in May for the Challenge de España, which will kick-start a run of 20 tournaments in 22 weeks and see the Road to Mallorca travel through 15 countries in Europe, including Italy for the Italian Challenge at Golf Nazionale, the venue which will then host the first two days of the 2023 Junior Ryder Cup in September.

The 2023 season will conclude with the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final supported by The R&A, at Club de Golf Alcanada from November 2-5, as the top 45 players on the Rankings battle it out for one of the life changing 20 DP World Tour cards.

Those 20 players who benefit from this formal pathway to the DP World Tour will then be eligible for the DP World Tour’s Earnings Assurance Programme, guaranteeing them minimum earnings of $150,000 for the 2024 season if they play in 15 or more events.

The top five graduates will also benefit from the John Jacobs Bursary, similarly designed to provide security and a strong platform for their first season on the European Tour group’s top tier.

Jamie Hodges, Head of Challenge Tour, said: “Our expansive global schedule gives our members the opportunity to play for a record total prize fund and benefit from our formal pathway to the DP World Tour, as we continue to provide an incredible platform for the next generation of golf’s superstars.

“I would like to thank the integral support of our promoters, national federations, and tournament sponsors, who have helped make this possible. The fact that 20 of our current national federations and promoters have extended their support through to next year is testament to their commitment and the strength of our Tour heading into 2023.

“We are also very grateful for the commitment of Rolex, The R&A, and DP World through their title partnership of the DP World Tour, all of whom have helped us to provide this comprehensive global schedule for some of the brightest talents in world golf.”

In 2022, 25 former Challenge Tour players won on the DP World Tour – including 2021 graduates Ewen Ferguson and Yannik Paul, while five finished inside the top ten on the DP World Tour Rankings in Partnership with Rolex. Sean Crocker became the 200th former Challenge Tour player to win on the DP World Tour when he secured a wire-to-wire victory at the Hero Open, while the total number of wins by Challenge Tour alumni is now 544.

The full 2023 Road to Mallorca International Schedule can be viewed below or by clicking  here .

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Hero World Challenge payouts and points: Scottie Scheffler earns $1M

Golfbet News

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Altogether now … the third time’s the charm!

After consecutive runner-up finishes to open his career at the Hero World Challenge, Scottie Scheffler climbed to the top of the podium to record a three-stroke victory on Sunday. He led by three entering the finale among the 20 in the field and posted 20-under 268 for the $1 million payday.

It’s not a holiday classic but we’ve seen this show many times before.

In 2022 at the Masters and earlier this year at the WM Phoenix Open and THE PLAYERS Championship, Scheffler staked respective leads of three, two and two strokes after his third round, and then went on to win by three, two and five shots.

Just like last year when Viktor Hovland successfully defended his title at Albany in The Bahamas, Scheffler was second-shortest at BetMGM to win this week. However, unlike his more generous odds of +750 in 2022, he was a mere +450 pre-tournament this year.

Rightfully so as the two-time defending champ and most recent winner of the FedExCup, Hovland was the favorite at +400. Alas, he finished 10th and 11 strokes back despite a field-low 63 in the final round.

Sepp Straka closed with a bogey-free 8-under 64 to snare runner-up honors. He was +3300 to win. Resurgent Justin Thomas (+1400) settled at third, another swing back.

After almost eight months off, tournament host Tiger Woods (+6600) scored even par over 72 holes to finish alone in 18th place. Will Zalatoris (+3300) also was returning from seven months away after having a microdiscectomy. He finished last and nine strokes higher than Wyndham Clark (+2000) in 19th. Scroll below for payouts from every player in the field.

The PGA TOUR is committed to protecting our fans. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, the National Council on Problem Gambling operates a confidential toll-free hotline that you can reach by phone or text at 1-800-522-4700.

Rob Bolton is a Golfbet columnist for the PGA TOUR. The Chicagoland native has been playing fantasy golf since 1994, so he was just waiting for the Internet to catch up with him. Follow Rob Bolton on Twitter .

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European Tour - Career Money List

List of players who are, or have at any time in their careers been, members of the European Tour, compiled during each Official Season . Total prize money earned in a member's career from 31st December 1984 to the present day DP World Tour .

From the start of the 2005 Official Season a player must be in Membership and feature in the final DP World Tour Rankings for earnings to be credited to him.

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Covid changed how we spend: More YOLO splurging but less saving

Doom spending. soft saving. yoloing. whatever you call it, it’s clear covid has changed the way americans think about spending..

Arriel Vinson hadn’t traveled much before the pandemic. Now she can’t stop.

The 28-year-old writer leaves her Dallas apartment every chance she gets: To see Beyoncé in Atlanta, Usher in Chicago and for girls’ trips in Jamaica and Mexico. When a favorite artist announces new tour dates, Vinson starts rallying friends and snapping up tickets, flights and hotel rooms for their next hurrah.

“My mind-set has completely changed after covid: When I see something I want to do, I make it happen,” she said, adding that her new priorities have required some financial rejigging. “For a while I was going to dinner all the time. I was getting things delivered, but now I’m like, ‘I don’t want to waste money on that.’ I want to travel and go to shows.”

Whatever you call it — doom spending, soft saving, YOLOing, “you only live once”— the coronavirus pandemic has changed the way Americans spend money. They are saving less but vacationing more , splurging on concerts and sporting events, and booking lavish trips years in advance. Spending on international travel and live entertainment surged roughly 30 percent last year, five times the rate of overall spending growth. Meanwhile, the personal savings rate is at lows not seen since the Great Recession.

On Thursday, economists learned that consumer spending also helped push economic growth even higher in late 2023, up to a strong 3.4 percent — making the latter half of 2023 the strongest since 2014, outside of the pandemic years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Just like the Great Depression ushered in decades of frugality and austerity — with an entire generation reusing plastic bags, jam jars and aluminum foil — there are signs the coronavirus crisis has had the opposite effect: nudging Americans toward spending more, especially on experiences.

“When you live through a crisis, it gets ingrained in your brain,” said Ulrike Malmendier, a professor of behavioral finance at the University of California at Berkeley. “The official economic reports might say everything is coming back to normal, but we are different people than we were before the pandemic.”

Financial shocks have repeatedly reshaped the way people think about money, Malmendier said. “Depression babies,” those who came of age after the stock market crash of 1929, were notoriously mistrustful of banks and financial markets. People who have been unemployed are often cautious about spending long after they have found another job. And after the 2008 financial crisis, Americans began saving more of their paychecks, to guard against another massive downturn.

But unlike those financial crises, which led people to pull back, the coronavirus pandemic has left a decidedly different legacy.

“The adverse effects of covid weren’t necessarily financial; people got jobs quickly and the government stepped in with support,” Malmendier said. “Instead, it’s about all of the things we were starved for: human interaction, socializing, travel. People are spending money on the things they missed most.”

Carolyn McClanahan, a financial adviser in Jacksonville, Fla., is seeing this firsthand. Her clients are generally saving less than they were before the pandemic, she said. Instead of solely planning for retirement, they’re focused on “maximizing life now” to make room for more travel, concerts and fun.

“People already had this attitude that you only live once — and that’s been put on steroids,” she said. “Covid was a big wake-up call that life is precious, so you’ve got to enjoy it now.”

It helps that many Americans still have more money in the bank than they did before the pandemic. They have gotten substantial raises or higher-paying jobs that have made it possible to keep spending, despite inflation. Stock portfolios and home prices have soared, giving middle- and upper-class households an extra boost. As of last fall, Americans were still sitting on an extra $430 billion in pandemic savings, according to estimates from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Yet consumers have been saving consistently less since the pandemic, with a particular drop-off last summer, coinciding with a strong spending boom .

Still, in a worrisome twist, families have been spending even if they don’t have the money. Credit card debt has risen 22 percent since the pandemic, and more shoppers are turning to ‘buy now, pay later’ installment plans for routine purchases. Bank 0f America cardholders, for example, spent 7 percent more on travel and entertainment last year than they did in 2022. European summer vacations were particularly popular, with a 26 percent increase from the previous year.

That momentum has continued into the new year. More Americans are traveling than they were a year ago, Transportation Security Administration passenger data shows. And a near-record 22 percent of Americans say they are planning to vacation in a foreign country in the next six months, roughly double pre-pandemic levels, according to Conference Board survey data released this week.

Meanwhile, Live Nation — the parent company of Ticketmaster and the world’s largest entertainment company — posted a record $23 billion in sales last year and expects this year to be even bigger.

“Shows are flying out the door from top to bottom,” chief executive Michael Rapino said in a February earnings call. “We’re seeing no slowdown on the consumer.”

In interviews with more than a dozen Americans, many acknowledged that they are financially better off than they were a few years ago. But just as importantly, they said, they were spending differently — cutting back on midweek restaurant visits, for example, or buying fewer clothes, in favor of big-ticket items and memorable experiences.

In Seattle, Mike Lee’s free time has become a whirlwind of comedy shows, concerts, hockey games and weekend trips. The software developer, who got divorced early in the pandemic, has been lining up experiences far in advance: Hawaii in April, a Foo Fighters show in August.

“It’s changed the way I move through life,” the 40-year-old said. “I used to save obsessively, almost to a fault, but I’m learning to go out and enjoy life a little bit more.”

But he isn’t splurging across the board. Lee still drives a 20-year-old Toyota Corolla and has cut his restaurant spending by half. Instead, he has stocked his freezer with soup dumplings, chicken wings and other prepared foods to hold him over on evenings when he doesn’t feel like cooking.

Those types of trade-offs, economists say, are likely to continue as households settle into new habits. Families are canceling HBO Max and Disney Plus subscriptions, for example, or ditching grocery delivery and getting rid of Pelotons they hoarded back in 2020.

“People are trying to find the right balance between how they lived during the pandemic and how they want to live now,” said Nadia Vanderhall, a financial planner in Charlotte “They’re spending more on experiencing life, but they’re also trying to figure out what it means for their finances.”

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Although economists expect a drop-off in spending this year, some are revising their forecasts: Fitch Ratings, for example, now expects consumer spending to grow by 1.3 percent in 2o24, even after inflation, more than double what it had initially predicted. Consumers are poised to keep tapping into savings, the firm said, which is expected to “support spending well into 2024.”

Susan Blume, a travel agent in Garden City, N.Y., is already booking river cruises along the Danube for 2026. International travel has exploded in the past few years, she said, and this year is on track to top them all.

“Everybody was just so confined during the pandemic that they never want to have that experience again,” she said.

But the biggest surprise: the rush of travelers in their mid-20s, far younger than Blume’s usual clientele.

“Gen Z has a very different attitude — they’re not going broke on Gucci or takeout,” she said. “Instead they’re squirreling away for travel. And they’re already planning next year’s big trip: all of Italy or island-hopping in Greece, or four stops in France.”

It’s unclear exactly how long this era of experiential living will last, though economists say it’s likely to take a major shock, such as widespread job losses or a recession, to get Americans to rethink their spending.

“You have to really have a crash in employment to derail this consumer,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG. “This spending isn’t just a mirage, it’s a fundamental change.”

That relentless consumption has invigorated the post-pandemic economy and propped up millions of service-sector jobs. But it has also contributed to a run-up in prices: Inflation for services is at about 4 percent, compared with a 0.5 percent decline for goods in the past year. That’s creating an ongoing challenge for the Federal Reserve, which has specifically flagged the need to see services inflation cool.

“There is certainly a big question mark there: Can the Fed get hotel inflation, airline inflation, concert inflation down without slowing demand for those things?” said Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management. “But so far people are still spending.”

Michael Sheridan, who lives in Clearwater, Fla., has been on 13 cruises in 17 months. The latest, which he booked on a Friday afternoon, left for the Bahamas the next morning.

The 58-year-old, who once owned a couple of Outback Steakhouses, is on a fixed income. He receives $2,400 a month in Social Security Disability Insurance payments because of a rare genetic disorder that forced him to stop working a decade ago. Sheridan relies on a wheelchair to get around, but he says he has been financially fortunate: His mother, who died in 2020, left him enough cash to buy a $109,000 condo outright.

Now his monthly checks go toward homeowners association fees ($350), phone bills ($40), groceries ($250) — and travel. He’s in Japan now and headed to Seattle in April, the Caribbean in June and Switzerland in July.

“The pandemic absolutely fed this travel addiction,” he said, adding that he was quick to take advantage of cheap airfares and hotel rates during early lockdowns. “I just realized, if all of a sudden something goes south, I’m going to regret not having traveled while I could.”

DP World Tour Statistics

Career money list.

Shall mean a list of players who are, or who have at any time in their careers been Members, which is computed during each Official Season and lists the total prize money earned in a Member's career up to and including 31st December 1984 in DP World Tour Approved Tournaments and thereafter the total Official Money he earned in Race to Dubai Ranking Tournaments. NB. Effective from the start of the 2005 Official Season a Player must be in Membership and feature in the final Race to Dubai Rankings of that Official Season for Official Money earned during that Official Season to be credited to him within this list. When determining the DP World Tour Exemption Categories that are defined from this list, (Categories 5 and 11), the cut off will be below the 40th Player in the list. NOTE: There are two separate cut offs for these categories; 1. After the tournament in each season where the top 110 from the Race to Dubai Rankings is confirmed. 2. After the final tournament of each season”. Not all players in the top 40 will be eligible for these Categories as they are for a limited number of seasons only.

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