3 Gen Z personal financial habits we can all learn from

• Generation Z gets the most financial literacy information on social media.
• They research the advice they find online for hours before making a decision.
• Unlike the older generations, Generation Z will only hire a financial professional as a last resort.

When it comes to money, Generation Z makes its own rules.

According to an Insider survey of 104 people born in 1997 or later, most Gen Zers got their first phone before their twelfth birthday. For this reason, people 25 or younger are more likely to find financial literacy tools online.

Having witnessed the Black Lives Matter uprising, Generation Z is also more likely to spend money in line with the views of social activists, and 54% of Gen Zers are also saving more due to the pandemic, according to a State of Gen Z report.

Insider spoke to financial literacy influencer and investment expert with TurboTax Humphrey Yang, who has 3.3 million followers on TikTok. Yang warns his mostly Generation Z audience, “I think there’s a bit of a risk in trusting anyone on the internet because you can get a million followers on TikTok promoting the wrong things.”

Even with that caveat, Yang says Generation Z approaches personal finance differently from older generations in three different ways.

1. They learn about money on social media

Older generations may think scrolling on social media is a waste of time when they can go straight to an expert. Yang says, “My parents’ generation really seemed to go along with the book. They go by what the financial advisors would say.”

In contrast, Generation Z is more creative in finding solutions. Yang says, “The younger you are, the more they look forward to online resources. So YouTube, TikTok, Instagram Reels and talk to other people in chat rooms like

discord

. ”

2. Generation Z does hours of research to see if the information is validating or not

Even though Gen Z found their financial literacy content online, they still did the legal work of making sure the information they found came true.

Yang says, “They might see advice from TikTok, maybe from me, maybe someone else, and then go and look for it themselves and try to make a decision.”

3. They wait longer to hire a professional

Yang says Generation Z will do as much research as possible on personal finance tips they find online before finally hiring a professional.

One of the contributing factors to this is that people under the age of 25 may not have the same amount of money to play with as someone who is 35 and earns higher.

“The younger generation is more self-reliant,” Yang says. “They Google a lot. They read a lot online. And Then They go and ask those old authorities in finance.”