{"id":43236,"date":"2025-06-08T03:12:05","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T08:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=43236"},"modified":"2025-06-08T03:12:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T08:12:08","slug":"when-it-comes-to-saving-gen-z-asks-whats-the-point-thats-dangerous-expert-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=43236","title":{"rendered":"When it comes to saving, Gen Z asks: ‘What’s the point?’ That’s dangerous, expert says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gen Z<\/a> seems to have a case of economic malaise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly half (49%) of its adult members \u2014 the oldest of whom are in their late 20s \u2014 say planning<\/a> for the future feels \u201cpointless,\u201d according to a recent Credit Karma poll<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A freewheeling attitude toward summer spending has taken root among young adults who feel financial \u201cdespair\u201d and \u201chopelessness,\u201d said Courtney Alev, a consumer financial advocate at Credit Karma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They think, \u201cWhat\u2019s the point when it comes to saving for the future?\u201d Alev said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That \u201cYOLO mindset\u201d among Generation Z \u2014 the cohort born<\/a> from roughly 1997 through 2012 \u2014 can be dangerous: If unchecked, it might lead young adults to rack up high-interest debt they can\u2019t easily repay, perhaps leading to delayed milestones like moving out of their parents\u2019 home or saving for retirement, Alev said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But your late teens and early 20s is arguably the best time for young people to develop healthy financial habits: Starting to invest now, even a little bit, will yield ample benefits via decades of compound interest, experts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are a lot of financial implications in the long term if these young people aren\u2019t planning for their financial future and [are] spending willy-nilly however they want,\u201d Alev said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, that many feel disillusioned is understandable in the current environment, experts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The labor market has been tough<\/a> lately for new entrants and those looking to switch jobs, experts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. unemployment rate<\/a> is relatively low, at 4.2%. However, it\u2019s much higher<\/a> for Americans 22 to 27 years old: 5.8% for recent college grads and 6.9% for those without a bachelor\u2019s degree, according to Federal Reserve Bank of New York data as of March 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Young adults are also saddled with debt concerns, experts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey feel they don\u2019t have any money and many of them are in debt,\u201d said Winnie Sun, co-founder and managing director of Sun Group Wealth Partners, based in Irvine, California. \u201cAnd they\u2019re wondering if the degree they have (or are working toward) will be of value if A.I. takes all their jobs anyway. So is it just pointless?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 50% of bachelor\u2019s degree recipients in the 2022-23 class graduated with student debt, with an average debt of $29,300, according<\/a> to College Board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The federal government restarted collections on student debt in default<\/a> in May, after a five-year pause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Biden administration\u2019s efforts to forgive large swaths of student debt, including plans to help reduce monthly payments for struggling borrowers, were\u00a0largely stymied in court<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome hoped some or more of it would be forgiven, and that didn\u2019t turn out to be the case,\u201d said Sun, a member of CNBC\u2019s Financial Advisor Council<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, in a 2024 report<\/a>, the New York Fed found credit card delinquency rates were rising faster for Gen Z than for other generations. About 15% had maxed out their cards, more than other cohorts, it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also \u201cnever been easier to buy things,\u201d with the rise of buy now, pay later lending, for example, Alev said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BNPL has pushed the majority of Gen Z users \u2014 77% \u2014 to say the service has encouraged them to spend more than they can afford, according to the Credit Karma survey. The firm polled 1,015 adults ages 18 and older, 182 of whom are from Gen Z.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These financial challenges compound an environment of general political and financial uncertainty, amid on-again-off-again tariff policy and its potential impact on inflation and the U.S. economy, for example, experts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou start stacking all these things on top of each other and it can create a lack of optimism for young people looking to get started in their financial lives,\u201d Alev said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Young adults should try to rewire their financial mindset, experts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost importantly, you don\u2019t want to bet against yourself,\u201d Sun said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSee it as an opportunity,\u201d she added. \u201cIf you\u2019re young and your expenses are low, this is the time to invest as much as you can right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time is working in their favor, due to the ability to compound investment growth over multiple decades, Alev said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While investing might \u201cfeel impossible,\u201d every little bit helps, even if it\u2019s just investing $10 a month right now into a tax-advantaged retirement account like a Roth IRA<\/a> or 401(k).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latter is among the easiest ways to start, due to automatic payroll deduction and the possibility of earning a \u201cmatch\u201d from your employer, which is \u201cprobably the closest thing to free money any of us will get in our lifetime,\u201d Alev said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gen Z seems to have a case of economic malaise. Nearly half (49%) of its adult members \u2014 the oldest of whom are in their late 20s \u2014 say planning for the future feels \u201cpointless,\u201d according to a recent Credit Karma poll. A freewheeling attitude toward summer spending has taken root among young adults who feel financial \u201cdespair\u201d and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":43237,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[7915,22492,1614],"class_list":["post-43236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-comes","tag-gen","tag-when"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43238,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43236\/revisions\/43238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}