Gabrielle Lowery
Staff Writer

Everyone wants to live life comfortably, and for Generation Z materialism seems of the utmost importance, right? Wrong. 

Yes, it’s true that America is seen as a materialistic society, and many have argued that generation Z has bad money habits, which can be detrimental for the future lifestyles they wish to live. The financial management of each generation has been monitored, documenting the dynamic evolution of lessons learned from generation to generation. 

Why has this issue been getting so much headway lately? With social security being a rising issue for America, it is vital that people start learning the ropes of financial security. 

According to The Motley Fool, social security benefits are depleting as the worker-to-retiree ratio becomes significantly different. They report that nearly 70 million baby-boomers are to retire between 2010 to 2030 and that there just aren’t enough workers to replace the boomers. 

Due to the insignificant or possibly non-existent funds that both millennials and generation Z may receive, it is without a doubt, important that they are able to manage and grow their finances to support themselves. 

And generation Z seems to be doing just that. They’ve been taking action that will help a lot in their futures. For example, according to the LendKey journal, “Gen Zers consider college a means to an end: the gateway to their future careers and a process that they must follow in order to meet future goals.”

Not only do they have an understanding and value for college, but they’ve also taken into consideration in-state and out-of-state tuition with most students wanting to stay in-state to avoid a substantial amount of debt from loans. 

The previous generation (Millennials) are believed to be the motivation of many Gen Z’s. Millennials are said to be ‘good’ at saving money, however, are still swimming in a pool of debt. Many have argued that this is due to the limited knowledge of personal finance and the lack of financial literacy in America. Where generation Z differs is that they are learning to educate themselves on finances, seeking knowledge about investing, retirement plans and building savings. 

So why do people think generation Z is terrible with money management? As stated before, today’s society is viewed as very materialistic often times influenced by celebrities and trends. Many generation Zers instead, use this as a way to promote themselves; gaining followers through shared interest and find ways to use social media as an investment to their future.

 Accordingly, America is experiencing flourishment in entrepreneurship. There is an increased amount of self-made businesses in the social realm including; bloggers, vloggers, musicians, artists and other prominent fields.

Times have changed and so has America’s knowledge of wealth and financial security. Thankfully each generation is able to learn lessons from its predecessors. It is the job for generation Z to go the extra mile to educate themselves on current issues to avoid future financial burdens, which they have been doing. The future is uncertain but action towards financial security is being taken by this generation. 

Categories: Features

Tags: Features, Financial Security, money, money-management