My son loves learning – both inside his elementary school classroom and wherever his curiosity takes him. These days he’s been learning all he can about money and investing. I don’t know exactly what prompted this interest in personal finance. But he’s learning everything from what a dollar bill is made of to how the stock market works.
It’s thrilling to watch him learn and grow – and to learn and grow through his interests, too.
In fact, I’m learning how to handle questions from him like, “How much money do you and Dad make?” Here’s some more on that and about what else I’ve learned during this chapter of my son’s life.
There are a lot of great books about money matters for kids and adults.
My son enjoyed reading Investing for Kids: How to Save, Invest and Grow Money. It’s a kid-friendly take on topics like why saving money is important and what portfolio diversification is and why it matters. (It would make an excellent holiday gift, by the way.) Thanks to this book, my son can tell you what a certificate of deposit is and about the history of the stock market. When he read about the United States Mint, I told him about how Charlotte, North Carolina, where we live, was home to the first U.S. branch mint, which specialized in gold coins, some of which you can see on display at what is now the Mint Museum.
The book’s author dives into three other factors, besides showering them with gifts, toys and fancy clothes, involved in spoiling a child:
A lack of responsibilities (like chores).
A lack of rules and parameters (like having unlimited access to electronics).
And undivided attention from parents all the time (like being able to interrupt Mom on the phone over something that can wait).
Even though I think I do a pretty good job in these areas, it was a refreshing reminder that there are multiple ways to spoil a child — and how not to do that.
Also, during this month of gratitude, it occurs to me that instilling an attitude for gratitude is also a way to combat overindulging ourselves or our children. Here’s an idea: Why wait for Thanksgiving to go around the table and have everyone say what they are thankful for? Why not do it all month – or all year – long?
Spending and saving are important, but so is debt.
When I was growing up, my parents did an excellent job extolling the virtues of saving money. But they didn’t talk about how to use debt or the difference between good debt (a mortgage) and bad debt (credit card balances). I figured it out on my own, but I could have figured it out earlier with some coaching.
I want to be an active participant in my children’s education, including when it comes to learning about personal finance. My son’s and my extracurricular reading reminded me that I need to teach my children about debt so that when they are young adults with credit cards and sights on buying homes, they have a solid understanding of debt and solid credit histories to back them up.
Policies on allowance vary from family to family, and that’s OK.
Having a policy on an allowance – whether to give it at all or tying it to chores or not – is important. After all, in parenting consistency is key. And if you are trying to teach your kids how to manage money, they must know consistently what they are – or are not – working with.
The Opposite of Spoiled author doesn’t mandate that allowance be tied to chores. He advises to instead give kids a small amount each week to teach the value of wise saving and spending, and to then increase that amount as children get older.
I disagree. I think payments should be linked to services or extra contributions beyond being a participating member of the household. I take this approach from one of my kids’ preschool teachers (shout out to Ms. Sarah!) who always said, “No one pays me to unload my dishwasher.” Likewise, I don’t get paid to make my bed, clean my room, or take my plate to the sink, and neither do my children. I will gladly pay for leaf blowing, grass mowing, getting trash out of cars, and doing any extra dirty job (that I don’t want to do myself!).
Kids need financial training wheels.
Your kid probably learned to ride a bike with training wheels. Why should learning how to manage money be any different? Fortunately, I learned there are debit cards made especially for children. For example, Greenlight® debit cards allow children to set financial goals – maybe they want a new bike or skateboard – and work toward them. They can see the benefit of saving their allowance and birthday money or setting aside earnings from babysitting or extra chores. And if they blow it all on something dumb, they get to experience their buyer’s remorse as they work to ratchet up their savings again.
Meanwhile, parents have flexible control – that’s the training wheels – and are alerted when their child makes a purchase. This could be a great solution for parents who always feel they are hit up for small amounts of money – for Starbucks, concessions at the pool, movie tickets and more, because all that stuff adds up. And all those small moments can be big teaching moments.
This makes me recall my adolescence. I don’t remember all the dumb stuff I wasted money on, but I do remember at age 15 saving up for something I wanted very much: a pair of Birkenstocks. Those shoes held up, and I wore them for years. They were worth every penny.
There’s always a kid-friendly, age-appropriate answer to tough money questions.
Many parents dread questions like, “How much money do you make?” Or, “Why does so-and-so live in a bigger (or smaller) house?”
In practicing family law, I have learned that what kids need most growing up is security and consistency. This does not mean that plans, living arrangements, schedules and financial arrangements cannot and should not change. It means children need to know that life does change, but there will be constants like family, friends and after-school activities.
Kids really don’t care if you make $60,000 or $600,000. What they care about is knowing when they get to see you … or their friends. They want to know that they are safe and cared for and loved. They want to know that you want them to do well in school and pursue their dreams. So, the next time you feel yourself squirming as your child asks you an uncomfortable money question, respond with a question back: “Why do you ask?” This gets to the real root of their thoughts and usually will allow you to not disclose your entire compensation package when they didn’t care anyway.
Going with your kid to open a bank account is fun.
All this reading up on money led my son and me to the bank, where we set up his first bank accounts. It was a thrill. He pointed out the bank vault(!) with excitement. Then we discussed a strategy for him to regularly add earned money to his account so he would not incur any monthly bank fees.
I love watching how he dives into learning. I love watching him become a young man – a curious, thoughtful, skillful, interesting young man. I wonder what we’ll learn together next.
This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.
Founder, GraserSmith, PLLC
Tonya Graser Smith is a Board Certified Specialist in Family Law, licensed North Carolina attorney and founder of GraserSmith, PLLC, in Charlotte, N.C. She focuses her practice on divorce, child custody, child support, alimony, equitable distribution, prenuptial agreements and other family law matters.
The sky is brilliant blue, the streaks of white clouds betraying no trace of the thunderstorms from the night before, when a tornado touched down near Chicago.
A group of teens huddles around a plot at Alice’s Garden in Milwaukee filled with tidy rows of onions, hot peppers and herbs. A tray of colorful petunias and marigolds sits off to the side.
“Why do we need bees?” asks Shane Woodruff, one of the group’s adult leaders that day.
Woodruff plucks bits of the herbs, rubs them between his fingers and passes them around the group, asking the teens to smell the aroma and guess what each is. After identifying thyme, rosemary and dill, the group gets to work.
Takiyah Dates, 15, and Emahriyah Jackson, 13, gently loosen purple and pink petunias from their containers and nestle them into the turned-up soil. Later this week, they’ll get their first paycheck.
“Don’t try to spend a lot at once,” Takiyah says of her approach to money. “You buy what you need before you buy what you want.”
Emahriyah Jackson, 13, plants flowers in Alice’s Garden as part of her summer job with Running Rebels Community Organization. Ashley Luthern / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The teens are part of an expanded summer jobs program from Running Rebels Community Organization. For many, it’s their first time earning a paycheck, and their mentors want to make sure they learn how to manage money, too.
“If at the end of this, all you got is some new clothes, then we didn’t do our job,” Victor Barnett, the Rebels’ founder and co-executive director, told the group at the start of the summer.
The Rebels’ jobs program joins a growing movement in Milwaukee to boost financial education for kids and teens. Earlier this year, Milwaukee Public Schools added a personal finance course as a graduation requirement, putting it among only a handful of large urban districts in the country to do so.
Daeshawn Matthews, 15, asks Phil Krull, his team leader, if he can purchase $5 worth of bottled water for his coworkers from a friend who is selling them on the corner of West Fond Du Lac Avenue at Johnson Park in Milwaukee. Krull allows it and retrieves the waters for the boys. Ebony Cox / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Twenty-one states require high school students to complete a personal finance class to graduate, according to the most recent report from the Council for Economic Education.
Wisconsin is not one of them.
In 2017, state lawmakers did require school districts to adopt financial literacy academic standards. It’s up to each district to decide how to implement them, leading to a wide variation across the state.
In some districts, a teacher trained in personal finance teaches a stand-alone course. In others, the material is sprinkled in economics, business and technology, or family and consumer science classes.
It’s essential that young people get this education, said David Mancl, director of the state’s Office of Financial Literacy within the Department of Financial Institutions.
“People are going to be dealing with money sooner or later in their lives and what they don’t know about money can hurt them,” he said.
Young people can ruin their credit rating before they even know what it is. They might rely on payday lenders or take out high-interest loans without realizing the consequences. They can go online and day trade stocks in minutes, only to lose their money just as fast.
Before they know it, they can find themselves deep in debt and struggling to pay for school, buy the car they need to get to work or qualify for a mortgage.
“The stakes are really high,” Mancl said.
Young people want to learn about money.
Yet nearly one in five 15-year-olds in the U.S. struggles with basic financial concepts, such as simple budgeting and comparison shopping, according to an international financial literacy assessment released last year.
Financial and investment firms regularly release surveys showing most parents feel uncomfortable talking about money.
“Much of that is because they themselves don’t necessarily feel like they are experts in money management,” said Melody Harvey, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies how public policies affect financial capability.
“I imagine that most parents wouldn’t want to intentionally mislead their children or give wrong information,” she said.
The result is that most of the financial education kids get comes in school, whether as part of economics or math courses, or in the form of programming from nonprofit groups that offer investment clubs, financial mentoring for students or in-class workshops.
Carly Urban, an associate professor at Montana State University, studies financial education mandates, identifying states that require students to have some personal finance content before graduation.
“There’s definitely momentum around it,” Urban said of the requirements. “Ten years ago when I started, not many states had policies or were thinking about it. As we’ve developed the research, almost every state has tried to pass something at some point.”
Research suggests those policies make a difference.
One study from economist Daniel Mangrum found that among first-generation or low-income students who had taken such a course, loan repayment was higher, which suggests those students were more likely to have finished college and found a higher-paying job.
Another study found after personal finance education is required, credit scores go up and delinquency rates go down.
A decade ago, Urban and J. Michael Collins, a professor and financial security researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, were part of the team that examined outcomes in Texas and Georgia after those states implemented a financial education requirement.
J. Michael Collins, a professor and financial security researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison University of Wisconsin-Madison
They looked at students’ credit reports through age 22 and found students were less likely to have a negative item on their credit report. They also borrowed more — showing they could better fill out applications for things like credit cards or a car loan — and had a lower delinquency rate on those loans than their peers in states without the graduation requirement.
“We saw that those kids who had the financial education had basically fewer mistakes in their early 20s,” Collins said.
States have differing financial education mandates and various levels of support for them, which can affect outcomes, he said.
Wisconsin’s 2017 requirement did not provide widespread funding. Instead, as a way to avoid giving an unfunded educational mandate, the measure gave districts flexibility to incorporate the material based on their finances and staffing. In early 2020, the state offered $150,000 in competitive grants with a maximum $10,000 per school to encourage more personal finance education.
“I would say both Georgia and Texas had some more teeth,” Collins said. “They were much more standardized and they invested millions.”
It’s game day at Running Rebels.
But the competition isn’t in basketball or Ping-Pong. Instead, it’s financial literacy trivia.
About 30 of the youth workers, including Daeshawn, Takiyah and 15-year-old Arrion Carter, are participating. Earlier in the afternoon, they filled out a budgeting worksheet and reviewed key concepts, such as the steps of comparison shopping to find a good deal.
Britney Morgan, the Rebels’ mentor leading the sessions, calls up three boys and three girls for the first round.
“Remember your training!” she says before launching into the first questions.
What is a budget? A budget is something to tell you where you should spend your money. What are taxes? The money that you have to give to the government.
Britney Morgan, a Running Rebels mentor, who led youth financial literacy lessons
It takes 10 full business days to get a check, it takes two minutes to spend it all.
Morgan pauses, calling it a “good teachable moment.” She explains how those who worked their full 20 hours will see $400 listed on their biweekly paycheck, their gross earnings, and their check will be for a smaller amount, perhaps around $350, which is their net earnings.
“Get in the habit of really reading your check stubs and holding onto them,” she says. “You see how your money is flowing.”
Next question: What is a checking account?
Silence fills the room. Morgan calls on Arrion.
“You have a bank account. Sometimes you have a checking account, sometimes you have a savings one,” he answers.
Morgan goes further, reminding the group their checking account is where their spending money goes and is linked to a debit card, while savings accounts mostly have money coming in and staying in the account.
“If you like swiping that plastic,” she says of the debit card, “it will ruin your life if you are not careful. It takes 10 full business days to get a check, it takes two minutes to spend it all.”
Mickell Harrell, middle, brings up his hardest working group member, Raniyah Kleckley, 15, left, during their graduation ceremony at the Rebels’ Central branch in Milwaukee. The Running Rebels program helped teach students invaluable life skills, money management and the opportunity to have summer jobs. Ebony Cox / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
These lessons are deliberate. Running Rebels has always hired young people, but this summer the organization launched its largest jobs program ever and made financial education a core component. Sixty-seven teens worked 20 hours a week for 10 weeks. Those old enough were paid $10 an hour, while those 12 to 14 years old received a stipend of $8 per hour.
They tended community gardens, cleaned up parks and staffed tables with COVID information during pop-up neighborhood events, all under the supervision of Rebels staff.
“Our goal is to use people from the community, and empower them to mentor people from their own community,” said Dawn Barnett, Running Rebels’ co-executive director.
Marti Diaz, Milwaukee Public Schools financial literacy teacher mentor
Having a personal finance course opens the gateway for financial freedom.
The challenges faced by staff are the same faced by the wider community. So when she noticed garnishments while processing payroll for a few staff members, she and Victor Barnett, her husband, organized financial education workshops for employees before the summer started.
“Being financially unhealthy seeps into your physical wellness, emotional, mental states of mind,” she said.
The teens at Running Rebels go to public and private schools across the metro area.
Those who are 12 and attend Milwaukee Public Schools will likely have the chance to take a personal finance course, under new requirements passed this year.
MPS is phasing in the new personal finance graduation requirement starting with three high schools, Riverside, Hamilton and GreenTree Prep. The semester-long course covers budgeting, checking and savings accounts, paying for college, credit management, investing, insurance, taxes and behavioral finance. Right now, the course is offered as an elective, but will be a graduation requirement for the class of 2026 at those schools and is expanding to 13 more schools next semester.
“Having a personal finance course opens the gateway for financial freedom,” said Marti Diaz, MPS’ financial literacy teacher mentor who is the course instructor.
Among the 477 students taking the class this fall, 75{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} are considered economically disadvantaged and 60{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} are Black, 24{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} are Hispanic, 19{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} are Asian, 3{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} white and 1{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} are multiracial.
“We talk about the history of racism in banking, the fact that there’s some predatory lending in our communities,” Diaz said.
The district plans to launch the curriculum at its remaining high schools with the last cohort starting in spring 2023. Prior to this, students “had access to personal finance education,” which had been “embedded in other courses and taught with a variety of instructional resources,” according to a presentation this fall to the board.
The district has contracted with Secure Futures, CLIMB USA and Junior Achievement to provide some personal finance lessons, but those often were units within larger courses or workshops. Fund My Future Milwaukee, which aims to open a 529 college savings account for every 5K student, also has provided financial literacy lessons at participating schools.
Now, MPS will have teachers trained on the standalone curriculum. The effort is backed by a three-year $490,000 grant from Next Gen Personal Finance, a national financial literacy nonprofit, to pay for Diaz’s salary and benefits and other program costs. The state Department of Financial Institutions with support from the Department of Public Instruction also contributed $30,000 in grant money and the district has used some COVID relief funding, too.
Marti Diaz, who teaches financial literacy at Milwaukee Public Schools, works with personal finance students, Edison Lee, right, and Mariah Jones, center, who are both seniors at Riverside High School. Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Tim Ranzetta, Next Gen’s co-founder, is an evangelist for personal finance education as a standalone course, rather than included in economics or other classes where teachers already have a lot of material to get through.
“It doesn’t work if it’s embedded in another course,” he said.
Others have argued it’s better to have some financial education, even if it is spread across other subjects, rather than none at all or forcing teachers who aren’t trained in the subject to teach it.
About one-third of Wisconsin’s high schools publish public online course catalogs. Using that information, Urban found about 43{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of those 271 schools required students take a standalone financial course in the 2020-21 academic year. Another 44{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} offered a standalone course, while just over 10{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} had it embedded in other courses. Fewer than 2{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} did not offer the material.
Nationwide, about one in five high-schoolers are guaranteed to have access to a personal finance course. But for districts that predominantly serve Black and brown students, the number plummets to 1 in 14, according to research funded by Next Gen.
To Robert Wynn, a former financial education officer at the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions, those statistics reinforce the importance of financial education as a matter of social justice.
Robert Wynn, founder of financial literacy nonprofits CLIMB USA and Asset Builders
If we just dealt with policy issues on incarceration, inequality, or even police brutality, you really don’t get to the core issue, which is power. And power really does come from wealth in this country.
Wynn has made it his life’s work to teach young people of color about investing and stocks through Asset Builders and CLIMB USA, which has provided investment education in MPS and activities for Running Rebels.
“If we just dealt with policy issues on incarceration, inequality, or even police brutality, you really don’t get to the core issue, which is power,” Wynn said.
“And power really does come from wealth in this country.”
It’s the last day of the Running Rebels jobs program and time for awards.
Daeshawn, whose favorite work site was Alice’s Garden, is honored for having earned the most points this summer for attendance, taking part in extra activities and having a good attitude.
He’s one of four teens asked to come onstage and take a turn at the microphone. The most important thing he learned, he says, is communication.
Dawn Barnett, right, speaks to Running Rebels graduates about life lessons and how they’re one decision away from a new life during their graduation ceremony at the Rebels’ Central branch at 1300 W. Fond Du Lac Ave. Ebony Cox / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Of the 67 youths who started the 10-week program, 61 finished and received a bonus $150 savings stipend for their newly opened bank accounts. United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha Counties provided $100,000 in funding for wages, saving incentives and supervision.
Takiyah, who happened to be in Daeshawn’s group, also is called up for an award for her “diligence.” This summer boosted her confidence, she says.
She opened her first bank account as part of the summer program after learning about the high fees of check-cashing operations.
“I learned that it’s best to save and not to spend all at once, and that even though you might want a lot of stuff, it’s not best to get it right then and there,” she said. “It’s best to get what you need first.”
She’s saving much of her summer earnings for college.
“This shows that I can do it,” she said. “I can work, and I can make my own money and I can do what I need to do financially for myself.”
Next Gen Personal Finance offers free online games for people of all ages. Can you make it through a month living paycheck to paycheck? Find out using Spent. Want to see the consequences of 20 years of investing over 20 years? Check out Stax. All games are available online at ngpf.org/arcade.
Running Rebels Community Organization is built on mentoring. There are opportunities for young people to get involved, for adults to mentor and for supporters to donate or contribute by purchasing items off the group’s wish list. Details available online at runningrebels.org.
Asset Builders and CLIMB USA provide investment workshops inside and outside the classroom, and other opportunities for young people and adult volunteers. More information is at assetbuilders.org and climbusa.org.
Secure Futures connects educators and volunteers to provide in-class financial capability instruction with participating schools. To learn how to get involved, go to securefutures.org.
Generation Z has grown up in an age of low commissions and high technology, which has greatly influenced how they invest and learn about money in general. This generation that is between 6-24 years old right now is trying to use what they grew up with — things like social media — to their advantage instead of just for fun. While previous generations might’ve relied on family, financial advisors or other sources to learn about money management, Gen Z appears to be modernizing personal finance education in a way that works for them.
Read: 51 of the Biggest Money Influencers on TikTok and YouTube Check Out: The 10 Best Stocks for the Gen Z Investor
To find out about Gen Z’s approach to personal finance, investing and more money issues, GOBankingRates commissioned a six-question study of 1,000 Americans ages 18 to 24. Here are some of the most interesting results from that survey.
Gen Z Learns Personal Finance From TikTok and YouTube
Perhaps the most notable result from the survey is that the younger generation gets a lot of its financial information from a source that didn’t even exist two decades ago. A whopping 38.8{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of Gen Zers responded that they learned about personal finance from TikTok, YouTube or other social media outlets, like Twitter or Instagram — 34.3{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} answered TikTok and YouTube specifically. An additional 7.20{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} responded that they get their information from personal research and/or online forums like Reddit. Combined, that’s far more than the 22.70{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} who reported learning from parents or family.
A lot can be inferred from this statistic. For starters, it reflects how much social media and online information dominates the lives of Gen Zers. However, it also raises questions about the quality of information that Gen Zers are getting about personal finance. While there is certainly some valuable information to be found online, there aren’t many restrictions as to who can post online and what they can say. If Gen Zers aren’t vetting the information they’re receiving, they could be susceptible to financial misinformation. It also means they might be missing some of the fundamental principles about personal finance along the way, as only 17.60{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} indicated they learned their financial information from a high school or college class.
Find Out:5 Financial Steps Gen Z Should Be Taking Now See:Surprising Ways Gen Z and Millennials Are Worlds Apart Financially
A Surprisingly High Percentage of Gen Zers Invest in Real Estate
For the purposes of this survey, only those ages 18-24 were included. Typically, people in that age range are either finishing up their education or working their first jobs. In either case, Gen Zers haven’t had a lot of time yet to build up their savings and investment portfolios. Yet, a surprising 19{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of respondents indicated they were invested in real estate, which traditionally requires higher levels of investment and/or a good credit history. This was the second-most popular investment category of survey respondents, just behind the 22.40{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} indicating they were invested in stocks.
Although a large number of Gen Zers in the survey indicated they were invested, 33.70{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} indicated that they were not invested in anything. This represented the single largest individual response to this question. While many Gen Zers may not yet be earning a lot of money to invest, it would benefit them to begin saving and investing as young as possible to take advantage of the power of compound interest.
More: Crypto and 5 Other Groundbreaking Investing Trends for Gen Z Find:How Will Teens and Gen Z Invest Their Money? Think Low-Risk, ESG and Roboadvisors
Debt Levels Are Generally Under Control for Gen Z
While it might be more encouraging to see a higher level of investment from the survey respondents, the good news is that most of the Generation Z survey respondents indicated they had control over their debt. More than 34{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of survey participants didn’t have any debt at all, including student debt, and nearly two-thirds had less than $5,000. However, 9{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of respondents had at least $50,000 in debt.
Find Out More: Life Events That Millennials and Gen Zers Are Choosing To Go Into Debt For
Many Gen Zers Still Rely On Their Parents
From the survey results, it appears that Gen Zers aren’t quite ready to completely stand on their own in times of trouble. During the pandemic, around two-thirds of respondents indicated that they lived with their parents. Although 13.90{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} indicated they have since moved out on their own, a full 49.30{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} indicated they either have always lived with their parents or moved back home during the pandemic and are still there.
Read: Gen Z Feels Financially Unprepared for Adulthood — But Has Hope for the Future More:4 Industries Gen Z Might Save — and 4 It Might Destroy
There Are Some Notable Differences Between Male and Female Gen Zers When It Comes to Personal Finance
When it comes to money and finance, there were some relatively significant differences between male and female respondents to the Gen Z survey. For example, 26.13{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of women indicated they learned personal finance from their parents or family vs. just 16.53{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of men. Men vastly preferred YouTube as a source of financial information, at 27.17{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} vs. 11.98{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} for women.
Women were also more likely to have zero debt, at 36.08{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} vs. 31.09{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of men, but they were also less likely to be invested: Only 25.77{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of men indicated they were not invested vs. 38.10{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of women. About 52{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of men indicated they were invested in cryptocurrency and/or stocks vs. just 32.50{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of women.
More From GOBankingRates
Last updated: Sept. 15, 2021
Methodology: GOBankingRates surveyed 1,000 Americans aged 18 through 24 from across the country on Aug. 19 through Aug. 20, 2021, asking six different questions: (1) Where did you learn about personal finance?; (2) How much overall debt do you currently have? (Including student loan debt); (3) Do you invest your money? If so, what do you invest in? Select all that apply:; (4) If you had to pick one, what do you prioritize/value the most in a potential job?; (5) Did you move back in with your family during the coronavirus pandemic?; and (6) What do you spend the majority of your money on, aside from rent?. GOBankingRates used PureSpectrum’s survey platform to conduct the poll.
About the Author
After earning a B.A. in English with a Specialization in Business from UCLA, John Csiszar worked in the financial services industry as a registered representative for 18 years. Along the way, Csiszar earned both Certified Financial Planner and Registered Investment Adviser designations, in addition to being licensed as a life agent, while working for both a major Wall Street wirehouse and for his own investment advisory firm. During his time as an advisor, Csiszar managed over $100 million in client assets while providing individualized investment plans for hundreds of clients.
