Gen Z likes #RichTok ——and them love to be rich. Mix it all together, and you’ll find that this generation is overwhelmingly turning to social media for investment advice as they seek that most elusive thing for young people: financial independence.
According to a survey, social media is the top reason why 55% of Gen Z and 44% of Millennial investors said they started investing. opinion poll Oliver Wyman Forum attracted 300,000 investors in five years.
When looking for alternative paths to financial security, personal finance influencers are providing solutions. Video describing how to do it invest $1,000 in the Stock Market or “Stock Market Tea” Explained in Kardashian Family Terms Or real housewives The franchise racked up hundreds of thousands of views across various platforms.
Tu Wei’anbetter known as “Your Rich BFF,” has 2.7 million TikToks and 3.8 million Instagram followers and provides advice on investing, financial planning and tax loopholes.
“All of a sudden, you meet someone who doesn’t look like your dad’s financial advisor. You meet someone who looks like I could be anybody’s best friend in college,” Tu told before wealth. “I want to entertain my audience, turn finance into fun, and make talking about money easier for the next generation of wealthy best friends.”
The creator, Rebecca Ma, whose online name is Becca Bloom, has 8.2 million followers on Instagram and TikTok. She shares her daily routine, feeding her cat caviar for breakfast and showing off her endless collection of lavish outfits. Each post gets millions of views and likes.
The popularity of these videos shows a common thread desire to achieve great financial success. The Oliver Wyman Forum survey found that in 2022, 18% of people said they felt pressured to make money to succeed. By 2025, that number has climbed to 33%, with feelings more than doubling among low-income earners and baby boomers approaching retirement.
Economic uncertainty is prompting Gen Z to invest early
One study shows that more than half of Generation Z began learning about investing before entering the workforce, compared with only 20% of Baby Boomers. world economic forum The 2024 survey shows that nearly one-third began investing in college or early adulthood, double the share of Millennials investing at that age.
Investing early was part of a strategy to achieve financial independence that has now become
The survey shows that unmet financial needs are growing the fastest. Gen Z’s economic nihilism is growing as they face a stagnant job market and pessimistic On the future of safety net programs like Social Security.
“It’s a real interest in learning.” Natalya Guseva, head of the World Economic Forum’s Financial Markets and Resilience Program, said the World Economic Forum has been surveying investor habits every two years since 2022. She believes that Gen Z’s desire for financial knowledge is “driven by a variety of factors,” but the vast majority believe they cannot rely on things like government and pensions as much as previous generations. She also noted that greater access to information and diversified investment products are attractive to Gen Z.
The World Economic Forum says that for people of all ages, financial independence is the top skill people want to learn more about earlier. Gen Z takes this very seriously and is determined to make just as much money as much as possible.
“Gen Z and young people in general have a lot of financial goals, and we found that many of them are actually mid- to long-term,” Guseva said. “Only about 1 in 10 or fewer investors say they want to beat the market or speculate.”
Young people prefer artificial intelligence to traditional consulting
A survey by Oliver Wyman shows that nearly half of people consult about artificial intelligence when investing, up from just over a third in 2023. Investors using AI often use it as a sounding board rather than letting it invest independently. Respondents said that compared to traditional financial advice, AI provides a judgment-free learning environment that makes them feel more understood than a human advisor.
“We’re also seeing younger generations, especially Gen Z, say they would trust an institution more if it had an AI chatbot,” Guseva said. “Many people are using artificial intelligence to learn to invest”
As stress increases, Gen Z is making riskier investments. And Oliver Wyman Forum found that Gen X Baby boomers’ portfolios tend to be more traditional, with higher levels of diversification and risk hedging, with cryptocurrencies accounting for more than a third of Gen Z investors’ portfolios at 71%, according to the World Economic Forum.
“We’re seeing that more people know how to access cryptocurrencies compared to stocks, CTFs and bonds, and more people feel they understand cryptocurrencies compared to stocks, CTFs and bonds,” Guseva said. “That shows us that what cryptocurrencies are doing is a really good marketing campaign and awareness campaign. And that’s a lesson for us, how do we meet people where they are?”
Gen Z’s shift toward high-risk, high-reward assets like cryptocurrencies is more than just a trend. The survey found that their financial habits ranked second in the area where they felt most misjudged, while their rejection of slow and steady accumulation of wealth suggested they had abandoned conventional wisdom that was inconsistent with their vision for the future.