What were you spending your money on when you were around 20 years old?
Most young people probably spent their hard-earned cash (or pocket money) on trips with friends, vacations, and the latest getup, before maturing and realizing they should start investing their money.
Unlike generations before, however, Gen Z isn’t waiting until they settle down to dip their toes into the complex world of investing.
Equipped with financial knowledge at their fingertips, around 56% of under-25-year-olds are already investors—and 80% of them started squirreling their money away before they hit 20 years of age.
In comparison, just a quarter of millennials and 14% of Gen X started their investment journey before 20 years old.
The research from CFA Institute and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), which surveyed over 2,800 Gen Z, millennial and Gen X respondents across the U.S., China, Canada, and the U.K., concluded that Gen Z are the most investment-savvy generation of all.
Meanwhile, America’s youth are leading the way in this trend.
While just 7% of Gen Z investors in China started to invest before the age of 18, the number hikes to 25% of American Gen Zers with Canada and Britain not too far behind, at 24% and 22% respectively.
Why is Gen Z investing their money so young?
The report found that members of Gen Z started investing due to a range of factors, including the ability to access financial information on social media and the proliferation of investing apps and cryptocurrencies.
Born between 1996 to 2012, the youngest generation to enter the workforce has access to platforms (to invest in and to learn from, ranging from Nutmeg to TikTok) that simply did not exist for millennials and Gen Xers at the corresponding age—so it’s unsurprising that investors are younger than ever.
In fact, social media is the top source of financial advice for Gen Z investors in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.—with YouTube being the most popular app all around to learn about the complex world of investment.
Perhaps more shockingly, the “fear of missing out” is a big driver of the trend.
While most would assume Gen Zers are splurging on eating out or festival tickets, because they’re jealous of their peers seemingly having more fun online, half of Gen Z investors have made an investment purely driven by FOMO—yes, the fear of missing out on investment opportunities their peers are making.
This is most common in China, where 66% of Gen Z investors said they have made a FOMO-driven investment, compared to 50% in the U.S., 46% in Canada, and 55% in the U.K.
In fact, for almost two in three Chinese Gen Zers, FOMO was the reason they started investing in the first instance.
Where is Gen Z investing their money?
For generations, investing was reserved for the ultrawealthy who had access to a financial advisor.
But the proliferation of investing apps and cryptocurrencies presents lower barriers to entry for Gen Z to start compounding small amounts of money from their smartphones.
It’s why the majority of Gen Z are trading and managing their portfolio on an app—and are much more likely to do so than millennials or Gen X, who still rely on traditional techniques like financial portals or a professional to do the work for them.
Meanwhile, cryptocurrency has become the gateway drug to investing: Almost half of U.S. Gen Z investors first started out investing with crypto, compared to 35% of millennials and 23% of Gen X investors.
Crypto was also the most common investment Gen Z investors started out with in Canada and the U.K.; it’s still the top way that Gen Zers in those countries invest their money.
Meanwhile, in China it seems Gen Z is far more traditional.
Like their older counterparts in the West, young Chinese investors are more likely to still get financial information from a professional and are most likely to invest in mutual funds, wealth management products issued by commercial banks, and individual stocks.
Despite being slower than other countries to join the investment bandwagon, Chinese Gen Z is investing more than any of the other countries covered by this study—a median of ¥120,000 (about $18,000), compared to $4,000 in the U.S.—and are the most confident in their future and ability to reach their financial goals.
