“Retirement seemed really, really far away,” Tenev said recently on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast, thinking back to his own financial priorities as a twentysomething fresh out of college in 2008. “Now, Gen Zs are opening retirement accounts at 19 years old. So they’re thinking a little bit more conservatively, I think, than prior generations.”

Tenev said the trend might seem strange to onlookers. Many people may assume that young, cash-strapped Gen Zers are frivolously spending their money. But in reality, it’s Robinhood’s older customers who want to be plugged into the “cool new thing,” Tenev noted, while young savers are embracing traditional investment methods.

“You would think with older customers, we would emphasize how stable and how long we’ve been around and all these things, but actually that resonates very strongly with young people,” Tenev explained. “Now, I think [with] Gen Z and Gen Alpha there’s almost this opposite thing happening where the old big storied incumbents are kind of cool again.”

The CEO of the $99 billion financial services company said Gen Z’s saving habits reflect a broader trend: Young people are embracing retro culture. In a world of streaming, Gen Z are buying up physical media vinyl records and cassette tapes: Tenev’s daughter even asked if she could have a Walkman. The executive believes their love for the old-fashioned translates into the ways they save their money.

“I think in the same way, financially, the younger generation is interested in retirement,” he said.

Retirement-age baby boomers are trying to make ends meet

While the young generation is getting a head start on their financial security decades ahead, retirement-aged workers are still struggling to keep their heads above water. 

Gen Z is the most likely to be on track to successfully retire, with about 47% of employees ages 24 to 28 already saving enough to maintain their current lifestyle through retirement, according to a recent study from Vanguard. Meanwhile, only 40% of baby boomers and 41% of Gen Xers can say the same.

Despite having the most wealth of any generation, baby boomers’ honey pots won’t last them through their nonworking years. In fact, it has forced some to return to the office after sunsetting their professional careers; about 14% of baby boomers and older Gen Xers have already “unretired,” and another 4% are considering it, according to a survey of more than 6,300 U.K. adults for Standard Life. Thanks to inflation, household annual bills are $1,250 higher, reaching untenable levels for people to retire comfortably. 

“The economic landscape of the last few years has put sustained pressure on people’s finances, with all ages and stages of life impacted,” said Dean Butler, managing director for retail direct at Standard Life. “As a result, people are being forced to seek new ways of supplementing their income, be that taking on additional work, delaying retirement plans, and even returning to work having previously retired.”

Since the 1980s, the number of those in the U.S. working past the typical retirement age of 65 has quadrupled, with almost 20% of this older population continuing to work. They’re even juggling several jobs at once; nearly 40% of baby boomers said they’ve taken up a side gig, according to a Smart Energy GB survey of 2,000 Brits. 

In a time when many older workers are being pulled back into the nine-to-five grind, Gen Z’s quiet return to tradition may be what saves the future retirees from the same fate.