Despite what your grumpy uncle says at Sunday lunch, young people are not actually blowing their entire inheritance on designer trainers and overpriced brunch. It turns out that Gen Z and a fair few millennials are becoming quite the little capitalists. They are moving their money into investment accounts faster than you can say bitcoin.
According to the brainy types at the JPMorgan Chase Institute, 40 percent of 26 year olds had money in investment accounts by May 2025. Back in 2015, that number was a tiny 8 percent. While their parents were probably still trying to figure out how a fax machine worked at that age, these kids are already worrying about their diversified portfolios.
Starting Before They Can Shave
The youth of today are getting into the market earlier than ever. A survey from the World Economic Forum found that 30 percent of Gen Z started investing before they even got their first proper job. Compare that to the baby boomers, where only 6 percent were smart enough to do the same. Some even claim they started investing while they were still in school.
Why are they so obsessed with the stock market? Well, having roughly six billion investing apps on their phones certainly helps. It is much easier to buy shares when you can do it while sitting on the bus or waiting for a kettle to boil. Also, let’s be honest, they do not exactly have much faith in traditional pensions or the idea of a job for life. They would rather trust an app than a bank manager in a beige suit.
Houses are for Rich People
Perhaps the biggest reason kids are buying stocks is that they simply cannot afford to buy a house. Most young people with a bit of spare cash find themselves priced out of the property market before they even get to the estate agent’s window. In 1999, over half of homebuyers were under 40. Now, that number is dropping fast.
For many, a house feels like a less lucrative bet than the stock market anyway. If you cannot afford a front door in London or New York, you might as well buy a tiny piece of a tech giant instead. This distrust of the old system has pushed them toward riskier stuff like crypto and prediction markets. It is basically gambling with a fancy name, but at least it keeps things interesting.
The New Financial Reality
So, the next time someone tells you that the youth are lazy, remind them that they are probably checking their dividends while you are still looking for your reading glasses. They might not own a garden, but they probably own a fraction of a company that makes your phone.
It is a strange new world where 20 year olds talk about market volatility more than they talk about music. Just don’t ask them to show you their physical gold bars, because they probably don’t believe in things you can actually touch.
Are you impressed by the financial wisdom of the youth, or do you think they are all just one market crash away from moving back into their childhood bedrooms?
Related topics: Money
