Despite what your uncle is always railing on about, kids these days aren’t spending all of their money on ripped jeans and avocado toast. A chunk of Gen Zers, and some millennials, are investing their extra cash—and some are even getting into the market before their parents did.
The number of 26-year-olds who moved money into investment accounts (not including 401(k)s) after turning 22 jumped from 8% in 2015 to 40% as of May 2025, according to data from the JPMorgan Chase Institute.
Young people are also investing earlier than ever:
- In a 2024 World Economic Forum survey, 30% of Gen Z respondents said they began investing in early adulthood before entering the workforce, compared to just 6% of baby boomers.
- Six percent of Gen Zers said they started investing “in adolescence.”
How’d they get so smart? The roughly 6 billion app-based investing platforms (conservative estimate) on their phones surely play a big role. Studies show that young people also don’t have much faith in traditional financial safety nets or a stable job market, and some of this distrust has pushed younger investors toward nontraditional, riskier investments, like crypto and prediction markets.
But perhaps the biggest factor is that most young people with extra cash are still priced out of buying a house. And for those with down payment money, a house is still a less lucrative long-term investment compared to the stock market. The share of American homebuyers aged 18 to 39 dropped from 51% in 1999 to 44% last year, according to a Redfin analysis of census data.—MM