A new generation started marching into adulthood this year. This generation born, roughly between 1996 and 2009, is on the cusp of gaining earning, spending, saving, and investing power.
It’s time to pay attention to how they will engage with money.
Understandably, this next generation is still in the nascent stages of understanding money and what to do with it. For example, we have found that this generation is still hooked to cash ( see our post), though they are entering a world where cash payments are increasingly invisible. And, in our Koski Engagement IQ, we found this new generation is less engaged than older generations with a large digital payments company.While overall engagement with this company for this generation, or as they’ve been called Gen Z, is low and on par with Boomers, Gen Z is specifically less likely to post on Facebook about this company compared to tech-loving Millennials and their Gen X parents.
When we look at investing, we find a lot of room to engage this next generation. Gen Z is largely unfamiliar with the brokerage firms we included in the Engagement IQ. This youngest generation of adults gives Engagement IQ scores close to zero for brokerage firms.While this is not surprising given that these young adults are typically not investing yet, it also leaves a big opportunity to engage them early. How will you engage this next generation?