GenZ has a lot of financial anxiety

GenZ values lived experiences over future outcomes. Our experience growing up in a world of internet, war, disease and financial insecurity incentivizes us to spend money today.

But GenZ is also pragmatic. We value sustainability and understand that being reckless with our money can inflict more harm.

These two opposing factors are the crux of supreme financial anxiety. We are absolutely lost.

Additional factors:

• Deep dive: We don’t have great Personal Finance Mental Models (PFMMs)
• Alternative: Learning personal finance is very high effort
• Alternative: Current apps aren’t helpful enough
• Alternative: Financial advisors don’t understand GenZ’s value system

How financial anxiety affects us

My financial anxiety skyrocketed after getting laid off. I was worried about every purchase I made, worried about being asked to go for lunch with friends, worried about going on dates! Even after I calculated my runway and knew that I could afford spending $50, I was still so freaked out.

Thinking through my anxiety, it boiled down to a couple factors colliding:

• Poor awareness: Couldn’t understand my budget progress
• Uninformed decision making: Couldn’t understand how spending affected my budget
• Highly emotional: I reacted strongly to sticker prices at the store

After talking to friends, a few more factors sprung up