Open TikTok on any given day, you might scroll past a video warning of looming tariffs and market collapse, followed by a girl in an expensive-looking fur coat sipping martinis. The next clip? A bleak update on Gen Z’s growing debt levels. Then suddenly, it’s back to Euro summer: someone sunbathing in the South of France, spritz in hand.
This is the split-screen reality Gen Z is living in. This generation has come of age amid compounding crises: a pandemic, economic recessions, a climate emergency, unaffordable housing, mounting student debt. Wages have stagnated while the cost of living has increased. In this environment, saving for the future can feel naive, or worse, irrelevant.
