{"id":13423,"date":"2026-05-02T11:21:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T11:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/02\/less-financial-stability-smaller-social-safety-nets-inside-the-gen-z-investing-boom-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T11:21:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T11:21:27","slug":"less-financial-stability-smaller-social-safety-nets-inside-the-gen-z-investing-boom-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/02\/less-financial-stability-smaller-social-safety-nets-inside-the-gen-z-investing-boom-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Less financial stability, smaller social safety nets: inside the gen Z investing boom – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apps, AI tools and shaky job prospects are pushing gen Z into markets earlier, blending caution with risk-taking
Ambrico Ranginui first heard of cryptocurrencies<\/a> when he was 12 years old. By the time he was 16, he had saved enough from birthday gifts and his allowance to invest.
\u201cGrowing up in a single mum household, it made me quite a determined person to get ahead,\u201d Ranginui said. \u201cI wanted to find new avenues to make money and crypto was so fascinating at the time.\u201d
He\u2019s part of a new boom of gen Z investors who have jumped into markets more enthusiastically than previous generations, and are putting money into everything from safe-haven bonds to AI startups, earlier than ever before.
Nearly 30% of the generation born between 1997 and 2012 started putting money into markets in early adulthood, before they even entered the workforce, compared to just 15% of millennials and 9% of gen X, according to a World Economic Forum (WEF) report<\/a>.
Crypto taught Ranginui a fast, painful lesson about financial markets\u2019 volatility. Ranginui said he lived in a state of stress and anxiety for about a year, constantly checking his investments instead of living in the moment with his friends or in his classes.
He won\u2019t say how much he lost, but it was enough to stop investing in crypto. \u201cThere was always something to be worried about,\u201d he said.
Ranginui, now 21, didn\u2019t swear off investing, however. He\u2019s now an investment analyst at Flatmate Ventures, a six-month-old venture capital firm backing student entrepreneurs, and has put his own money into lithium, robotics, and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

The Guardian spoke to more than a dozen active gen Z investors from around the world, who it found through social media and finance discussion threads, about their strategy and motivation. They cite a combination of <\/strong>economic uncertainty, a ubiquitous online investing culture and possibly the lowest barriers to entry in modern history, due to technology and AI, as their reasons for jumping into markets.<\/p>\n

Ranguini, for example, said New Zealand\u2019s fintech app \u201cSharesies\u201d, inspired many of his peers to invest. \u201cThey showed up in gen Z spaces [on social media] and with all the financial educational resources available on the platform itself, it made it very easy to trust them and invest.\u201d
Gen Z around the world is facing a jobs crisis and a future that may be less economically stable than their parents. Unemployment is nearly<\/a> 8% for all people aged 22 to 27, compared to about 6% seven years ago and 4.3% across the US, while consumer prices continue to rise<\/a> globally. At the same time, cuts<\/a> to social welfare programs and the decline of employer-sponsored retirement<\/a> plans are stripping away what little safety net exists.
This generation has \u201cless financial stability and social safety nets, so the onus shifts to the individual to think about their financial well-being\u201d, said Natalya Guseva, head of WEF\u2019s financial markets and resilience initiatives. At the same time, technology is making it easy to invest in markets. \u201cYou just have access to investing in information in the palm of your hand, and so, which is unlike previous generations,\u201d she said.
Many are being very cautious.
The majority of gen Z are leaning towards long-term investing in low-cost, diversified funds such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs), according to Andy Reed, head of behavioral economics research in Vanguard.
\u201cThey are probably the most cost-savvy generations which will pay off in the long run,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are learning about investing quite early on and are genuinely showing interest in participating in the market.\u201d
About 75% of gen Zers hold ETFs in their retirement accounts compared to just 60% of baby boomers, according to a recent Nasdaq study<\/a>.
That is exactly what Shivana Anand, 23, software engineer, is doing. As soon as she entered college, she opened a Roth IRA, a tax-free retirement account, and invested in diversified index funds. At the time, she had a paid internship which helped her fund her investments. Her account automatically deposits a set amount each month, passively growing her portfolio. She is based in California.
\u201cMy money should be working for me,\u201d she said. \u201cI invest so money doesn\u2019t become so stressful and I rather invest slowly and steadily, which is the tried and true method, than actively manage a portfolio and worry about not calling the right bet.\u201d
Anand said her portfolio was currently in the mid-six-figure range.
A smaller cohort of gen z is taking on riskier and speculative bets such as day-trading and crypto.
\u201cYoung people are taking on risks like gambling and prediction markets without fully understanding that risk that they\u2019re taking on,\u201d he explained. \u201cUltimately what they might not realize is that these bets can lead to worse outcomes in the long run.\u201d
Minwoo Lim, 28, founder of trading app PnL, dove head-first into this world after fulfilling his mandatory military service six years ago in South Korea. Lim often trades commodities like crude oil instead of traditional stocks. He lives in South Korea but his company is based in Dubai.
\u201cGambling, by its definition, is risking everything by earning a lot of money,\u201d Lim said. \u201cIt\u2019s the same with trading.\u201d
Only about<\/a> 4% of day traders earn enough to make a living and about<\/a> 10% are profitable, meaning at least 90% fail.
Lim grew up in a family of investors and traders. To him, it was a natural path to follow once he had gathered enough savings. However, Lim\u2019s degree in neuroscience, he says, gave him a psychological edge that helped him become a profitable trader.
Earlier this year, Lim made a 1,000 euro profit after holding long positions on crude oil, meaning he bought when the price was low and sold when the price increased significantly after the US and Israel attacked Iran.
\u201cMost gen Z traders may not be profitable because they underestimate human behavior,\u201d he said. \u201cFirst is strategy, then discipline and last is psychology. It\u2019s a trinity.\u201d
Understanding psychology can help traders overcome potential greed, fear and cognitive biases that may cloud judgement, Lim explains, \u201cwe [gen Z] are very greedy. We want to earn more and work less.\u201d
Despite Lim\u2019s trading career, he doesn\u2019t advise gen Z to follow suit.
\u201cThose who invest long term are ultimately going to win over those trading or in crypto,\u201d he said. \u201cTrading is for those who are willing to commit their lives to it \u2013 disappear from the world for two or even more years. You\u2019re probably better off buying S&P 500 and leaving it for 10 years.\u201d
Nearly<\/a> 41% of gen Z reported they would trust the machine to manage their portfolio, and many are actively using it.
Kelly Noel Mbunui Kameni, 22, based in Kenya, she uses AI to double check her investments. Kameni invests in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and the S&P 500.
\u201cI would take a picture of my portfolio and ask ChatGPT for suggestions such as diversification,\u201d she said. \u201cAI is just very convenient. If I don\u2019t have the time to read a company\u2019s financial documents, I just turn to AI and it sums up the documents. Then I make a decision based on that.\u201d
Kameni, who is on a scholarship for her undergraduate degree in finance, said she allocates a small part of her scholarship to her portfolio.
So far, she has invested about 50,000 Kenyan shillings (roughly $400 USD), enough to start a small business in the country. She plans to continue investing enough so she doesn\u2019t have to work a corporate job while she gets her masters and doctoral degrees.
\u201cI am enjoying learning about finance and putting my money to work through investing.\u201d she said. \u201c I don\u2019t wish to give my life to an exploitative company and my investments will fund the life I want.\u201d<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apps, AI tools and shaky job prospects are pushing gen Z into markets earlier, blending caution with risk-takingAmbrico Ranginui first heard of cryptocurrencies when he was 12 years old. By the time he was 16, he had saved enough from birthday gifts and his allowance to invest.\u201cGrowing up in a single mum household, it made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}