--- title: Gen Zers Are Surprisingly Optimistic They'll Make More Money Than Their Parents description: Members of Gen Z are surprisingly optimistic they'll far as good financially or be better off than their parents, according to a new poll. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 498 covers: - Personal Finance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Personal Finance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2022-11-18T20:41:11.000Z' modified: '2024-01-22T15:28:39.000Z' section: Personal Finance tags: - Gen Z - News word_count: 484 canonical: https://money.com/gen-z-make-more-money-than-parents/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Photo illustration of a mother dancing with her optimistic Gen Z daughter](https://img.money.com/2022/11/News-GenZ-optimistic-theyll-make-more-money-than-parents.jpg?crop=0px%2C191px%2C2880px%2C1620px&quality=85) Members of [Gen Z came of age](https://confessionsofa20something.com/) during a once-in-a-century pandemic and an historically rocky economy, but they’re not going to let those setbacks get them down. The majority of Gen Zers, who are roughly between the ages of 13 and 25, are surprisingly optimistic that they will be at least as financially successful as their parents, according to a [new survey](https://morningconsult.com/2022/11/17/gen-z-parents-financial-future-survey-data/) from Morning Consult. In fact, more than one-third of these young people think they'll be *better off* financially than their parents. The data firm asked a representative group of 1,000 Gen Zers how they think they will financially fare over the course of their lives compared to their parents. Of all the respondents, 38% said they will be better off, and 43% expect to fare the same. Only 19% reported that they believe they will be worse off than their parents. Young people of color are especially optimistic about their financial futures: 42% of Hispanic Gen Z respondents said they will be better off than their parents, and 46% of Black Gen Zers said the same. By comparison, Black respondents were 11 percentage points more likely than white respondents to believe they will have better financial lives than their parents. “Despite multiple financial hurdles and a tumultuous economy, Gen Z’s comparatively high optimism extends to their own financial well-being as well as to the broader economy,” the Morning Consult report states. The views of older generations aren’t nearly as cheery about what's coming down the road for young people. A separate survey released earlier this year by Pew Research found that 72% of U.S. adults believe that kids these days will be [financially worse off than their parents](https://money.com/survey-american-kids-worse-off-financially/) — a notable uptick from 2020 when 57% of adults expressed the same opinion. Pew’s data could suggest that older generations don’t have as much confidence in Gen Z as Gen Zers do in themselves. Whatever the case, Gen Z’s confidence seems to go beyond money. A [growing](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/jul/15/climate-optimism-gen-z) [body](https://genzidentitylab.com/who-is-gen-z/) of [research](https://apnorc.org/projects/younger-generations-stand-out-on-identity-acceptance-and-progressive-policies/) shows that Gen Z is not only optimistic about a better future — but ready to build one themselves. For example, a 2021 [study](https://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/about-us/newsroom/millennials-and-generation-z-optimistic-inspired-to-make-meaningful-change) from the data firm Echelon Insights shows that 7 in 10 young Americans believe their generation faces obstacles (such as climate disaster and systemic racism), but that those barriers only fuel the desire for action. “Gen Zers are realistic about the state of the world, but optimistic about our ability to drive meaningful change in the future,” Anya Dua, founder of [Gen Z Identity Lab](https://genzidentitylab.com/), said in the report. “Change will be achieved not through business as usual – it will require new thinking, new approaches and new energy. Gen Z is up to the task.” ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/gen-z-make-more-money-than-parents/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Personal Finance", "item": "https://money.com/personal-finance/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Making Money", "item": "https://money.com/making-money/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Gen Zers Are Surprisingly Optimistic They'll Make More Money Than Their Parents" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/gen-z-make-more-money-than-parents/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/gen-z-make-more-money-than-parents/", "name": "Gen Zers Are Surprisingly Optimistic They'll Make More Money Than Their Parents", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2022-11-18T20:41:11.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/gen-z-make-more-money-than-parents/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/gen-z-make-more-money-than-parents/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-01-22T15:28:39.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Gen Zers Are Surprisingly Optimistic They'll Make More Money Than Their Parents", "articleSection": "Personal Finance", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2022/11/News-GenZ-optimistic-theyll-make-more-money-than-parents.jpg?crop=0px%2C191px%2C2880px%2C1620px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "News-GenZ-optimistic-theyll-make-more-money-than-parents" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adam Hardy", "url": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/#author", "description": "Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. 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