Gen Z doesn’t know basic finances — here’s who they’re blaming

The kids aren’t alright.

It’s no surprise that Gen Z — the generation born between 1997 and 2012 — isn’t the best with their money. A poll from Newsweek revealed that adult Zoomers have around $94,000 in personal debt — thanks to never-ending credit card spending.

And the proof is in the pudding — according to the 2025 TIAA Institute-GFLEC finance and retirement report, most of Gen Z is financially illiterate.

The report showed that on average, Zoomers score only 38% correct on financial literacy tests.

Because of this, in the U.S., 29 states now require a personal finance course as a high school graduation requirement.

However, the course requirement comes a little too late for Gen Z since 3 out of 4 of them wish they were taught finances 101 in school because they don’t feel prepared now, according to a recent report from Intuit.

“We know that students need to begin learning essential personal finance concepts earlier, and our latest Prosperity Index Study results show that 60% of Gen-Z are eager for more financial education,” Dave Zasada, vice president of education and corporate Responsibility at Intuit, told Forbes.

Luckily, Gen Zers do have access to informational resources online yet many feel overwhelmed by it all. It also doesn’t help that many parents financially support their Zoomer kids — which doesn’t teach them the value of a dollar.

A report conducted by Savings.com revealed that 50% of US parents hand an average of $1,474 a month to their Gen Zers to keep them afloat in today’s economy.

A Reddit thread dissected this subject and many grumpy people in the comment section blame these generous parents for this generation being financially illiterate.

“For some reason, parents of Gen-Z are okay with just giving them a credit card and letting them meander through life on a tether,” noted one Redditor.

“To be fair, those kids don’t need credit cards as their parents just pay for everything anyway,” agreed another.

Instead of shelling out monthly spending allowances or handing over an American Express credit card at a young age, experts feel that parents can instead take it upon themselves to educate their adult children about finances.

CJ MacDonald, founder of Step, told Parents.com that parents can explain how to build good credit since “Credit is foundational.”

Learning how to invest is important, too.

“If you want kids to learn about investing, you need to get them involved,” Victor Wang, CEO of investing education platform, Stockpile told the outlet.

“Let them make some of the investing choices (at a small scale) to start learning. And get them started with companies that they are actually interested in, companies that they can get excited about.”