Gen Z's financial angst underlies shift to the right

Catch up quick: Financial services company Empower surveyed more than 2,200 Americans in September and the Gen Z respondents — born between 1997 and 2012 — said they would need to make more than $587,000 a year to be "financially successful."

• That's roughly three times to six times what any other age group said they would need.
• It's almost nine times the average U.S. salary, according to the Social Security Administration.

Zoom out: There are a number of factors at play that have a cumulative effect on Gen Z's financial attitudes.

• Angst: "Many people feel they're coming up short — with half believing they're less financially successful compared to others around them," Rebecca Rickert, head of communications at Empower, tells Axios. "The majority think prosperity is harder to achieve for their generation, which factors into the magic number people attach to success."
• Persistently high costs: "Sure, groceries, student loan payments, the cost of going out to restaurants and bars all matter — but 'feeling successful' when you have to have a roommate to afford rent undermines all capacity for consumption," David Bahnsen, whose California-based Bahnsen Group manages $6.5 billion in assets, tells Axios.
• The influence of influencers: "These macro trends are exacerbated by social trends. Influencers portray false versions of reality that suggest wealth building being easy and hard work being outdated," says David Laut, CIO of Abound Financial in California. "It is widely known that comparison is the thief of joy, and this leads the next generation to feel discouraged, setting higher and higher bars as a prerequisite for happiness."
• Mismatched expectations: "They're concerned about increased costs of living, hyper-aware that their money isn't going as far as it used to even few years ago. Our hypothesis is this is having a major impact on what they think it takes to be 'financially successful' in our current climate," Julia Peterson, director of consumer marketing at youth marketing agency Archrival, tells Axios.

Political shift

Those who study Gen Z most closely say it's a generation that has lived through an almost unbroken chain of financial crises and have grown up prioritizing cost above all else.

• That tracks with a strong shift in young voters toward a "moderate" self-identification, according to youth research firm YPulse.
• "Our data indicates economy is the impetus for the change, and concerns around the economy," MaryLeigh Bliss, chief content officer at YPulse, tells Axios.

• "There was no question for us that the economy and how they were feeling financially in the months — and even weeks — before the election really were going to determine who they were voting for."

Zoom in: In times of financial stress, there's a tendency to think someone other than whoever's in charge might make things better.

• "I suspect some young people have moved right because the party they perceive as in power when this financial tension is escalating has been the Democrats — that it is more of an anti-incumbency thing than anything else," Bahnsen said.
• Surveys bear out this sense of wanting. A recent Harris Poll found that less than half of young adults "frequently" get to do things that make them happy, and the biggest barrier by far was financial.

Reality check: Despite having lofty salary goals, kickstarting their careers has proven difficult for Gen Z.

• More than a third of people ages 18 to 24 had reported no wage or salary income in 2022, versus less than a quarter in 1990.

Yes, but: While Gen Z has outsized standards for success, they were also the survey group most likely to say they expect to achieve that success in their lifetimes.

• It wasn't just the Empower survey. In a recent CBS News poll, 43% of people under 30 said the economy was getting better. No other age demographic was higher than 27%.
• That tracks with longstanding findings that the generation is pessimistic about the right now but upbeat about the future.