Gen Z has been labeled many things: digital natives, TikTok champions, the anxious generation . But perhaps no connotation has stuck quite like financially anxious . Headlines regularly paint this cohort as stressed about money, risk-averse, and paralyzed by economic uncertainty. As someone who’s spent nearly a decade building a new generation of financial products, I think we’re missing the real story.

Yes, Gen Z exhibits financial anxiety —but not in the way most people think. Instead of assuming that they don’t understand money, perhaps we should question if they understand it more deeply.

The Anxiety Behind the “Ick”

Recent data from Afterpay reveals that more than half of Gen Z consumers report getting the “ick” from credit cards, with 63% switching to alternative pa

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