The newest age group in the workforce is Gen Z. And like most generational differences — think the average net worth of millennials a decade ago — they have a different approach to many things, money included. So how is Gen Z doing financially? What’s the average net worth of Gen Z? Let’s take a look.

First, it’s important to realize that the Gen Z age range today is 14 to 29 years old. For the sake of talking about money and net worth, we’re only going to focus on 23 to 29 year olds. Because, let’s be honest, the net worth of 14 year olds isn’t going to tell us much.

Why should we care about Gen Z’s net worth? Well, like the millennials before them, the media continues to portray young adults in this country as unable to get ahead — a picture that gets complicated fast once you look at the “educated but not wealthy” cohort coming out of school with degrees and debt. But is that really the case?

Who Is Gen Z?

Gen Z is technically anyone born between 1997 and 2012 (always subject to change — with more people calling those born after 2012 Gen Alpha). That puts them roughly 14 to 29 today, or about 70 million Americans, and it means the oldest of them now overlap with the tail end of the millennial age range.

What makes them unique as a generation? Gen Z is the youngest generation in the workforce today. They entered the workforce during the Covid pandemic, and many spent formative years in virtual school. The oldest members started their careers in a hiring freeze, watched student loan payments get switched off for three and a half years, and then lived through the restart of student loan payments.

When it comes to money, Gen Z carries some of the highest student loan balances of any generation at graduation. Looking at average student loan debt by graduating class, the typical Gen Z borrower leaves college with roughly $38,000 in loans.

They’re also entering a tougher job market than the one their older siblings walked into, which we covered when the Class of 2025 hit a soft hiring market. The unemployment rate for young college graduates (ages 22 to 27) hit 5.3% in March 2026 — above the national rate of 4.3%. According to the Economic Policy Institute, that’s the first time young college grads have carried a higher unemployment rate than the workforce as a whole.

So it’s a mixed bag with Gen Z. Like millennials before them, they’re hard to define financially, especially at such a young age — and the answer to whether college was worth it depends heavily on which year they walked across the stage.

When looking at net worth for Gen Z, these are all factors to consider.

Factors To Consider About Gen Z Net Worth?

When I think about the main inputs into Gen Z net worth, here’s what we need to weigh.

First, when did they graduate? If Gen Z is roughly 14 to 29 today, plenty of them haven’t finished college yet — and plenty never will, since 43 million Americans now have some college but no degree. But if you’re 29 today, you likely graduated college seven years ago, in 2019, right before the pandemic.

Second, what did they earn coming out of school?
NACE runs a survey each year on the average starting salary of college graduates, and College Board data shows grads still earn $31,200 more per year than non-grads. Look at what inflation did to starting salaries between 2021 and 2023.

Third, student loans. Student loan debt is the single largest drag on Gen Z net worth, so we need the average balance at graduation for each class. Our full student loan debt statistics page has the broader picture.

One thing that’s changed since we first ran these numbers: the payment pause. Federal student loan payments and interest were suspended from March 2020 through August 2023, and as we wrote at the time, the student loan pause never really ended for a lot of borrowers. For anyone who graduated between 2019 and 2022, that meant three and a half years where the balance simply sat there. No interest, but no principal reduction either unless they chose to keep paying. That’s a big reason older Gen Z balances haven’t fallen as much as you’d expect.

Repayment restarting has been rough. Serious student loan delinquencies spiked to 12.88% in mid-2025 before falling back to 7.83% in Q2 2026, per the New York Fed. Total student loan debt now sits at $1.65 trillion.

Fourth, savings assumptions. Net worth is assets minus debt. Income drives both — how much gets saved and how much debt gets paid off. For the “average” Gen Z, I’m using the national personal saving rate. For the above-average Gen Z, I’m factoring in IRA and 401(k) savings along with a much higher savings rate, closer to what our retirement savings by age benchmarks call for.

Gen Z Net Worth By Age

As we compare Gen Z net worth by age, I want to look at both the average and a stretch goal. The average matters, but I also want to leave you with a target that puts you on the path to becoming a millionaire.

Remember, net worth is assets minus liabilities. The main asset we’re focused on here is savings built from income. The main liability is student loan debt (and the average student loan payment eats into savings every month) though auto loans and mortgages move the number too.

I want to re-emphasize that these are our estimates. Federal Reserve data lumps everyone under 35 into a single bucket, so while we have starting points, things can skew either way. Our breakdown of who holds the most student loan debt by age shows how wide the spread gets inside that bucket.

Here’s the Federal Reserve data for under 35, from the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances:

Under 35:

• Median Net Worth: $39,000
• Average Net Worth: $183,500

Worth flagging: the 2022 survey is still the most recent one available. The Fed collected the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances last year and expects to publish results in late 2026, so these figures are due for a refresh.

With that, let’s get into it. We’re estimating from sparse data points, and negative net worth for the younger cohorts makes it messier. But based on years of doing this — the same approach we use for millennial net worth — I think it’s a fair picture.

Average Gen Z Net Worth By Age

Here is the Gen Z Net Worth by Age estimate:

Yes, the “average” net worth for Gen Z in the workforce is still negative, at -$17,444 across the group. But the crossover point has moved. In our last run of these numbers, Gen Z went positive at 27. Now it’s 29 — later than the 17 years it takes the average undergrad borrower to clear their loans would suggest is comfortable.

Two things pushed it back. The payment pause froze balances for three and a half years without reducing them, so the classes of 2019 through 2022 are further behind on principal than a normal repayment schedule would suggest — and credit scores dropped hard when payments resumed. The personal savings rate also collapsed after 2021. A 2022 or 2023 graduate has never worked in a year where Americans saved more than 6% of income, while the Class of 2019 got the 15.3% savings year of 2020 in their first full year of work.

Wage growth has been real. The Class of 2025 started roughly $13,000 above the Class of 2019. But they also started with $4,300 more debt, and it keeps climbing — the Class of 2026 is projected to borrow $43,500 for a bachelor’s degree.

Notes: This assumes students don’t work or work marginally during school, carry an average amount of student loan debt, and find average employment after graduation.

High Achiever Gen Z Net Worth By Age

Now that you’ve seen average, what does it take to be well above it? Anything better than the chart above beats the pack, but I want to give you a real stretch goal. I call this the high achiever Gen Z net worth by age, and getting there starts with paying off student loans faster.

How do you get here? Three things:

What are your thoughts on this? Do you think a 23 year old can have $20,938 saved one year after graduation? I think it’s absolutely possible — especially the high achievers who started working at 16 (or earlier), opened an investment account as a teen, minimized student loans, and invested.

The gap between the two charts is the whole story. A 29 year old at the average is sitting at roughly break-even. A 29 year old who dodged student debt and saved a quarter of their income is at $158,000 and, per the Rule of 72, on track to be a millionaire in their early 40s. Same seven years. Wildly different outcome.

These high achiever numbers are a stretch, but they’re not unheard of — they’re roughly what our investment strategy by age framework points to for someone who starts at 22 and never lets up.

How To Boost Your Net Worth

Now that you know the average and the above-average, how do you get there? Time to start looking at ways to move the number, and a budgeting app is the cheapest first step.

Start by tracking your net worth. I’m a fan of Empower because it’s free, has good tools, and it’s online. But Empower isn’t the only app that can do this — we compare it head to head in our YNAB vs. Empower breakdown.

The good news is you’re still young and time is on your side. Time is the biggest advantage you have in building wealth, and it’s the entire engine behind financial independence math. If you want to grow it faster, focus on two areas.

Boosting your income — Income is the main driver of building assets and killing debt. The more you earn, the easier both get. I want to challenge you to earn at least an extra $100 per month. We have 54 side hustle ideas to get you started. I’m a firm believer that everyone can earn more if they try. I went to college full-time, worked full-time, and side hustled on top of it.

Eliminating your debt — The biggest struggle for Gen Z is flipping a negative net worth positive. Wiping out student loan debt does most of that work. Put your extra income toward it, and make sure you’re on the best student loan repayment plan for your situation.

Final Thoughts

Compared to the average millennial net worth at the same age, Gen Z is doing better on paper. They’re earning more out of school, and their net worth trajectory is slightly ahead. But they’re facing real headwinds on cost of living, a softer entry-level job market, and student loan payments that came back on all at once after three and a half years of silence.

They’re making more, but everything costs more — college costs alone rose three times faster than inflation. That makes growing net worth harder. Combine it with rising student loan balances and it’s a tough climb.

Average is just that — average. Some people are doing better and some are doing worse. Keep working on your own situation, open a Roth IRA if you haven’t, and shoot for the high achiever numbers.

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