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If you're Gen Z, there's a good chance you think you're financially screwed. Over half of Gen Z reported they don't make enough money to live the life they want. And according to a credit Karma study, 49% said planning for the future feels pointless. And nobody knows pointless more than Credit Karma, the company that tries to get you into crippling debt and keep up with a score to get you into more crippling debt. Yes, that is accurate. So are they right? Is Gen Z financially screwed? Well, in today's video, we'll look at why Gen Z feels this way, the genuine economic challenges they're facing, and a reason for them to have some hope. All right, before you get on your boomer high horse and tell Gen Z to lay off the avocado toast and pull themselves up by their Labubu bootstraps, let's look at three legitimate reasons why they feel this way. Number one, home prices. Back in 1985, the median home price was about $84,000 and the median household income was around 24,000 dol. If you're doing the math at home, that means the typical home costs about three and a half times the median income. Now fast forward to today. The median home price is around $410,000, while the median household income is $85,000, meaning homes now cost almost five times the median income. That's a big jump, and the math ain't mathing for a lot of hopeful homeowners. And on top of those sky high prices, mortgage rates are just making the problem worse. At the time of this recording, they've been hovering around 6 to 7% for a 30 year mortgage, with 15 year rates leaning closer to 5%. And for context, rates were under 3% just four years ago. And that difference can add hundreds of dollars to a monthly mortgage payment, which ultimately means you can afford less house if you can afford a house at all. And homeownership is a key way families can build wealth and stabilize their housing costs. And it's always been associated with the American dream. But for Gen Z, this dream looks increasingly unrealistic. And I don't blame them for feeling discouraged about it. But even with home prices and high interest rates, homeownership is not impossible. More on that later. But right now, let's look at the second major reason Gen Z feels hopeless about money. And it is student loans. The average student loan payment for gen Zers is 300 bucks a month. And that is so much of your paycheck. You don't get to use for things like saving, investing, giving, or even basic living expenses. And hey, I fell for the same trap. We were all told college was a necessary, unquestionable path to upward mobility and therefore taking out unlimited student loans was simply an investment in the and that's why so many of us financed our way through college with that magic Monopoly money. Little did we know we were signing on the dotted line for terms that would potentially cause decades of debt and stress. And we had no clue about the post graduation weight of five or six figure loans or how the interest worked. Spoiler against you. Not cool bro. And I think this tweet sums it up beautifully. When I was 17, I went to get a Limp Bizkit tattoo and when they wouldn't let me because I didn't have a guardian's approval, I cried and punched a lamppost. I three months later I was allowed to take on $119,000 in loans to go to art school. There you go. Okay, reason number three Gen Z is in this money Malaise. Wages haven't kept up with inflation or the cost of living. Now, while wages have technically increased over the years, real wage growth, AKA wages adjusted for inflation, have been pretty flat. According to recent data, real average hourly earnings have only increased about a half percent year over year. Meanwhile, the cost of living has skyrocketed. Rent, groceries, gas, healthcare, Fortnite skins. All of it costs way more than it did even five years ago. And Sidebar if you're a grown man buying Fortnite skins, I don't want to hear your complaints about the housing market and why you can't save for a down payment or how your mom folds your underwear in a way that you don't prefer. Shout out to all the people on this crew that play and love Fortnite and spend too much money on it. Are you making fun of us, mate? But to see exactly how much more income it takes to afford this same standard of living as it did in years past, let's check out this inflation calculator from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's a doozy. This was definitely built 20 years ago and I'm the first person to ever use it. But just for kicks, let's see what it spits out here. Okay, so let's say $50,000 in January of 2000 has the same buying power in January of 2025 as $94,000. Okay, let's think about that for a second. So if you had $50,000 back then, you spent 50 grand. It would take 94 grand to buy the same amount of stuff. So here's the lesson. Money has lost half its purchasing power over the last 25 years. That's just math. And the math hurts. So whenever your dad scolds you saying I worked on minimum wage and I walked uphill both ways and I was able to afford three homes and a nice beautiful vehicle, tell him, kick rocks and pound sand, dad. All right? I can't buy that kind of. Don't tell him. That's really mean to say to your dad. Don't. Don't tell him to kick rocks in pound sand. He doesn't even know what that means. Respect your elder. So yeah, with high home prices, high interest rates, student loan payments, low wages, inflation, high cost of living, it's no wonder Gen Z feels completely hopeless about their financial future. And let me make this clear. The issue is not that they're lazy or entitled or spending too much on avocado toast, okay? I think Gen Z is one of the most impressive generations yet. They are super resourceful and the ones that I've run into have a great work ethic and they want a better financial future for themselves. The main problem, the problem they're facing is that the numbers literally don't add up at the end of the month. And even when they do make smart money choices, it feels like they'll never get to enjoy life the way their parents or grandparents did. They're watching previous generations retire comfortably while they're over here wondering if they'll ever be able to afford a house, have kids, or have any of the traditional financial milestones their family once did. So Gen Z, hear me when I say these challenges are real and there are legitimate reasons to feel discouraged. But here's the hard truth I need you to hear. Your financial situation might not be all your fault, but it is your responsibility. Nobody's coming to save you. The government is not gonna fix this. Your employer's not gonna randomly triple your salary just cause times are tough. The housing market isn't going to magically crash back to 1985 prices. But a better future is absolutely possible. So how do we get there? Well, I'll tell you, but first let's talk about a future where your personal info isn't all over the Internet. I'm working toward that beautiful future with the help of Deleteme, a sponsor of today's video. Delete Me removes your from hundreds of data broker sites to help cut the risk of getting scammed. Their data privacy experts work all year long behind the scenes to keep tabs on who's got your info and then they get to work on removing it. And here's the cool part. When you have Delete me, you can submit a custom removal request if you find your info on any site, and their team will get to work on taking it down. And with my special link, you can get a discounted plan that comes out to about nine bucks a month. So to get the deal and to take control of your data privacy online, go to joindeleteme.com George or use the link in the description. Okay, so back to our question. How do you create a better financial future when everything feels pointless and hopeless? One where you're not running out of money every month? One where you've actually got some margin for saving, giving and enjoying life? Well, it all starts by thinking about this whole problem differently. You need to overcome three main things holding you back from building wealth and having freedom with money. The first thing to overcome is a lack of margin. This one is obvious. There's too much month at the end of our money. We need a bigger gap in order to save for our goals and live our best life. Now here's the thing. Debt is stealing from your margin. It's a thief robbing from every paycheck. So here's what you gotta do. You gotta create a budget. You gotta track it, stick to it, live on less than you make, get out of the debt, start cutting some expenses, increasing your income and the margin will follow. Easier said than done, but I'll drop a link to my favorite budgeting app below. That makes it way easier. The second area we have to overcome is a lack of patience. We live in a microwave culture, but instead we need to think more crockpot, right? Low and slow. It's going to take a while to get there. It's not all going to happen tomorrow. But that doesn't mean we just throw our hands up in the air and give up, because we don't have the lifestyle that our parents currently have. You got to think long term. And this is a quote that resonated with me that really sums up my financial journey. Most people overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in 10 years. So yes, you may not become wealthy in the next year or two. It might take 10 or 15 or 20 years, but it starts today. You've got to start taking the right steps to get there. And you've got to start having a little more patience. You've got plenty of time. I promise you. If you're in your 20s or 30s, you are just getting started, my friend. Hang tight. The third area we have to overcome is a lack of contentment. One of the biggest reasons we outspend our bank account and make poor financial decisions is this discontentment. We got to have more. We don't have enough right now. We live in a comparison culture. So here's the key. Not caring about what other people think is a superpower. You don't need to flex. You need to figure out what your goals are and focus on that only. All right? Don't look at someone else's bowl unless it's to make sure they have enough. And it's okay to have nice stuff. I'm not saying don't buy stuff that means you're discontent. Just don't let that nice stuff have you in the form of payments and in the form of robbing all the margin that you could be using to get out of debt and to build wealth. So look, if you're part of Gen Z or any other generation that feels overwhelmed by your finances, I want you to know this. You're not screwed. The deck might feel stacked against you in some ways, but you have way more control than you think. So you can sit around and complain about how unfair everything is and keep living paycheck to paycheck, or hear me out, you can do something about it. If you're tired of living like this, you're ready to start seeing some actual progress with your money. Check out this video for a complete breakdown of the exact plan I used to go from negative net worth to millionaire in under a decade. It has worked for millions of people. I'm not that special. It's just the one that worked for me too. It's one of the most important videos on this channel and it might just change your financial future. So you've got nothing to lose except maybe 12 minutes and 25 seconds of your time. So give it a click or use the link in the description. That's it for today. If you enjoyed this video, hit those like and subscribe buttons. And if you're a boomer, share this video with a Gen Zer and tell them, I see you and you are enough. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.