How are You Supposed to Save Money When Your Entire Feed is an Ad? Gen Z and the Financial Literacy Gap

When I was 14, working in a bakery for my very first job, I would tell adults that I wanted to graduate university debt-free. With a bitter laugh, I often got the response, “Good luck with that!” They would sometimes pat my head, and with an all-knowing voice, would say, “That’s an impossible goal, dear.”

Condescending yet revealing.

It’s not like they were unfounded in their doubt. The pressure to spend money is everywhere. For example, have you noticed the flood of posts on social media these days thinly disguising secret advertisements? I can’t be the only one—all of these creators have Amazon Storefront links to whatever it is that they’re selling, every third reel is an advertisement for something I Googled yesterday, and the latest trending moisturizer is masquerading as a post about a skincare “must-have”. Organizational videos are actually just links to sponsored posts about a new plastic thing that “changed my life”. 

How did I graduate with enough money to pay off my student loans? 

It has to do, surprisingly enough, with learning to trust myself. In my teenage years, and throughout much of my degree, there were things I wanted to buy. For example, I really, really want a Dyson Airwrap. But I can’t afford one. Even secondhand, they’re still too expensive. And it feels like everyone has one! Every time I see a video of one, I feel like I’m missing out on some part of my youth, on some part of being a woman. 

So here’s where trusting myself comes in—and I’m about to sound a little crazy. I have to trust that a future version of myself will be able to buy myself an Airwrap. I have to believe that in a few years, I’ll be buying myself the thing I so desperately think I need right now. 

Delayed gratification. In a world where Gen Z is constantly being bombarded with advertisements, trusting in delayed gratification is becoming harder and harder. Especially considering that everywhere we look, things feel so impossible! Buying a house feels harder than ever for the average Gen Z’er. Even getting a job, the thing that was a little easier for our parents, feels next to impossible. So it’s understandable that so many of us feel “now or never” with some of these purchases. 

But here’s the kicker. If we don’t believe that one day, we’ll have the income to afford the stuff we want, we’ll keep spending money—and it’ll become a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

How was I able to graduate debt-free? I had a goal in mind that I desperately wanted to hit. (And maybe I wanted to prove some people wrong while I was at it, too.) So if we as a generation ever want to hit some of the financial goals our parents did, we have to start trusting ourselves. We have to believe that if we wait, then some future version of ourselves will thank us. We have to believe that one day, we’ll be signing our first mortgage, or laying on a beach in our early retirement, or sending our own children to university—and we won’t even remember what Amazon basic a girl from TikTok said we needed.

I’m thanking my 14-year-old self for her time spent in a bakery. I’m thanking her for every time she decided that her goal was worth the sacrifice. I’m going to wait on the Airwrap because I know that there’s a version of myself in the future who’s going to be ready to buy one.

I hope you can learn to trust your future self, too.