{"id":125581,"date":"2025-08-07T06:01:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T06:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/125581\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T06:01:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T06:01:20","slug":"gen-z-wants-to-hit-financial-independence-early-by-using-side-hustles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/125581\/","title":{"rendered":"Gen Z Wants to Hit Financial Independence Early by Using Side Hustles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beneath the “Gen Z stare<\/a>” is a desire to retire early \u2014 or, at least, have the freedom to walk away from a job they don’t like.<\/p>\n

According to The Great Wealth Reset<\/a>, a 2025 report conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of dub among 2,000 US adults, Gen Z (ages 18 to 28) say the ideal age for achieving financial independence is 32. As for when they’d like to actually hit that milestone, 94% say they want to be there no later than age 55.<\/p>\n

And they aren’t relying on a 9-to-5 to accelerate their lofty goals.<\/p>\n

The same survey found that 60% of Gen Z believe a traditional job won’t help them reach their financial goals. Instead, they’re banking on side hustles, freelance work, and entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n

“Young Americans aren’t rejecting the idea of wealth, they’re recreating the path to get there,” said Steven Wang, the Gen Z founder and CEO of investing app dub<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As for why they’re more inclined to take a less traditional path, Wang points to a few reasons. First, there are more digital opportunities than ever before.<\/p>\n

“Expressing yourself as a creator, potentially going viral, and making a lot of money through that \u2014 that was impossible 10 years ago, but nowadays, because of social media, web 2.0, I think that will only accelerate,” he told Business Insider.<\/p>\n

He also points to a general feeling of a “loss of trust in the future and the system,” he said. His generation is paying attention to data points such as the growing wealth gap and rapid inflation. “I think it’s deteriorated the belief in the institutions that got us where we are today, and worked for our parents.”<\/p>\n

As a result, “there’s this ‘going against the grain’ sentiment that I think my generation can really get behind.”<\/p>\n

Val Zapata is just one example of Gen Zers building wealth on their own terms. She turned her sneaker-collecting hobby into a side hustle and, eventually, a full-time gig. She now sells millions of dollars worth of sneakers<\/a> and streetwear by hosting live shows through the platform Whatnot.<\/p>\n

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Zapata immigrated from Colombia as a kid, grew up in New York and Texas, and didn’t go to college. She used online resources to learn how to scale her business.<\/p>\n

“I learned everything about resale on YouTube for free,” she said, including how to scale her Instagram account, The Shoe Game Co.<\/a>, and how to set up a Whatnot show, which is where the majority of her sales come from.<\/p>\n

Her generation is leaning into free resources offered through social media platforms much more than other generations. The Great Wealth Reset found that 36% of Americans use social media for financial advice over traditional financial advisors. That percentage jumps to 62% among Gen Z.<\/p>\n

Online content is “super accessible,” Wang told Business Insider. “It’s very short-form, it’s easy to digest, and that’s just a form of content mastery that traditional financial advisors just don’t have. The creators on Instagram and TikTok who talk about finance are delivering information in the way that my generation wants to see it and likes to see it.”<\/p>\n

He pointed out that this trend has downsides: “A lot of these creators are not licensed individuals. They don’t actually have degrees.”<\/p>\n

But Gen Z would rather gather free information online and take matters into their own hands than hire a financial advisor.<\/p>\n

“This goes back to being more in control of your own finances and sort of your own destiny,” said Wang. “And this also goes toward that trend I mentioned earlier of going against the traditional institutions. Trust is deteriorating in the big, big financial systems and the big banks.”<\/p>\n