Gen Z Is Building Wealth By Investing Instead of Buying Homes

Kana Cummings got into personal finance in 2020, when “the world was kind of crumbling,” she said.

It was her junior year of college, and some students had organized a personal finance workshop to help quell anxieties during the coronavirus panic.

“It was such an inescapable time,” said Ms. Cummings, 26, who lives in Cleveland. “I think people were like, ‘We really need to be thinking about these things kind of early.’”

After taking the workshop, she opened a Roth individual retirement account and funded it with earnings from a summer internship. Since then, she’s continued investing. When she got hired at a management consulting firm after graduating, she contributed to her company’s 401(k) plan and funded her Roth I.R.A. with her annual bonuses. She has an emergency fund that she keeps in money market funds and a separate, passive investment portfolio.

Eventually, she’d like to buy an apartment in a big city. But buying a home isn’t something she is actively saving for, and she doesn’t like the idea of spending money on rent, either. She is currently living with her parents before moving out to start business school later this month.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/22/business/gen-z-houses-investing.html