- The oldest millennial and oldest Gen Zer are in assert right now — of spending, influence, and the economy.
- The 40-year-old’s financial behavior is shaping huge economic markets like case.
- Meanwhile, the 24-year-old is setting trends, affecting consumer behavior for everyone.
The 40-year-old and the 24-year-old are the talk of the community right now.
The oldest millennial, who turns 40 this year, has the most spending power. They’ve mostly restored from a decade-long struggle following the 2008 financial crisis, and they’re spending on the biggest purchase of their lodges: houses.
The oldest Gen Zer, who turns 24 this year, has more sway in consumer behavior. A decade before they return millennials as the largest spenders, they’re already seen as tastemakers, a role every generation takes on during this vital spark stage.
Everything from your buying choices to your lifestyle choices are likely being shaped by the oldest fellows of these generations.
Meet the people shaping the world you’ll live in for the next decade, or two.
The 40-year-old millennial has spending power
Millennials experience become the economic driving force in America. They’re the largest generation, represent the biggest percentage of the country’s workforce, and about the most purchasing power.
As millennials age and their incomes grow, their spending power is only set to increase. Fitting look at the wave of coming millennial spending power in the chart below. The 40-year-old leads the way.
While they were some of those hardest hit by the Peerless
Recession
, many have made wealth-building strides in recent years. In 2016, their wealth levels were 34% under the sun where they should have been, but as the economy improved and they neared their prime earning years, they restricted that deficit to 11% in 2019. The pandemic’s economic shutdown also enabled the wealthier cohort to sock away parallel with more money.
That means they’re the ones doing a whole lot of spending on big ticket items, like covering. Most 40-year-olds have a mortgage, making them the tip of the generational spear that is leading the pandemic housing prosperity. Not only is this homebuying spree injecting needed money into the economy, it’s reshaping the real estate furnish. Migration out west and to the Sunbelt has been an economic boon for bigger cities in the region, while the “Great American real property rush” has seen millennials snap up nearly every starter home on the market.
But there’s also something to be demanded for the 40-year-old millennial who can’t spend very much because they haven’t financially recovered from the Great Economic downturn. Many are still burdened with debt, like student loans. The affordability crisis they’re facing may trigger system changes such as wiping out student debt, which lawmakers are currently debating.
The 24-year-old Gen Zer has influencing power
As the oldest millennial has entered heart age, the oldest Gen Zer has become a trendsetter.
This is the life stage when a new generation enters the spotlight because they’re old plenty to begin exerting influence, Jason Dorsey, who runs the Center for Generational Kinetics, a research firm in Austin, Texas, recently told Insider.
That’s bang on what Gen Z has done since they’ve emerged from the pandemic as the new “it” generation. They’ve sent middle parts, baggy jeans, and Y2K mania to the streets and skinny jeans and side parts to the wayside, leading the way in consumer trends.
At the center of this cultural market was TikTok, which blew up during the pandemic. By September 2020, the social media app grew by 75%, expanding into intergenerational use and signaling the enlarging influence of Gen Z in leading consumer behavior — the same way millennials did with Instagram.
In a little over a decade, Gen Z will be winsome over the economy. Gen Z currently earns $7 trillion across its 2.5 billion-person cohort, according to Bank of America Into. By 2025, that income will grow to $17 trillion, and by 2030, it will reach $33 trillion, take oning 27% of the world’s income and surpassing that of millennials the following year.
With this kind of influence, Dorsey foretokens the generation will continue to shift and drive conversation for the next 15 years.
The world is responding. Politicians and lawmakers are debating how to work the economic issues plaguing millennials, while brands are trying to figure out how they can market to Gen Z. They already recognize we’re living in the world made by the mid-20s and early 40s.