The young generation saving harder than their baby boomer parents ever did

Josh Kirby

Wed 11 February 2026 at 10:30 pm GMT+9 6 min read

Genevieve Jones, 24, started saving at university and has £20,000 in investments so far - David Rose For the Telegraph

Young people are often described as excessive spenders, prioritising lavish holidays and pricey brunches over saving for a deposit on a home or for retirement.

But it is an unfair portrayal of the many young people who are acutely aware of the financial challenges before them, and who are determined to find ways to overcome them.

Young people were twice as likely as older generations to be saving more in 2025 than they had been a year prior, according to savings provider Scottish Friendly.

Some 69pc of Gen Z – those born between 1997 and 2012 – set themselves a financial budget, compared with just 42pc of Baby Boomers, according to NatWest research.

“Younger investors in particular aren’t splashing the cash on luxuries but are thinking longer term,” says Carl Hazeley, head of investment platform Finimize.

“This shift may be a result of changing habits through the pandemic, when a lot of them started investing, or a heightened awareness of the importance of retirement planning.”

The ongoing great wealth transfer – estimated to be worth £5.5tn over the next 30 years – and the family discussions that come with it are a driving force behind saving habits improving among the young, explains Sean Bannister, head of tax at law firm Edwin Coe.

“We have seen an increasing trend in families encouraging saving among the younger generation, often by way of single or multiple gifts over time,” he says, particularly to help fund Isas and increased pension contributions.

“This has set the tone for many second and third generation clients being more focused on saving generally, as well as being more alive to the significant benefits of compound growth, in particular where the wrapper offers tax efficiency.”

Content about saving and investing on social media is also playing a role in encouraging young people to save, adds Bannister.

“While it’s right to be dubious about the quality and accuracy of these posts, and of course the motivations of those who produce this type of content, it has created conversations among this age group that perhaps had previously been focused on their careers as their most likely source of financial security.”

Telegraph Money speaks to three young people for whom higher house prices, stagnant salaries and economic uncertainty have fuelled a desire to be more financially stable.

‘You’re opening doors to future opportunities’

Adam Mlamali, 24, a data scientist and investor from Milton Keynes, has been saving aggressively for the future from a young age.

He bought a three-bedroom house for £200,000 near Coventry in 2024, where he moved for the lower property prices, and has spent £50,000 renovating it.

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Adam Mlamali, 24, has accumulated more than £100,000 in savings and investments - Andrew Fox

Alongside his job, Mlamali also runs a marketing business and invests his income heavily in stock markets and private equity, accumulating more than £100,000 in savings and investments.

Mlamali attributes his success at such a young age partly to an apprenticeship in finance.

“Being in the environment of finance professionals, everybody around me was always talking about investing, about building their own businesses. I was really curious about numbers and data.”

Mlamali’s mother put away a couple of thousand pounds for him in a Child Trust Fund, and he credits her for instilling a sense of financial responsibility in him: “It wasn’t anything major but it helped – it was a pool of money to manage.”

But he says he is even more focused than his parents were at his age on saving for the future. He stresses the importance of investing as early as possible and the benefits of dividend-paying investments.

“My mum always said that if you save, you can [earn money from the interest]. But if the inflation rate is higher than the interest rate, your money will lose value.”

One reason that Mlamali believes saving for the future is so important is to prepare for turbulence in the economy.

“The job market isn’t the best. By investing, you prepare for very unfortunate scenarios, which do happen, and you future-proof yourself. By investing and saving now, you open the door to opportunities in the future to take more risk, like moving to a different country or starting a business.

“Investing and accounting on a granular level will give you stability, and pay off at the times when you least expect it. When you have a high-paying job, it’s easy to spend excessively – but you can’t account for the future.

“If you can’t stomach the risk of investing, save and save smart – you don’t need to be loyal to a specific bank. Think about the best perks and savings rates.”

Genevieve Jones, 24, started saving in her final year of university, and it has since become a habit. In four years, she has accumulated £20,000 in investments.

“Being a young person in Britain – without the safety nets that older generations had – has pushed me to take investing seriously. I’ve been working since I was 15, but I was spending money very quickly on fickle things like coffees, dinners and fast fashion. I was raised to spend money as I earned it and after six years of working I had nothing to show for it.

“Once I understood long-term horizons, everything changed. I realised I didn’t have to panic-react. A single policy change won’t make or break my future – the habit of investing every month will. Over four years, I’ve accumulated £20,000, and that money is invested for my future.”

‘It was easier for our parents to save’

Michael Downes, 34, lives in St Albans with his wife, Rebecca, 36, and their son, who is in nursery.

Between them, Michael and Rebecca earn more than £100,000 a year, which means they fall into a tax trap that could see them lose their free childcare allowance.

To mitigate this, Michael saves as much as he can into his pension, paying in the maximum 7.5pc of his salary from his job as a sales manager, which his employer matches. On top of this, he also uses salary sacrifice to pay £400 a month into his pension.

Michael also uses salary sacrifice to participate in his company’s share scheme, buying the maximum monthly amount of £150.

He says he has always maximised his pension because he is not convinced there will be a state pension by the time he gets there, and he invests the maximum amount he can into the share scheme because of the tax benefits.

“I think it was easier for our parents to save more as they had a cheaper mortgage and lower childcare fees. But I think people should save more than their parents because there’s more uncertainty. House prices are so high that you wonder what the point is sometimes, but we’re very conscious of saving because of our son.

“[My wife and I] use our stocks and share Isa allowances as much as we can. We bought our house two years ago and used it to fund the deposit so we’re building it back up.”

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