Article
How do you engage the next generation with their money?
September 4, 2026
Head of Money Coach Academy & Marketing Lead
Events and Marketing Intern at Life Moments
It’s a question we’ve been thinking about a lot at Life Moments as we explore how financial services can better engage and support 16-24 year olds.
Young people are without doubt the customers of tomorrow. If we want them to reach retirement and beyond in good shape financially, we can’t wait until they become high value customers, have taken out multiple financial products or conversely, reached the point where something has already gone wrong. We have to start earlier.
But starting earlier also means engaging differently.
Gen Z and Gen Alpha have grown up with very different expectations of how firms communicate with them. Social media, influencers, personalised digital experiences and increasingly AI are shaping what good engagement looks like. And while younger generations may be driving that change, it isn’t confined to just them. The behaviours they adopt today are fast becoming the expectations of tomorrow.
Firms know this. Many are actively looking for better ways to reach younger customers because traditional approaches simply aren’t proving very effective.
At Life Moments, we believe more holistic, life-centric engagement has an important role to play to earn the trust of any customer. Rather than waiting for someone to need a financial product, how can firms become relevant earlier, help people navigate the moments that matter and build trust along the way? But young people remain a blind spot. So, we want to make a more active effort in hearing their voices.
Through our work experience programme with Intrainship, nine 16-17 year olds spent a week helping us explore what financial wellbeing for 16 to 24 year olds should actually look like.
We challenged them to imagine a new experience around ‘starting your adult life’. They explored the money topics that matter to their generation, the features they would genuinely use, how they would want those experiences delivered. They expanded their thinking beyond Financial Services, looking at what other apps get right, that banks could learn from. Some of them specifically considered the role banks could play in side hustles and first businesses.
Their ideas reinforced something important for us: if financial services wants to engage young people earlier, we need to understand engagement through their eyes.
And who better to continue that conversation than someone from that generation?
Our marketing intern Ruth Jackson-Koufie is 23 and has powerful ideas on financial wellbeing and engagement. Below, you can read her perspective, as she explores where young people are currently turning for financial information, why having more information doesn’t necessarily make navigating money easier, and what financial services could do to become a more relevant part of that journey.
There is more guidance available than ever. But where do young people start?
We live in a time where spending, saving and managing money is as easy as tapping your phone. At the same time, young people have more access to financial information than ever, from news outlets to social media to AI.
But with so much information out there, how do young people know what to listen to? More importantly, how do they know where to start learning about their finances?
Gen-Z have grown up in a digital-first world, turning to their favourite YouTuber, trusted Reddit users or influencers for recommendations, inspiration, guidance and more. The topic of money is no exception. Some young people turn to ‘finfluencers’ to understand their money, while others feel overwhelmed by the volume of conflicting information, and not knowing who to trust.
For some, social media has become their starting point. The Association of Accounting Technicians reported in February this year that more than 25% of young people turn to TikTok and Instagram for financial information. There’s clearly a desire to learn more about money and make better financial decisions. But with many unverified sources, young people are vulnerable to misinformation or guidance that isn’t relevant to their situation.
The lack of relatability and personal touch might be a reason that this is happening.
Young people connect with what feels real and relatable. The same way people seek advice from family and friends, they can feel they know ‘finfluencers’ through their online personas.
For those who feel overwhelmed, even understanding what a financial product is, whether it is relevant to them and what action to take can feel daunting. This is where better structures and resources are needed to support young people throughout their financial journey.
The 2025–2026 Young Person’s Money Index found that 80% of teenagers want to learn more about money and finance, while 53% want to improve their financial situation but don’t know how.
So what can we do?
This isn’t about dismissing finfluencers or social media. It’s about creating frameworks that make young people’s financial journeys less daunting and help them feel supported in taking those first steps.
I have some suggestions on how we can approach this:
Simple guides with actions based on moments:
I’ve got my first job → understanding payslips → tax → workplace pension → saving
Produce short-form content with trusted media figure that appears in spaces young people use to bring in the personal touch
Financial GPS: an app which starts by asking where a young person is at and where they want to be; then gives them a route “understand X, do Y, consider Z”
This is where businesses like Life Moments play a vital role, helping and pushing financial services to create the experiences and infrastructure to engage young people differently.
Instead of waiting for young people to come, it’s time the industry met them where they’re at, with the technology, attention and openness to engage them.
