GREAT EXPECTATIONS

This Is the Eye-Watering Amount Gen Z Says Means ‘Financial Success’

Nevertheless, 71 percent still think they will achieve financial success—more than any other generational group.

While Baby Boomers say a person has to earn around $100,000 a year to be “financially successful,” members of Generation Z say they would need to make almost six times that figure—$587,800—to fit the label, Axios reported based on a September survey by Empower. Gen Z is truly in a league of its own—Generation X put the figure at $212,300, while for Millennials it was a bit lower, at $180,900. Across all generations, the average was $270,200. Despite their lofty ideal of financial success, 71 percent of Gen Z still said they thought they would achieve financial success in their lifetime, which was more than any other generational group. Boomers, who reportedly control over half of all American wealth, could actually end up helping Gen Z achieve their goal. Over the next few decades, as much as $50 trillion could flow from the older generation to younger ones in the form of inheritances—although experts also warn that it could also end up being spent on health-care costs for the aging Boomers.