As soon as he turned 18, Matthew Robertson opened a tax-free savings account, installed personal finance applications on his smartphone, and began listening to podcasts to immerse himself in the stock market.
Now 21, Robertson views personal finance as a hobby, but he also acknowledges that he pays close attention out of necessity as a university student facing a significant affordability crisis.
“Looking to our future, we kind of have to take (finances) into our own hands if we want to be able to afford a home one day, or to be able to raise a family,” said Robertson, a fourth-year student at Carleton University.
Across Canada, Gen Z is showing a heightened interest in maximizing their income as the cost of living continues to climb. A 2024 survey conducted by TD Bank reveals that 68 per cent of Gen Z Canadians invest consistently every year, which is the highest rate among any age demographic.
Content creators have noticed this shift and are attempting to bridge knowledge gaps on social media. cryptocurrency.
Research indicates that young Canadians are paying attention. A 2024 report from the Canadian Securities Administrators found that approximately 82 per cent of Canadians aged 18 to 24 utilize investment advice discovered on social media platforms.
Alyssa Davies, the founder of the platform Mixed Up Money, has built an audience of more than 85,000 followers on TikTok, where she works to help people cultivate a healthier relationship with their finances.
When the 36-year-old from Calgary launched her platform over a decade ago, she noted that financial discussions were dominated by “a lot of white men talking about how we should pull up our bootstraps and just manage our money better,” which led her to experience financial burnout while juggling student loans and consumer debt.
She observed that the financial landscape has evolved over the last ten years, as social media provides a more approachable way for users to discuss money and seek guidance from people they find relatable.
“We want to take advice from people who get it – people who we can relate to, people who look like us (and) sound like us. Not just experts walking around in suits and making things feel very formal and clinical,” she said.
For individuals who grew up viewing money as a taboo subject, building a positive human connection while trying to understand their finances is vital—even if that connection is one-sided and mediated through a screen, said Errol Osecki, an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management.
However, he noted that some young people are increasingly forming “parasocial relationships” with influencers who provide financial advice.
“You don’t actually know them, and they don’t actually know you, but you start to develop these feelings,” said Osecki, who is in the early stages of researching the mental-health impacts of financial influencer content.
The sheer volume of financial advice on social media can also be overwhelming. While Robertson prefers learning about finances through podcasts, he still encounters financial tips on social media—which he says he rarely accepts at face value.
“For young people who are seeking advice from creators like this, it’s important that we do our own research and make sure we’re not blindly trusting anyone on the internet,” he said.
Michael O’Brien, a financial adviser at SunLife Financial based in St. John’s, N.L., says he hears from many young Canadians who feel “a little bit lost” and struggle to navigate the flood of online advice.
“You can take your lunch and get 15 different pieces of information about what you should do with your money,” he said. “I think they’re just overloaded with information.”
O’Brien noted that he is seeing more Gen Z clients entering his office who “want to try to manage a portion of what they’re doing on their own,” rather than delegating everything to an adviser.
He hopes that national education systems will evolve to equip high school students with the fundamental tools required to manage their money and distinguish fact from fiction while consuming financial content online.
“I hear this all the time from clients who say, ‘I wish I had learned this in school,’” he said.
Saskatchewan and Quebec are currently the only two Canadian provinces with a mandatory financial literacy credit in high schools, though Ontario is scheduled to implement a requirement as part of its Grade 10 math curriculum by September 2026.
Robertson, who was raised in Ottawa, said the financial education he received in high school was “lacking when it comes to the practical financial tools that are helpful in real life.”
While he considers himself fortunate to have had personal finance conversations at the dinner table during his teenage years, he noted that a lack of practical schooling “exacerbates the inequality” between young people from families who discuss money and those who do not.
Financial education does not need to be abstract or overwhelming, O’Brien said; it should simply provide a foundation for topics like investing and budgeting.
“The basic bird’s eye view and just opening people’s eyes to it is super important,” he said.
