In the early tech days, barriers to entry were much lower, which is why many young fortunes came from tech. Today, competing in tech often requires hundreds of millions, and most young “tech billionaires” seem to come from elite, already-wealthy backgrounds, so I don’t really see them as self-made.
Because of that, I think entertainment ( also the Creator Economy & Digital Entertainment ) is where genuinely meritocratic Gen Z wealth is forming now: content, music, media, etc. Barriers to entry are still low, distribution is global, and success is driven more by audience demand than access to capital. Most other industries simply take too long to scale without major backing.
Curious what others think, where do you see real, bottom-up Gen Z wealth being created today?
mom and dad
online content creators.
Mom and dad for sure
Was gonna say, mostly mom and dad, but they love to claim to be independently successful
I think you meant onlyfans?
lol there was a content creator in my city who pretended to be rich and famous and it eventually worked out.
Now he’s stupid rich and famous
Tons of folks get handed a business and they just need to manage it.
I've seen people turn that leverage into other businesses and then claim they're doing it by themselves.
It's like cmon... we know you got your marketing degree and now you run a family business that isn't in marketing..... hahaha
One of those wealthy Gen Z here. Tech startups (AI) combined with a very healthy dose of luck.
Do you need connections for that? Or you can just launch an idea from your basement?
Yes and no.
You can have the greatest idea in the world, launch it form your basement, and see what happens.
Connections help sales. Sales generate profit.
In my particular case, I joined a startup in the early stages of operation. I brought a sales ability, and a wide network which was previously lacking. My payment comes in the form of commission. I won't give exact numbers but we operate in an industry with high budgets and good margins. Say, one of my connections buys our software for $100 million and I am slated to earn a 4% commission. I am now $4 million richer than I was before the sale. The same would be true if my connection had a connection. Now my connection would earn a 4% commission on the $100 million but I would also earn a 2% etc.
Sales ability is extremely important but also you need the right buyers.
Agreed. Which was the other part I brought. I'm fortunate to work in a relatively tight industry. Reaching out to my contacts, say 5% are interested. If they all know on average 100 people and the 5% number holds again, exponential growth.
For both examples, I use multiples of 100 for easy math. The actual contract size is usually much smaller (differs by country) and the average people known and interest in buying is generally higher.
Just like a pyramid scheme!
The difference is threefold. First, we actually produce something useful. Second, unlike a pyramid scheme, it doesn't keep paying out after the initial installation. Third, payments stop after the second branch.
As a note. The numbers above are fictitious and not accurate the actual percentage differs. Usually much less. However, this changes by country.
All a joke dude! LOL
😂
How did you have connections if you were very early in your career? Lots of friends who are CFOs at companies that can afford to write a multi-million dollar check?
Idk if you’d call it rich but I know many apprentice lineman (like myself) and apprentice electricians that make 100k+ right out of high school
Unfortunately you are middle class. Especially now. 100k+ back in the day was upper middle class and well off. But with inflation and the actual rich putting our economy on a nose dive, it just doesn’t have the same power it did back then.
Where do you live that you make 100k+ as an apprentice? Thats an amazing salary man. Congrats 🙏
Lineman apprentice can make over 100k just about anywhere in the country really with a little bit of OT here and there. We have had a few apprentice break 200
I had no idea. How is the work? Is it back breaking?
Thats super good money but also well deserved.
Depends what your doing and who your working for. Even if you’re doing work that’s really not backbreaking it’s still hard on the body as far as wearing down soft tissues and such. But if you’re on a busy crew hand digging poles or climbing every day it can definitely beat you up. A lot of downtime as well. I’ve had 18 hour days where I’ve sat around doing nothing and I’ve had days where I ran my ass off all day or night
Minnesota, but really you can make that anywhere. The most I’ve seen a guy make here is 260 but in California guys can make 400 if all they do is work
Yes that's very rich. We all know media has been lying about importance of college now, when trades pay so well with much lower academic requirements.
How do you actually get in right off the bat? Feels like whenever I look there are no apprenticeship positions open.
Mostly connections. Good luck breaking into apprenticeships any other way.
That sounds corrupt...
Welcome to life.
There is a pretty serious shortage for these types of jobs. If you are trying to get in to cranes or trains or unions in the stronger States, It can be difficult, but there are a lot of opportunities out there.
All you need is a cdl to apply for the union apprenticeship. No experience needed
Former electrician turned fintech here. Trades are good if you can't afford college but make no mistake, it is a undeniable fact that college grads make much more than non college grads. All the best paying white collar jobs like doctors, lawyers, engineers all require college. Also almost all the wealthiest people have gone to the best universities and even the "dropouts" like Zuckerberg, Bill gates, etc dropped out of Harvard and other top schools. I became an electrician after high school because I couldn't afford college and it was a decent job that provided a middle class income, started at 54k, left 3 years later at 81k and started college. Now I work in fintech and make 237k while sitting in an air conditioned office. Meanwhile I see tradesmen sweating their balls off outside crouched over doing labor for probably around half my salary sitting down. I also have back, knee, and neck problems resulting from the 4 years I spent as an electrician so there definitely is a physical sacrifice for working in trades. Everyone should do the best for their circumstances but there's a reason why all the powerful and rich have their children go to college while telling your kids they don't need college and should do labor instead.
What do you do in FinTech? I work at a FinTech Mortgage doing IT and we are paid worse than every trades comment I see.
Engineers are paid much better and most build apps that they end up selling off. My Gen-Z popular neighborhood got absurdly expensive in Brooklyn and everyone buying the $5 million+ townhouses is a software engineer that sold something off. Every last one.
I am a B2B Solutions architect in NYC. Median income for trades is 70k. Are you making less than that? Because you are being severely underpaid for your role unless you are out in the sticks or something. The trades making 200k+ are the more dangerous and physically straining trades like specialized welding or linemen and generally also include a lot of overtime to reach that. Mass majority of tradesmen make nowhere near that with the median being 70k. Like there's a reason why all the ultra rich made their wealth from tech/finance/business/luxury retail etc instead of through being a Tradesman. It's great for a middle class life but the real lucrative sectors are only available through higher education. If the trades were really that great you would see the children of the wealthy and powerful flocking to become tradesmen but it obviously never happens because the rich understand where the real money lies and it's not in the trades.
What did you study
Dual major cs/financial economics
Needed to hear this!
You trade your body for money, most tradesmen’s bodies are broken by 50
This isn’t the 1950s, ergonomics have come a long way, as have working conditions. We don’t carry shingles up ladders anymore.
but I'm at home with my feet up by the fire (literally), watching TV while working, taking my dog for a walk, going to the gym at lunch then picking up groceries at off-peak hours and cooking dinner while tradesmen sit in traffic on the way home or I might be in bed reading or getting good sleep while the overtimer is coming home after dinner. Don't get me wrong, I like working with my hands, but I'd rather do it on my own terms.
You aren’t wrong, but there is no way I could sit in my house all day, and if you aren’t actually getting up regularly, your body is going to be as broken as someone working like a caveman.
I was appreciating the feeling of having the hard part of my day done, while watching the sun rise this morning, which I have never done from home.
Enjoy the fire.
Not just trades. Trades adjacent, like nurses. They make crazy money just a couple years after graduation.
I think RNs fall into white collar jobs, not the trades and they do require college. With the exception of a few more dangerous trades, most tradesmen make around 70k which while decent is really nothing compared to white collar jobs that almost always require a college education.
Time will fix that
that’s definitely not rich lol, but it’s a good living
It’s a solid and respectable middle class income, especially with no degree, but $100k is far from “very rich.” “Rich” these days really kicks in at like 500k.
You're calling $100k very rich? Dawg, my company pays $110k-$130k right out of college for SWEs. Many of the tech companies pay more than that. Amazon gives $150k base + stock options. Getting into trades is cool and all, but thinking that trades make more than college-required jobs is ridiculous. Besides, the amount of effort the trades require to make deep into the 6-figures is significant compared to an office job. Also, how many people who make 7 figures don't have at least a bachelors? Not nearly as many as those that do.
That’s middle class not rich.
Entry level Rich is 500k + in your 30s 1m + in your 40s
Rich is being able to stop working and maintain a lifestyle you are comfortable with.
You need assets to earn you money when you are sleeping. Otherwise everyone is only a couple paychecks away from “aww shit…”
OF
Birth lottery
> In the early tech days, barriers to entry were much lower, which is why many young fortunes came from tech.
Bill Gates family: one of the most elite lawyering families in the country
Steve Jobs: neighbor and teenage employee of the founder of Hewlett-Packard
Steve Wozniak: son of Lockheed-Martin engineer back when this was a super elite job to have
Mark Zuckerberg: son of a doctor and a dentist
Jeff Bezos: father Exxon engineer who was well off enough to give Jeff half a million dollars in today's money as the initial Amazon investment
Peter Thiel: son of engineer/politician and gold mine owner
Elon Musk: son of emerald mine owners
etc.
It's something of a myth of a poor kid making a tech fortune. So many of the early tech guys also came from privileged backgrounds. Poor kids can't dick around for five years making no money hoping to get rich. They have to get regular jobs.
I’m by no means “Rich”, but am on that trajectory, health and circumstances permitting. ~400k TC Software Engineer. Parents were considered as making poverty wage, but always made sure basic needs were met. For me, I was always very focused and ambitious, but acknowledge that much of my success stemmed from relative stability in my home, which allowed me to realize the potential I was endowed with.
Online money is crazier than people think. It’s either content creation, online stores/marketing, SaaS, or an online service.
I think it’s more rare for this generation than it’s ever been. Even content creators hardly make anything on average.
As an American, I confidently say that this country (and the world in general) are not the same as before.
Statistically gen Z is already ahead of millennials and gen X when they were at that age.
What statistics have you read lol
Pew research, Bloomberg, fidelity.
All sources are saying the same thing
Redfin and Zillow studies are showing higher homeownership in Gen z adjusted for age.
Basically every source except reddit... Which is an absolutely awful place to get information about the world.
It has literally never been easier to make 6 figures as an American ? COL being out of hand is a whole nother story
Making 6 figures by itself means nothing. You need to look at your real earnings, adjusted for inflation…
GenZ is currently between 12 and 28 years old.
So many of the wealthiest have their place due directly or indirectly to their parents’ wealth that this is almost a pointless conversation to have right now.
This will never change
I’m Gen Z and it depends on what you call “richest”
High income earners? Engineers, Nurses, Finance and Trades. Not rich yet but should be soon
Gen Zers that are already wealthy? Crypto, AI Startups and content creation.
Idk about you but path 1 seems way safer than path 2.
If we are talking normal people that aren’t outliers then it’s people in the trades/factory doing tons of overtime and traditional (non-software) engineering roles.
If we are talking outliers then it’s mostly influencers and parents money. It used to be tech and finance but the job market isn’t that great right now.
Gen z only know how to use phones or iPad, they don’t know how to type or use computers like millennials do.
lmao all my millennial coworkers can hardly type above 50 wpm and use two fingers
That’s sad lmao
That's basically how I have been typing for the last 30 years of my tech career...
The millennials at my job can’t even type on the computer. I’d rather work off of the iPad and I’d rather work off the computer. I can type with my eyes closed. GEN Z grew up i. the computer room lol
False. Mellenials at my jobs don't know how to use computers. It's a trend I am seeing amongst mellinials.
Omg lol I clearly don't know how to spell but you get what I mean 😝
I know some truckers with a CDL who make like 100k a year don’t food delivery and home every night. I know of lineman who easily clear 100k+ and this is After paid apprenticeship. I also know a lotttttttttt of people who are just propped up by their parents. Car payment rent everything
Performing arts and sports have always been filled with rags to riches stories. This isn't a gen Z phenomenon.
I’m not sure I would define myself as wealthy but I do make a high income, real estate.
I think part of it is you’re just exposed more to these people through social media. Every generation has young successful people, but the difference is you can pick up your phone and see hundreds of them in minutes.
I also think Gen Z is much willing to take more risks than previous generations because of how impossible it seems to afford housing and start and a family. You see the ones who hit it big because of social media but trust me there are millions who have failed and set themselves back even further.
I think risk taking is more a symptom of youth. I’d even say baby boomers took more risks and moved around more because even if you fuck up, you’re still in a decent position to come back from it.
Very true, I just think the visibility on gen z is so high people think this generation is so different from others. When in fact most Gen Z are just super young and trying to figure it out still.
For sure. It’s just because it’s the current target demographic. They were rehashing the same tired news articles about millennials a decade ago.
Tech
28 year old friends of mine who are a couple bring in $1M+ from high earning tech jobs. Luck and family backgrounds played a big part but neither were trust fund babies.
Its still tech. A lot of the top AI startups are being formed by Gen Z. Meta's Chief AI scientist from scale AI is 28. The list isn't short. There are a lot of under 30s in the AI race that are leading it.
OF, scamming, seeking arrangements , lying, rich parents
My friend got her money through parents that owned a bunch of land. These recessions have been massive booms for them. Poverty enriches the rich.
How low was the tech barrier? I graduated college in ‘07 but I’m a New Yorker so tech wasn’t a thing. Figured it was the Harvard and Yale folk, not the private liberal art college or state school kids
Kind of but also all the social medias bait you into the paying for views
The question is subject to interpretation; however, if we’re honing in on literally “the richest”—tech is still the answer, even if it may be a tiny cohort.
Young people in sales has always been and will always be the lowest barrier to entry type of careers, but a very competitive and self eliminating pool of talent that rises to the top makes it, and many do not.
I think you're underestimating how much capital the creator economy actually requires now.
Sure, anyone can post videos, but the people making real money are spending thousands on equipment, editors, thumbnail designers, and paid promotion. The barrier to entry is low but the barrier to actual wealth is getting higher every year.
Most successful creators I know either had existing wealth to invest or got extremely lucky with timing before the platforms got saturated.
Many are building wealth through access to modern markets. My dad tells me about how he used to read stock prices in the news papers and have a guy he’d have to call to trade a stock, sometimes taking a few days to fully settle out.
Now with apps like Robinhood and every major brokerage offering instant and zero fee trading, the average Joe has (almost) as much access to the markets as a hedge fund manager. Financial literacy is higher today, you have entire communities in places like YouTube about investing and personal finance, 30ish years ago you’d have to pay someone or spend a lot of time in sub par resources to get a fraction of that information
From being on investment subs, I really think the majority of younger people I see get wealthy are doing so through the markets and saving early and often. You still have some standouts doing entrepreneurship, breaking into high paying roles or getting famous in entertainment. But more seem to just be utilizing technology
Nothing about creators is a meritocracy
It will be people who allocated to bitcoin
They are coming from the richest Gen X
Probably stock trading and crypto. /r/wallstreetbets comes off as a majority of guys in their 20s
Excluding the trust fund babies I'd say social media influencers are the most common gen zs earning 7 figures and up. Im sure there are some in tech too. It does seem like there's less opportunities in tech now than there was in the past though.
online content creators forsure. I do it while I'm in college and it's paying for my college education and setting me up for the future. I make over 5 figures doing it and I've been doing it for like 2 years now
Username checks out
Gen Z grew up with technology. We are tech driven and learned to adapt to social media. We learned quick and we're here the longest during the major milestones of social media.
With education evolving, youth apprenticeships have become more common, giving genzs the opportunity to break into careers easier.
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