If you’re Gen X or older, your parents or grandparents likely lived through multiple wars and the Great Depression, and most of them were probably frugal, modest and prudent. But things have changed. Even through major world conflicts, a global pandemic and an economic roller coaster, today’s young adults are just built differently.
Gen Z is the generation that includes people born between 1997 and 2012, and their current age range spans from 13 to 28. “Gen Z grew up online, so their image on social media has always been part of their identity,” says Alex King, founder of Generation Money, a financial education platform.
From hosting Instagrammable parties that cost attendees thousands of dollars to buying expensive workout clothes to wear in a fancy gym, Gen Z is all about image. From the outside, it looks like all these young people are earning six figures, living in luxury apartments and funding a lavish lifestyle without a care in the world, but Kristy Kim, founder and CEO of TomoCredit, says much of this is a financial illusion.
Ahead, we talked with King, Kim and three other financial experts to understand younger people’s attitudes about money, including something called “financial flexing.” We’ll also look at a new Credit One Bank survey that quantifies some of the current trends. Keep reading to learn what experts have to say about this new paradigm.
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What is financial flexing, exactly?
“Financial flexing is the act of displaying wealth (real or perceived) to influence how others see you,” says Darwin Tu, a data-analytics executive who developed the industry-standard FICO scores for all three credit bureaus in the United States. This behavior is nothing new, but social media has turbocharged it for Gen Z.
“Decades ago, it was called keeping up with the Joneses, aka your neighbors,” says Annette Nellen, a finance and accounting professor and the director of the graduate tax program at San José State University. “Today, social media gives us a lot more ‘neighbors.'”
Financial flexing is the “performance layer” that sits on top of someone’s financial life, says Ilona Limonta-Volkova, a venture-capital investor and host of NPR-distributed podcast Money Memories. “It’s the curated version of stability or success, often expressed through trips, luxury accessories, group dinners or even participation in high-cost life events like weddings.”
How are Gen Zers flexing their finances?
According to a new Credit One Bank survey, a huge motivation is to impress dates. In fact, over half of Gen Z surveyed (54%) admitted to pretending to be rich or successful to impress a potential romantic partner.
“The [Credit One] research shows that many young adults embellish their credit or earnings in dating situations,” King says. What happened to going for coffee or a walk in a park? Why is Gen Z flexing so much on dates? In a dating world that typically exists online before real life—where it’s your carefully curated image that gets someone to swipe right—looking financially successful is a big part of the game. And yes, Gen Z sees dating as a game.
This may sound a bit far-fetched, but the information is based on real data. Credit One surveyed 1,000 Gen Zers and Millennials across a range of income levels and regions in the U.S. They looked for broad trends as well as nuanced insights as a way to see how financial habits and credit affect social status and perceptions of the younger generations.
“The Credit One findings mirror what I hear in my interviews: Many Gen Zers are showing the highlight reel before the balance sheet is fully formed,” Limonta-Volkova says. This type of financial dishonesty may appear small, but it creates the wrong starting point for building long-term trust and communication.
How many younger people admit to doing this?
Plenty. Let’s take a look at where younger generations tend to flex—and how many admit they’re doing it. As you might surmise, it turns out there’s a gender divide too. Here are some major life experiences illustrated in Credit One’s findings, which represent both Gen Z and Millennial respondents:
- Dating: Nearly 50% of men would be willing to go into debt on a date, with that debt ranging from $50 to $500. In contrast, fewer than 30% of women say the same.
- Marriage: When it comes to marrying someone with a bad financial history, 47% of men say they’d overlook a partner’s financial past compared with 27% of women.
- Credit scores: Forget clever jokes or impressive dancing skills; now it’s all about the credit score. More than 50% of people say a 750 FICO score makes someone more attractive. That said, 24% don’t care about credit scores at all.
- Personal finances: An even 50% of women would hurt their credit score to help a loved one, compared with 44% of men.
What other types of financial flexing are particularly prevalent?
In large part, Gen Z is financial flexing so they can share it on Instagram and TikTok to increase their social capital when dating or making new friends. Kim says that this generation’s flexing shows up in both hard goods and experience spending, such as fancy dinners, designer items, high-end skin care, festival weekends, luxury vacations as well as pricey holiday and birthday gifts.
“It doesn’t feel like debt in the moment; it just feels like keeping up and ‘treating yourself,'” she says. “But the math shows up later—the math always shows up.”
Why is Gen Z particularly prone to this?
Gen Z has grown up in a world where everyone seems to show everything—except they don’t. They may show you their $1,000 purse, carefully placed on the table in front of a $30 martini, but they don’t show you the interest they’re paying on their credit card.
“Social media has turned personal finance into a visible commodity,” Limonta-Volkova says. “Unlike Millennials, who came of age before public-facing financial milestones were normalized, Gen Z has always lived with income, spending and lifestyle signals being broadcast and compared in real time.”
Limonta-Volkova also points out that this generation carries a deep anxiety about falling behind. “Flexing becomes a social shorthand for belonging and perceived upward mobility, even when the underlying financial picture is mixed.”
Is financial flexing actually that big of a deal?
It can be. There’s a difference between saving up for something special, and perhaps flexing a bit to show off the results of your sacrifice, and flexing for likes and social-media dopamine hits.
According to Kim, who helps people build credit, flexing becomes a problem when it starts looking like an addictive, financial circus that’s funded through overdrafts, out-of-control debt and other destructive financial behavior. “As the survey data suggests, one special occasion can easily turn into a pattern and a problem,” Kim says.
King recommends pairing a financial flex with a non-financial achievement. “For example, going to a fancy restaurant when you finish exams or graduate college, or going on a luxury vacation for a big birthday,” he says. “This means it becomes occasional by its nature and won’t pressure you into constantly flexing online.”
How can you flex while still being frugal?
It’s totally possible to flex while still being frugal! Tu shares his playbook for flexing without overspending:
- Flex aesthetics, not price tags: Instead of flexing through expensive, trendy items emblazoned with logos, choose simple, minimalist outfits in smart color combinations.
- Flex experiences: People respond to moments, not money, and with the right lighting, you can create affordable, flex-worthy moments at little to no cost. Tu suggests capturing moments on a beach or local rooftop at sunrise or sunset, on hiking trails with friends, in stylish cafes with a cup of low-cost tea and at museums with a free pass from the library.
- Flex quality over quantity: Instead of buying multiple trendy items, Tu suggests buying one good piece and wearing it often. If it’s an item you use every day—like a good pair of sneakers, a classic tote, a minimal watch or a blazer—it becomes a signature item and part of your brand.
- Flex smart money moves: Tu promotes the power of the “quiet flex” that shows intelligence, discipline and foresight in a generation that wants instant gratification. Some examples are maxing out your Roth IRA, paying down 50% of your credit card debt or earning free flights from rewards.
- Flex your skills: Instead of flexing what you bought, Tu suggests flexing what you can do to earn long-term respect. Examples are cooking, photography, language learning or interior design.
Bottom line: A social life doesn’t have to be expensive to have value, and some may argue that the more low-key the venue, the higher-quality the social interactions. Tu points out that people respond to joy and belonging, so go ahead and share photos from community events with friends, or fun nights hanging at home in pajamas and baking cookies.
How to know if you’re financial flexing
You might think you’re just living your life, but you might be financial flexing more than you realize.
“If it’s funded by debt, it’s not a flex—it’s a liability,” Kim says. “The happiest, most secure people of any generation don’t care what other people are doing and certainly wouldn’t harm themselves to impress strangers.”
The strongest connections aren’t based on what someone thinks you have in the bank, but on transparency, shared values and trust. “That kind of confidence lasts longer than any flashy moment,” Kim says. “The goal isn’t to look rich—it’s to be OK.”
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Sources:
- Alex King, founder of Generation Money; email interview, December 2025
- Darwin Tu, co-founder of BON credit; email interview, December 2025
- Ilona Limonta-Volkova, host of NPR-distributed podcast Money Memories; email interview, December 2025
- Annette Nellen, finance and accounting professor at San José State University; email interview, December 2025
- Kristy Kim, founder and CEO of TomoCredit; email interview, December 2025
- CreditOne Bank: “The Social Status of Credit: How Millennials & Gen Z View Credit Scores”
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