Financial stress forces young Americans to delay life milestones

More than seven in 10 members of Gen Z say financial pressure has pushed back at least one of life's defining moments from buying a home to starting a family.

Northwestern Mutual's 2026 Planning & Progress Study conducted by The Harris Poll among 4,375 US adults gives an insights into how economic conditions are reshaping the timelines of younger generations. Among Gen Z respondents, 72 percent said financial concerns had delayed a major milestone, compared with 56 percent of millennials. More troubling, 71 percent of Gen Z and 60 percent of millennials said they feared they might never be able to afford certain life goals at all.

Homeownership leads the list of deferred dreams

Buying a home topped the list of postponed milestones for Gen Z.

Thirty-one percent said they had put off homeownership because of financial constraints, and 34 percent worried the goal might never become affordable. For millennials, the homeownership gap has narrowed slightly with 42 percent of non-homeowners now believing it is or will become achievable, up from 33 percent a year ago, and Gen Z optimism on the issue climbed from 42 percent to 54 percent over the same period.

More than half of respondents cited down payment concerns, though that figure has eased to 53 percent from 64 percent in 2025. Mortgage rate anxiety has also softened — 40 percent called rates prohibitively high, down from 48 percent — as has concern about housing market competition, which dropped from 43 percent to 38 percent.

For clients in their 20s and 30s, navigating homeownership planning has become an increasingly central part of the advisor-client conversation, especially with high levels of student debt adding to the pressure for those who want to own their own home.

Starting a family carries its own price tag

Beyond housing, 24 percent of Gen Z had delayed parenthood and 20 percent had postponed marriage.

Of those who are already parents, more than 70 percent of Gen Z and millennial respondents said they spend as much or more on their children each month as they do on rent or mortgage payments — a cost burden that the study's authors said is compounding the broader squeeze.

Education costs have also emerged as a deferred obligation: 26 percent of Gen Z reported pushing back decisions tied to education spending.

AI anxiety adds another layer of uncertainty

Underlying many of these concerns is a deeper unease about the future of work.

Forty-six percent of Gen Z said they were pessimistic about how artificial intelligence would affect their career prospects, compared with 32 percent of millennials. That anxiety may be informing the reluctance of younger Americans to make long-horizon financial commitments at a time when the nature of employment itself feels uncertain.

The study found that 24 percent of Gen Z respondents had sought professional financial advice for the first time in the past year, a signal that demand for guidance is growing even as economic anxiety mounts. Younger Americans' growing appetite for financial advisors who understand technology has been one of the clearer trends to emerge from recent wealth management research.

A generation saving early but still uncertain

Despite the financial headwinds, some data points cut against a picture of pure pessimism.

Gen Z has begun saving for retirement at an average age of 22, six years earlier than millennials, who started at 28. The cohort targets retirement at 61. That early start has not, however, translated into confidence: 42 percent of Gen Z expressed concern about retiring comfortably, and the share of Gen Z who feel prepared for retirement slipped from 63 percent to 58 percent between 2025 and 2026.

Americans overall now believe they need $1.46 million to retire comfortably, up $200,000 from 2025, with high-net-worth individuals putting that figure at $2.67 million. Against those targets, 46 percent of non-retirees said they did not expect to be financially prepared when the time came.

The data points to a clear advisory opportunity. Americans who work with a financial advisor report retiring an average of 2.4 years earlier than those without one (63.7 years versus 66.1) and are substantially more likely to feel financially secure, at 71 percent compared with those without professional guidance.

Gen Z and millennials are not disengaged from money but they are deferring decisions under the weight of competing pressures: elevated housing costs, child-rearing expenses, career uncertainty, and a retirement savings target that keeps climbing.

For advisors, that combination suggests the entry point is not always retirement planning. It may be a conversation about whether buying a home this year or in five years makes more sense, or how to price the cost of starting a family into a longer-range financial plan.

The 25 percent of millennials and 24 percent of Gen Z who sought financial advice for the first time in 2026 represent a cohort actively looking for that kind of guidance.