What Financial Advice Are Your Gen Z Members Getting on TikTok?

[00:00:00] Nathan Santomieri: All right, everyone, welcome. We're so thankful that everybody was able to join us today. It's Thursday, and we're looking forward to this conversation and to learning a lot. By a quick show of hands, or just drop it in the chat, or even just nod if your camera's off: the majority of the people on this call probably learned something about money from your parents, a college class, or a banker you know who taught you quite a bit about it.

[00:00:30] Nathan Santomieri: However, we're now facing a new generation, Gen Z, that is learning most of its information from TikTok. Usually it's from somebody in a rented Lamborghini or a rented airplane, someone who looks like they know exactly what they're talking about. And that's the reality of where we're at.

[00:00:46] Nathan Santomieri: 80% of Gen Z say social media is their main source of truth these days, especially when it comes to financial education. Some of it is really great, and I've seen some really great content out there. Some of it, we'll say, is creative at best. But your members can't always tell the difference.

[00:01:03] Nathan Santomieri: So today we're pulling up some of this content. Mart's going to walk through it, and we're going to figure out how we, as the credit union space, can compete with it. This is a conversation, not a lecture. Mart is very engaging, and if this is your first time hearing him, it's going to be great.

[00:01:17] Nathan Santomieri: It's going to be something you can take back to your team, share with them, and use to understand how we can compete. No hand-raising required. You can put your questions in the chat, or you can come off mute. And you may be asked to do a dance. If you are, don't. We'll leave that up to Mart's discretion.

[00:01:35] Nathan Santomieri: So Mart, with that being said, take it away.

[00:01:39] Mart Vainu: Thank you, thank you, thank you for the warm introduction. I'm going to share my screen. What we're going to talk about today is how financial education has changed over the years. What got me into this was volunteering at my local school, talking about financial education, because I grew up in a family where we didn't have any financial education at all.

[00:02:06] Mart Vainu: My mom lived paycheck to paycheck and had payday loans. I grew up seeing that, and I wanted to give back. So I went to my local school and started volunteering. But that's where I saw that PowerPoints don't work anymore. People just don't get engaged. So now I'm going to give you a four-and-a-half-hour PowerPoint on TikTok.

[00:02:27] Mart Vainu: No, we're going to make it fun. If you've been on one of our webinars before, or you've seen what Cashy does, you know I'll do my best to make it fun, because it would be kind of weird if I told you how financial education has changed and then gave you death by PowerPoint.

[00:02:46] Mart Vainu: So if you can, turn your camera on so I can see you. It's more fun for me as well. Even if you're not tap dancing, I can at least see that you're there. We're also going to be playing a game later, so there'll be some trash talking, and we'll have some fun.

[00:03:06] Mart Vainu: What I want to start with is this: when we're talking about Gen Z, I always get confused. What is Gen Z? When were they born? What exactly is the difference between Gen Z and Gen Alpha? So on the screen, you can see the different demographics. Who's Gen Z?

[00:03:27] Mart Vainu: Who's Gen Alpha? And I'm curious: could you put in the chat what made you join the webinar? What sparked your interest when you saw the title, "What financial education is Gen Z getting on TikTok?" Is this relevant for you and your credit union? Put in the chat what sparked your interest.

[00:03:59] Mart Vainu: "Interested in serving our Gen Z members better." "Credit union financial literacy." Gotcha. That's exactly what we're going to talk about. What are the chances? You're in the right webinar. Let's go. "How to better attract Gen Z." "What do they think they know?"

[00:04:19] Mart Vainu: "We're looking to be more active on TikTok." All right. What's interesting is that even though the webinar title says Gen Z, what we're going to find is that it's not only Gen Z that's on TikTok and social media. Financial education has changed for everybody, and we're going to see in a second how you have to be engaging for everybody, not just Gen Z.

[00:04:42] Mart Vainu: So even though the title says Gen Z, you're still going to learn the basics of how to make your financial education program engaging in the first place. And like I mentioned, what got me into this was teaching finance. I was bored with the PowerPoints, and I saw my students were bored. Then we founded Cashy, and the idea started as: can we make financial literacy gamified?

[00:05:09] Mart Vainu: And now that's what Cashy does. We work with 50 credit unions and banks that use, for example, our bingo game instead of a regular PowerPoint. I'm also Gen Z, so this is a topic I'm really passionate about: how to make people want to learn. We'll cover three topics today.

[00:05:32] Mart Vainu: First, we're going to talk about the Gen Z world in general: what they're going through, what they're thinking about, and what their concerns are. Second, we're going to talk about how they consume content, specifically how they consume financial education. And third, the most important part for you: what you can do.

[00:05:54] Mart Vainu: And here's the spoiler: you don't all have to start making TikToks. That's what I heard when I was teaching: "I'm not going to make TikToks. That's not what I do," right? But we can copy what the finfluencers and TikTokers are doing and use their tricks. So that's what we're going to do, and we'll start with the Gen Z world to better understand what they're going through.

[00:06:18] Mart Vainu: For this, I have two TikTok videos for you. What are the chances? I'm going to play the first clip. If you can't hear the sound, let me know, but we should all be good.

[00:06:31] TikTok Video: ...artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution—

[00:06:50] Mart Vainu: All right, that was the first clip. Now I'll play the second one. In the chat, tell me if the video is playing well; sometimes it's a bit slow. If it's good, give me a thumbs up or say yes.

[00:07:09] TikTok Video: ...help shape artificial intelligence. We do not know the precise contours...

[00:07:18] TikTok Video: If you'd let me make this point, please—

[00:07:27] Mart Vainu: All right, so we just watched those two videos. Can you tell me what was going on? Why was the crowd booing? This is a Gen Z audience. The speaker is a founder and entrepreneur telling them how AI is going to change the world and congratulating them on graduating. This was a few months ago.

[00:07:54] Mart Vainu: Put in the chat: why do you think people are booing? Daniel says, "Fear and mistrust of what AI will do to their jobs. Big data over human beings." Daniel's getting a thumbs up. "AI is taking away entry-level jobs." Exactly. They're just graduating, they've spent a ton of money on their education, and now the speaker goes up there and says, "All right, guys, AI is pretty much going to take your job, but congrats on graduating," right?

[00:08:35] Mart Vainu: This is why it's very important, when you're doing financial education, or in general when you're talking to this demographic, that you understand their world. That's why we're starting with this piece, understanding what Gen Z is going through, so you can communicate with them better and have that empathy.

[00:08:54] Mart Vainu: You're not just going in there and getting booed, which obviously nobody wants. The first thing I've prepared is: what is the average age of a first-time home buyer? I'm not just going to show you the answer. Instead, we're going to make this fun, because I said I'd try to make this a fun webinar.

[00:09:15] Mart Vainu: So I'm going to start a game. Your job is to scan the QR code at the top. If you have your phone, scan this QR code right here and join the game. I'm going to have you guess the average age of a first-time home buyer. If you don't have a phone, tell me and I can put the link in the chat.

[00:09:46] Mart Vainu: Join the room, pick a character, and put in a username. Use whatever username you want; Tap Dancing is completely fine. I'll let everybody join. So this is how it's going to work: instead of me just telling you the number, I'll have you guess first, and we'll see who eventually wins the game.

[00:10:11] Mart Vainu: I'll give you 20 more seconds to join. If you don't have a phone, let me know and I'll put the link in the chat so you can join on your computer. Peekaboo joined. All right, is anybody here super competitive, by the way? Anyone coming in here to win? If you are, put "I'm here to win" in the chat.

[00:10:35] Mart Vainu: So people know you mean business. We got a thumbs up from Lauren. Lauren's coming to win. I'll give you 10 more seconds. Join the room, and then I'm going to have you guess. Nathan is willing to lose, taking one for the team. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[00:10:57] Mart Vainu: All right, I'm going to start the game. On the big screen you have the question: what's the average age of a first-time home buyer in the US? On your device, move the slider left or right. What do you think it is? Put in your answers.

[00:11:27] Mart Vainu: Ten more seconds. Put in your answers.

[00:11:36] Mart Vainu: One more person still has to answer. Put in that last response. All right, now I'm going to reveal the result. Let's see. Very different responses.

[00:11:52] Mart Vainu: Where's it going to land? 40. First guesses: Ariana, Stacy, and Izzy. Peekaboo is doing a mind-blown emoji. Sirius, Lauren, mind blown. Maritza, Savannah, mind blown. Everybody's mind is blown. Now I'll go back to my slides and reveal the result. Check this out: this is how it's changed over the years.

[00:12:25] Mart Vainu: It used to be 29, and now it's 40. When you're talking to Gen Z, this is the thing they're talking about most. When you go on TikTok, read articles, watch YouTube videos, or watch interviews, this is what they're talking about: "How will I ever afford a home?

[00:12:45] Mart Vainu: It's pretty much impossible," right? That's how much it's gone up, and that's what's on people's minds at the moment. Now I have another question, and for that, it's back to guessing. I'm not just giving you the result. Let's go to the leaderboard. Marty's first at the moment.

[00:13:12] Mart Vainu: Oh, very interesting. I thought Ariana was the one I saw on there, but Marty was quicker, and you get more points if you're quick. All right, let's do the next question: how many years of average income does a home cost today? Meaning, if you're making an average salary,

[00:13:36] Mart Vainu: how many years of income do you need to buy a home? Give it your best guess.

[00:13:52] Mart Vainu: So you're making an average income. How many years of that income does it cost to buy a home today? Let's see if you're closer this time, because last time people's minds were blown. Let's see if you're expecting the result this time. All right, I'll reveal the answer. Where's it going to land? Okay, very different responses.

[00:14:17] Mart Vainu: There you go. The average is five. Savannah's doing a fire emoji. Stacy and Amy, mind blown again. Rachel is crying. Exactly, and unfortunately that's what Gen Z is doing as well. Now let's go back to the slides and reveal the results. Check this out: see how that's changed. And Marty makes a very good point.

[00:14:43] Mart Vainu: It's not five in California. It changes by state, and there's a really cool map you can Google later, home cost per average income by state, where places like Hawaii and California are just super red because they're so expensive. So this is how much you now need to earn to be able to afford a home, and again, this is what Gen Z is talking about.

[00:15:11] Mart Vainu: To recap this nicely, I'll show you another clip. This went viral on TikTok, which essentially means it blew up. Everybody agrees with this video. I'll play the clip so you can see what it's like.

[00:15:28] TikTok Video: When older people ask me how young people are affording nice things that they wouldn't even buy for themselves, I tell them it's because we can't afford anything else.

[00:15:38] TikTok Video: Homeownership or starting a family is so out of reach that we're using that down payment or kid money on whatever we can afford that'll bring us a semblance of the kind of adulthood we were promised. When houses are a million dollars plus and an older couple will likely outbid us anyway, we're going to relinquish any lingering delusions about homeownership and instead use that money to give our dogs the most enriched puppyhood they can have.

[00:16:09] Mart Vainu: So first question for the chat: do you agree with this? Are you giving your puppy the best life they could ever have?

[00:16:19] Mart Vainu: Are there any puppy people in the chat? Angela says 100%. Leah says, "My cat." Okay, we've got a lot of puppy fans. Alex is saying a million percent. "The bone budget": Lauren, I like that. So this is how Gen Z feels, right? "I'm not going to be able to afford a house anyway, so I might as well go to Vegas and give my puppy a really good life."

[00:16:52] Mart Vainu: And this is what they're talking about on TikTok as well. I'm curious, if you don't mind, put in the chat what generation you're in. Do we have Gen Z in the audience? Gen Alpha, Boomers? Oh, we've got Gen Z, we've got Millennials, we've got Gen X.

[00:17:12] Mart Vainu: We've got Boomers, Gen X. I thought Gen X was the most popular, but no, Millennials seem to be the most popular now. We've got a really good mix, guys. So, Millennials, this one's for you. This is the annual income Gen Z is making, adjusted for inflation.

[00:17:42] Mart Vainu: Even though incomes have theoretically gone up, if you compare Gen Z today with Millennials when they were the same age, Gen Z is making less, because while wages have gone up, costs have gone up even more. So that's the problem: they're trying to buy homes,

[00:18:05] Mart Vainu: homes are super expensive, and real wages are going down. At the same time, rents are increasing. Rents have gone way up compared to renter income, which hasn't risen as much. So rent is expensive and homes are expensive. And if you look at the debt-to-income ratio, Millennials had less debt than Gen Z does now, because Gen Z is forced into it.

[00:18:34] Mart Vainu: This takes into account all loans, and student loans in particular are a big part of it. Everybody's talking about how there are just so many student loans. And this is what Gen Z feels forced into: they're not able to afford a home,

[00:18:52] Mart Vainu: so they're forced to live with their parents, share a room, whatever. Now it's time to guess again: if you're making minimum wage, how many hours per week do you have to work to pay for college? Let's go to the next question. Oh, but first we've got some highlights.

[00:19:20] Mart Vainu: Angela took the lead, KDM got two correct in a row, and Nathan was the quickest in the previous round. Good job, Angela, taking the lead. Now let's see if Angela keeps the lead. I already told you the question: how many hours do you have to work at minimum wage to pay for college?

[00:19:42] Mart Vainu: What's the national average? Roberta's already doing a laughing emoji. She's like, "Wait, 90 hours? What's going on here?" So give it a guess: how many hours per week at minimum wage do you have to work to pay for college? Again, this is based on national averages, so it depends on what college you're going to and what state you're in, but we're talking about national averages.

[00:20:09] Mart Vainu: Put in your response.

[00:20:13] Mart Vainu: Three more seconds. Let's see what people answered. I'm going to reveal the results. Very different responses again. No one went for the lower half. There you go: you have to work 64 hours per week. And at the bottom, Savannah's crying, Chelsea's mind is blown, Lauren's crying as well, and Rob is mad.

[00:20:40] Mart Vainu: At the bottom, it also shows the calculation, based on minimum wage and what an average college costs. Now I'll go back to my slides. Again, check out how this has grown. Minimum wage hasn't increased nearly as much as college costs, basically. So you have to work 64 hours, and you have to study, by the way.

[00:21:07] Mart Vainu: Like Bill says in the chat: if I'm working 64 hours, when do I study? And the previous slide was talking about student debt. You see that correlation, right? It's just not realistic. And we're not talking about great jobs here; these are minimum-wage jobs that people don't even really want, right?

[00:21:30] Mart Vainu: So again, this is what Gen Z is talking about, and I also have a clip for this. I'll play it.

[00:21:38] TikTok Video: "I have no experience. I have no work ethic. I have a criminal record—" "Stop right there. Stop right there. You're hired. You start tomorrow." "Wait, what? I start tomorrow?

[00:21:48] TikTok Video: What's my salary going to be?" "You're going to make enough to buy a home, two cars, and sustainably support a family. But yeah, you start tomorrow." "That's awesome. Great." "Thank you so much for taking the time today. Just a little bit about myself: I recently graduated with my master's degree.

[00:22:04] TikTok Video: I have 10 internships under my belt. I have 20 self-initiated projects that have each led to $10 million. Additionally, I also solved world hunger." "That's quite impressive, but unfortunately we're just looking for somebody with more experience." "More experience? What more do you want from me?

[00:22:21] TikTok Video: This is a minimum-wage position. This is a cashier position. How are you not going to hire—" "You see, that's the problem with Gen Z nowadays. You guys expect everything—" "Bro, shut the f—"

[00:22:32] Mart Vainu: So that recaps the first part, the Gen Z world: what's going on and how they feel. Again, that video went viral, so it got very, very popular on TikTok. Now I'd like to recap this first part. You learned the stats, and you saw what's going through their heads.

[00:22:54] Mart Vainu: So what do you think you should be talking about? If you're building your financial education program, or you're talking to your kids or your friends, write the topics down in the chat. What does Gen Z care about? Put in some keywords.

[00:23:19] Mart Vainu: Roberta says financial wellness. Exactly, and not just financial education but wellness. That goes really well with what Bill just said: priorities. Because financial wellness is also about priorities, right? Maybe financially it's a bad idea for me to go on a trip or buy the best puppyhood for my puppy or whatever,

[00:23:40] Mart Vainu: but if that's what financial wellness means for me, then yeah. Rally says, "Don't mention mortgages." Yeah, that gets them triggered. Investing, yes. I love it. Very good. So if I had to recap it on my end, these are the most popular keywords I see on TikTok. The first one is home buying.

[00:24:06] Mart Vainu: This is what they care about. They feel hopeless: how will I ever be able to buy a home? But it's still their number one goal, like it's always been. It's the American dream, and everywhere else in the world, everybody wants their own home too. So talk about the step-by-step path. How will they be able to afford it?

[00:24:23] Mart Vainu: Next, credit and debt. We saw that the amount of debt has gone up, especially now with buy now, pay later. It's a huge problem, so this is something you can help with when you talk to them about it. Next, budgeting for real life. A lot of the budgeting advice we give, like the 50/30/20 rule, doesn't apply to Gen Z, where your income...

[00:24:51] Mart Vainu: Let's say you're doing Uber Eats. One week you're making one income, the next week a totally different income, the week after that something else again. So teach budgeting in a way where they can save a little bit but also pay for the things they need. Next, there's a very big side-hustle mentality now.

[00:25:12] Mart Vainu: Partly that's because they're forced into it, because they have to make an income, but it also shows how Gen Z thinks. It's not just, "How do I save every dollar?" but instead, "How can I increase the amount I earn?" So they really like to talk about side hustles.

[00:25:28] Mart Vainu: Next, spending traps. We talked about buy now, pay later. In general, if you look at TikTok, Instagram, all of social media, it's trying to get you to buy more and spend more. So if you can talk to them about that, and maybe that includes buying your puppy the best puppyhood ever, that helps.

[00:25:52] Mart Vainu: And last, the investing basics. This came up in the chat as well. They really care about investing, but what we're seeing right now is that their investing isn't actual investing. What I mean by that is they're not putting their money into bonds, ETFs, and stable investments. Instead, they're like, "Hey, what's this sports betting thing?

[00:26:14] Mart Vainu: I heard you can make quick money there." So it's very important to talk to them about the investing basics. That was the recap of the first part. Now, the most important part for you: if I'm going to talk to them about saving and budgeting, how can I do it in a way that gets them engaged?

[00:26:33] Mart Vainu: But first, I want to give you another guess. Let's do highlights. Brian got his first two correct in a row, KDM got three correct in a row, and Ariana lost her streak. Oh, no. Angela is leading again. Good job. So here's another question: what percentage of Gen Z get financial advice from social media?

[00:27:07] Mart Vainu: What do you think it is?

[00:27:14] Mart Vainu: What percentage of Gen Z get financial advice from social media? This includes TikTok, Instagram, everything. Spoiler alert: when you signed up for the webinar, the number was there.

[00:27:33] Mart Vainu: No cheating, though. Some of you are like, "Oh, let me Google that real quick." No. Two more seconds. All right, let's reveal the answers. Where's it going to land? Very different responses again. The correct answer is 77%. In the webinar description it was 80%; we rounded a little bit. Good job, Ariana and Savannah, just one away.

[00:28:00] Mart Vainu: Super close. So this is why we have to look at what the TikTokers are doing. It doesn't matter whether you agree with their advice, or with the format the information is presented in. The fact is, people are going to social media to get financial advice, so whatever those influencers are doing, it's working.

[00:28:31] Mart Vainu: That doesn't mean you have to go and start making TikTok videos. It means you can see what they're doing well and steal those tricks. Because what we're seeing at the moment is that a lot of people are getting financial advice from social media, but only a quarter are getting it from their financial institution, their credit union, or their bank.

[00:28:52] Mart Vainu: But here's a cool stat that I don't have on here, and the studies show this: if you ask Gen Z, "Do you trust the financial advice you're getting?", the numbers flip. About 25% say they trust social media, but 70 to 80% say they trust their financial institution.

[00:29:17] Mart Vainu: So this is a really good opportunity for banks, credit unions, and financial institutions to use the trust they've built: copy what the influencers are doing and use that format to start giving people advice, because you already have that trust, right? And unfortunately, if you look at financial literacy scores, they're not going up.

[00:29:43] Mart Vainu: Does TikTok have something to do with that? Probably, right? So this is where you can help, and this is where your advantage is. At the same time, what's super dangerous is that more than three-quarters of people say they make purchases based on what they see on social media, including me.

[00:30:08] Mart Vainu: I see ads popping up all the time, and I'm like, "Oh, what's this?" and I buy it, right? So you have people on social media getting financial advice, and the most dangerous part is that at the end of a financial advice video, it's like, "Hey, do you want to sign up for this credit card?"

[00:30:26] Mart Vainu: And they're used to taking that advice when making purchase decisions, so unfortunately they often make bad decisions. That's why looking at social media is super important. Now I have a very cool stat for you, and I'm going to have you guess again: how many hours per day is Gen Z spending on social media?

[00:30:49] Mart Vainu: And it's not only Gen Z, but I'll show you that in a second. Let's go back here and do highlights. Izzy. KDM is just crushing this. Wow. Oh yeah, KDM, you were the one who privately asked for the correct answers in the chat, and I messaged you back, right? That's a joke.

[00:31:14] Mart Vainu: We did not do that. It's not rigged. All right, let's see the leaderboard. Angela's still first, crushing it. Next question: how many hours per day does Gen Z spend on social media? What do you think the answer is?

[00:31:46] Mart Vainu: This time it's not a slider, as you can see. It's A, B, C, D; just pick one of the colors. This includes all social media. And by the way, if I remember correctly, the most popular platform is TikTok, followed by Instagram, and then I want to say Snapchat. So this takes everything into account.

[00:32:08] Mart Vainu: All right, let's reveal the results. Now I'll go back to my slides.

[00:32:17] Mart Vainu: Boom. Gen Z is spending about three hours per day on social media, and I saw a lot of you thought it was even higher. What's interesting is that this doesn't include demographics under 16. There's some research, which hasn't been fully proven, so I didn't want to put it here, looking at ages 12 to 16 and 12 to 14.

[00:32:41] Mart Vainu: On average, those numbers are even higher, and you see some teens who are just addicted, using it eight hours a day. It's very, very sad. But why I like this graph is that it shows the other demographics, right? Because earlier in the chat you were saying Millennial, Gen Z, Boomer.

[00:33:02] Mart Vainu: If you look at these other demographics, it's not just Gen Z. The webinar description says Gen Z, but you can use these tricks with anybody, because people in general just aren't used to death by PowerPoint and that boring way of consuming financial education anymore. That's why it's so important for you to copy what the pros are doing.

[00:33:31] Mart Vainu: And that's why I want to show you what the pros are doing. We're going to watch three videos, and you're going to see how financial education is done on TikTok. We'll watch the first video, and then we'll recap what you just saw.

[00:33:49] Mart Vainu: I'll play the clip here.

[00:33:52] TikTok Video: Explaining investing in plain English. Owning a slice of a company. A basket full of stocks. A loan from an investor to a borrower. A regular reward some companies give for investing. What you're already invested in. When a company is first listed on the stock market. Like for part two.

[00:34:12] Mart Vainu: All right, give me keywords in the chat. What was he doing in that video? Why is it getting millions of views? What are the tricks here? Daniel says short. "Relatable terms." "Giving visuals." "Breaking it down in a simple format."

[00:34:39] Mart Vainu: "Quick, attention-grabbing editing." Yep, great keywords. Exactly. It was super quick. When I was putting these videos together, I could feel my heart rate going up because there's just so much going on. There you go: Daniel's saying the average time spent watching a video is about eight seconds,

[00:35:00] Mart Vainu: so you need to jump right in. Exactly. You have to get right to the point. Nobody wants to see a long introduction, right? Now I'm going to play the second clip.

[00:35:13] TikTok Video: Happy birthday. You're 18 years old, which means you can start building credit, something I didn't do until I was 22. But if I could go back in time and do it all over again, this is how I would do it. Step one: learn all about it. Your FICO score is made up of several different things, specifically payment history, credit usage, and credit history.

[00:35:27] TikTok Video: Step two: open a secured credit card. You can do this at your local bank. You deposit money so you can borrow against it. This is what I did when I was 22 to get started. Then, after six to nine months of this, move on to step three, which is applying for the Discover it Cash Back card.

[00:35:41] TikTok Video: This card has no annual fee, gives you 5% cash back on these categories, and matches your first year of cash back. They have a great app, and it's the first card I ever got. And this is coming from someone with an 815 FICO score.

[00:35:54] Mart Vainu: All right, same question here. Put in the chat: what is this video doing? Why is it getting millions of views?

[00:36:03] Mart Vainu: What tricks is this guy using? Any keywords? And is there anything risky, anything he's doing wrong? Stacy: "I did it too. Here's my path." Ariana: creating a visual. Yep. Erin: he made it personal, and it worked for him. And Marty, very good point: it's got that old-school handwritten look that kind of stands out, right?

[00:36:31] Mart Vainu: Amy: giving steps. Yeah. Barb: strategy. Exactly. And Daniel, very good point. Check out what Daniel said: there's no disclosure, even though he's pretty much recommending a product right there. That's what we talked about earlier with the 75% of people who take financial advice from social media and make purchase decisions based on it. It's very risky,

[00:37:01] Mart Vainu: because you trust this guy, and then he's recommending a product. And Daniel's saying it doesn't look like a commercial. There you go. All right, that was the second clip. Now let's do the third one. Maybe somebody already recognizes this guy. He's pretty popular, so if you listen to his podcast or watch his videos, you're going to know him.

[00:37:25] Mart Vainu: All right, let's play the clip.

[00:37:32] TikTok Video: You dumb— making $30,000.

[00:37:35] TikTok Video: "A lot of this stuff are one-time purchases that are not going to be made in subsequent years—" "And you needed them to survive." "One-time purchases—" "And you needed them to survive." [crosstalk] "This is what I'm talking about. One-time purchases that are not going to be made in 2025 or 2026—" "Doesn't matter. You needed them to survive."

[00:37:48] TikTok Video: "So our spending—" "Hey. Hey, you—" "...our spending is going to go down because those one-time purchases are no longer on the budget." "That's not how this works. Next year, maybe you'll want to buy a [inaudible]. Whatever one-time spending you did last year, you're going to find new one-time purchases next year."

[00:38:03] TikTok Video: "So how about we go into the finances and look at what we can fix?" "Buddy, here's a fix—"

[00:38:10] Mart Vainu: All right, my heart rate just went up. That's a pretty intense video. Same question: put it in the chat. What is this guy doing? And another question: who knows this guy, by the way? Does anybody watch his videos? There you go, Caleb. I ask because I saw a lot of Millennials in the chat,

[00:38:41] Mart Vainu: and he's very popular with Millennials. Yeah, the financial audit. Ava, Elizabeth, yep, exactly. So, especially for those of you who watch him: what is he doing? Why is this guy getting millions and millions of views? What are the tricks?

[00:39:05] Mart Vainu: Put it in the chat. Daniel says he can't relate.

[00:39:13] Mart Vainu: It's very intense. That's his style: it's very intense. But for example, my sister, who's also a Millennial, loves this guy and watches all his videos. Stacy says, "A lot of hype." Elizabeth says, "Roasts people and can be seen as entertaining." Savannah: "Exactly. It's drama. It's entertaining."

[00:39:35] Mart Vainu: Right? People have liked this for years. And Israel says, "Straightforward style, no sugarcoating." Yeah, that's why people like him. So now, the most important question.

[00:39:52] Mart Vainu: Based on what we just saw, these guys getting millions and millions of views, you now have two questions. First, how can you steal these tricks? What can you do with what we just learned? And second, why is there a carrot emoji here? What's going on? This is a finance education webinar.

[00:40:14] Mart Vainu: What's going on with the carrot? I have this graph for you. Check this out: this is the baby carrot boom. It shows per capita carrot consumption. Why am I showing this? Because I really like baby carrots. Notice that in 1985, average consumption was 6.5 pounds per person.

[00:40:40] Mart Vainu: Then, out of nowhere, the baby carrot was invented a year later, and consumption started growing rapidly, more than doubling by 1997. That happened because baby carrots made it so easy to eat carrots. Now something like 80% of carrot consumption is baby carrots. And why? Because you don't have to peel them,

[00:41:14] Mart Vainu: you don't have to wash them. You can take them straight to the park, right? I'm snacking on them between meetings. They're just so easy to eat compared to those long, dirty carrots. And that's why I'm showing you this: the goal isn't for you to start making TikToks, but to use the trick of the baby carrot and make financial education really easy for people to consume.

[00:41:40] Mart Vainu: Now let's take all the keywords you just shared in the chat from the previous clips. The first thing is you have to make it really engaging. If it's boring, people are just going to skip right past it, right? You have to gamify it. You have to make it challenging, or competitive, for example.

[00:41:58] Mart Vainu: That's what gets people engaged. Next, notice what you said in the chat as well. I think it was Daniel who specifically called out the eight seconds. On average, attention spans are now eight seconds, and not just for Gen Z. This is very important: it's not only Gen Z, it's all age groups.

[00:42:17] Mart Vainu: So you have to make it really short. If you're going in there to do a workshop, for example, deliver the value really quickly. Next, you have to make it relatable, like you shared in the chat. Show that you've been in that position too. Maybe you also had debt. Maybe you also struggled to get a mortgage, for example.

[00:42:36] Mart Vainu: So make it relatable and use their examples. Next, you have to make it visual. You noticed that in all the videos, stuff is moving around and they're editing really quickly. So when you're going out to do a workshop, nobody wants a three-hour death by PowerPoint with 17 bullet points on one slide. It has to be compact, visual, and easy to understand, right?

[00:43:02] Mart Vainu: Next, the language, like you also said in the chat. It was very simple. A lot of the time, what I see in credit union financial education programs is very difficult words for things that could be said pretty easily. Take this example: "outstanding liabilities." What does that mean?

[00:43:21] Mart Vainu: Nobody understands that. So when people look at your presentations, it has to be really simple to understand. And next, this is specifically important for the younger demographic: a lot of the time you're going out and doing a workshop about retirement, but they don't care about that at the moment.

[00:43:41] Mart Vainu: They're thinking, "How am I going to survive this month? How am I going to pay rent? How am I going to get a home in two years?" So don't show them, "If you start saving this much, you'll have a lot of money when you retire in 40 years." They'll be like, "Whoa, I'm not thinking about that at the moment.

[00:44:00] Mart Vainu: I don't care." And overall, with TikTok, people are now just wired to need that instant gratification. So you have to give them something they can do tomorrow, a quick win. Like, boom, they just saved $5 somehow, right? They need those instant wins. So that's the recap of what you can do in your programs when you're delivering financial education.

[00:44:28] Mart Vainu: So we've talked about the Gen Z world, and we've talked about how to deliver financial education. Obviously there's a lot more that just doesn't fit on the slide. Would you put in the chat what other tricks you think you can use in your programs? Is there anything you're not seeing on the screen that you took away from the videos, or just in general, that you can use to make your financial education more approachable or easier?

[00:45:03] Mart Vainu: Any other keywords besides these? And do you have any questions? I've gone through the first and second parts pretty quickly, so before I go on and show you more, any questions? Bill says, "Social proof." Yes, you're going to see that on the next slide.

[00:45:25] Mart Vainu: That's a very relevant point. Karen says, "Making it readily accessible." Very good point. Oftentimes, for example, credit unions are trying to launch a new product. Compare a credit union with, say, Chime: how quickly can you get a quick $500 loan? With Chime, you go to their website and it says, "Hey, you can get a loan in five minutes," right?

[00:45:55] Mart Vainu: So how easily accessible is it? Very good point. Stacy says, "Doing some sort of gimmick on the useful details." Yeah, that's interesting, because when you're doing financial education, and this is also what I saw when I started volunteering and teaching finance, my goal wasn't just to give them a lot of financial education and overwhelm them with information.

[00:46:23] Mart Vainu: Because if they're interested in financial education, they can just Google how to save more, how to invest, how to budget. They have that information. So the problem isn't financial education; the content is there. The problem is financial engagement. How do you get them to engage with financial education?

[00:46:39] Mart Vainu: How do you get them to ask more questions? That's really what we're fighting against. Let's say you're doing a 45-minute workshop at a school. How do you get them curious, so they ask you questions and then go home and start learning more? So when you say gimmick, that's very good, because

[00:46:57] Mart Vainu: on the one hand, you have to give useful details, but on the other hand, you have to make it entertaining, right? Use some sort of gimmick. Very good points. If you have any questions, put them in the chat, because next I want to talk about the dark side. And what I mean by the dark side is: with great power comes great responsibility, right?

[00:47:23] Mart Vainu: On TikTok, you have a lot of influencers with huge followings who are sharing a lot of advice. I think it was Daniel who mentioned solicitation earlier. So I want to show you these clips. I'll play the first one so you can see what that's like.

[00:47:46] TikTok Video: The best investment in the world today. I'm not kidding you. Better than real estate, better than oil, better than gas, is silver. I'm giving you an early warning: this is going down. So if you want to get rich, get silver today. Best investment of all. This is $35 US. You have to know what money is.

[00:48:10] TikTok Video: This is not money. Okay? This is fake. This is money. They don't teach you that.

[00:48:17] Mart Vainu: All right, that was the first clip, which was very clear advice, right? I'll play the second clip.

[00:48:27] TikTok Video: "What should a person who has $236 do?" "Invest it all in yourself. You're already broke. Don't hold on to $236. Our parents taught us to save money, you know?"

[00:48:35] TikTok Video: "Yeah, 100%. This is stupid. They taught us to buy houses. Both of those ideas are for banks. They're not for you. You save your money, the bank benefits, and he doesn't. As soon as he puts the money in the bank, whatever the number is, they look at it like, 'Baby money.' What they do is multiply it: how many people can we get to do this?"

[00:48:48] TikTok Video: "Yeah. And they take the money and immediately invest it." "100%."

[00:48:49] TikTok Video: "When I was 21, I was working for Bob Proctor, and I asked him, 'Should I save money?' And he said the same thing: 'No. Absolutely not. Especially at your age, don't save anything.' Because everybody was trying to tell me, 'Oh, you should have a budget.'

[00:48:59] TikTok Video: He's like, 'No, I still don't mess with budgets.'" "Wait, wait, this is fascinating. Really?"

[00:49:02] TikTok Video: "That was the first time I heard it: the stress that saving at a young age causes, versus putting that money into investing in yourself. Then once you have a project that makes a million, half a million, a quarter million, whatever, you can probably start to maneuver—" "Yeah, yeah, yeah." "—and think about that kind of stuff." "Yeah."

[00:49:18] Mart Vainu: What did you think about this clip? It's kind of like shots fired at banks and credit unions, right? "There's no point in putting your money into a bank or credit union." What did you think? Bill says, "Hurts my heart."

[00:49:36] Mart Vainu: Lauren says, "Ugh." Daniel says sad. "Ridiculous." "Harmful." "Scary." "Seems almost like an AI video." That's a very good point that I haven't talked about at all in this webinar: now that AI is here, there's so much of this content, and you can get celebrities to say whatever you want, because you can make an AI clip, right?

[00:50:05] Mart Vainu: On the one hand, some of what they shared was good, in terms of building a business, being an entrepreneur, and instead of saving 250, getting to 250,000, right? But that doesn't apply to 99% of people. You have to start somewhere. And by the way, at the end, what they also do is show you this clip and then say, "Hey, do you want to get my course on how to invest in real estate?"

[00:50:31] Mart Vainu: It's like, "Whoa, what just happened?" right? They're telling you there's no point in saving the 250 bucks, and instead you should come buy their course. And if you can't afford it, get a credit card and put it on that, right? So it's very, very dangerous. All right, I'll do one more clip.

[00:50:58] TikTok Video: Can't lie, you might have to pay for this one... If you're alone and you—

[00:51:12] Mart Vainu: For more context, if you're not sure what was going on, that was a sports betting or prediction market site, where you can make predictions on things like: will a celebrity say this? Will a war start in X country? Or you make sports bets. This is a huge problem right now, because you have all these people trying to invest and make quick money, and you have influencers showing how they're making really quick money.

[00:51:43] Mart Vainu: The Wall Street Journal just came out with a story showing that prediction market companies were paying influencers to make these clips, and the influencers were showing fake bets. So, for example: will Trump say this? And then the influencer shows how he just won 12,000 because Trump said something, right?

[00:52:04] Mart Vainu: The Wall Street Journal analyzed this, and it turns out that was a fake site. They never made those bets, and Trump never actually said that in that bet format. But when you're watching those clips, you're like, "Oh my God, what's this?" right? And because of that, if you look at sports betting, for example, it's gone from, I think, around 8 billion seven years ago to around 35 billion or something like that.

[00:52:32] Mart Vainu: Or no, 156 billion, I believe. So it grew something like 25 times, which is an insane amount and very scary, because they're showing you that you can make quick money, right? So here's the recap: when you're talking about financial education, on the one hand, they say they want budgeting, building credit, and buying a home.

[00:52:59] Mart Vainu: But on the other hand, when you look at what they're watching and what they click on, it's guaranteed returns, AI money hacks, crypto. The reason I'm showing you this is that in your financial education, it's important to cover the topics they usually ask for, but also to cover these topics you see on the right.

[00:53:20] Mart Vainu: Even if you're not talking about them, they're seeing them on social media. So don't talk about writing a check, because that's not relevant anymore. Now it's crypto, AI money hacks, guaranteed returns, right? And the problem with influencers is right here: it's very dangerous, because the algorithms pump up those videos, they get super popular, and the influencers are giving advice

[00:53:51] Mart Vainu: even though they don't have the credentials to give advice. So when you're teaching this, tell the students and the audience, whether they're younger students or adults, to be careful out there. So that's the recap. Today we talked about the Gen Z world, how they consume content, and what you can do. And now, most importantly: we played a game, right?

[00:54:18] Mart Vainu: So let's show the winners. Who won? Stacy, Angela, and Willie T. took the top spots in our game earlier. Good job. Angela was leading the entire time, and then Willie came in and stole the spotlight. Good job. All right, that was the webinar today. I hope you learned something.

[00:54:45] Mart Vainu: Do you have any questions before we wrap up? We have a few more minutes. And what I'd ask is: is there one takeaway that you'll apply tomorrow?

[00:55:04] Mart Vainu: Or Monday, since it's Friday, so maybe you can't do it tomorrow. Roberta asks, "Will you be sharing the presentation?" It's built on the Cashy platform, so when I change slides, things move around and it's interactive. But I'll see if I can download a PDF or something.

[00:55:30] Mart Vainu: So yes, I'll try to share the slides somehow. "Make them shorter." Yep. If there's a way you can make your presentation shorter, do it. And this is what Cashy does, right? We make financial education games. So instead of giving a full-on, hour-long presentation, you go to the game for a minute here and there, and we see that works really well with students.

[00:55:58] Mart Vainu: You have to switch things up; otherwise their attention just goes everywhere. So do a few slides, do a round of Wheel of Fortune, go back to your slides, then do a two-year life simulation game, then go back to slides and do a bingo. You can switch it up like that. "Better targeted messaging for Gen Z members."

[00:56:18] Mart Vainu: Oh, there you go: Ryleianswered your presentation question as well. You'll get a recording. Even better. "Stop thinking social media silliness is unprofessional." Yep. This is the world we live in. People are on social media; that's the way it is. "As a Gen X person who loves PowerPoints." I like that sentence.

[00:56:42] Mart Vainu: I love PowerPoints. Let's go. "How does one find relevant videos?" Honestly, I just found them on TikTok. Go on there and type in "Gen Z mortgage" or whatever, for example. Or if you partner with a company that does gamified financial education, they'll probably have something that makes the presentations more engaging.

[00:57:14] Mart Vainu: Thank you for the kind words. Thank you, Chelsea. If there are no more questions, it was great to see everybody. My email is here, so feel free to email me, and feel free to add me on LinkedIn. I'm Mart Vainu on LinkedIn. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.

[00:57:38] Mart Vainu: Thanks, everyone.

[00:57:39] Erin Stevens: Thanks, Mart. And thanks, everyone, for attending. We appreciate it.