Kim (31), an office worker, turns on the securities company app first when his salary comes in. Excl..

Kim (31), an office worker, turns on the securities company app first when his salary comes in. Excluding living expenses, the money is immediately used to buy U.S. exchange-traded funds (ETF) and domestic semiconductor stocks. This is because among Kim and other friends and colleagues of his age, it is a loss to tie up money in bank regular installment savings and deposits as before, and the perception that “salary is part of the investment” has become natural.

As such, the central axis of financial consumption has rapidly shifted from “saving” to “investment” due to complex factors such as booming stock markets and improving the public’s financial understanding.

According to the “2026 Korea Financial Consumer Trend” report released by Hana Financial Research Institute on the 20th, the proportion of MZ generations (born in the early 1980s to early 2000s) in the Mass Affluent class with more than 100 million won in financial assets surged from 19.8% in 2022 to 33.6% last year. Young people are rapidly emerging as a new group of wealthy people.

They prefer investment-type financial products such as stocks, ETFs, pensions, and overseas investment rather than deposit-oriented asset management, and their asset management methods are different from those of the previous generation. Among financial assets, the share of savings assets in the share of asset deposits by product shrank from 45.4% in 2023 to 42.7% last year, while the share of investment assets expanded from 27.7% to 32.2% in the same period.

Investment tendencies have also changed. As in the past, extreme investment tendencies focused on preserving principal or focusing on high-risk investments are decreasing, and “intermediate investors” who consider stability and profitability together are increasing. The stable type and the aggressive investment type decreased by 1.8 percentage points (p) and 1.6 percentage points from 20.3% and 9.0% in 2023 to 18.5% and 7.4% last year, respectively. During the same period, the stable-seeking type, risk-neutral type, and active investment type, which are intermediate investor groups, increased by 1.1%, 0.4%, and 1.9%, respectively.

This is interpreted as a phenomenon in which there is a strong tendency to manage risks and actively find investment opportunities rather than conservatively tying up assets amid growing financial market volatility and growing expectations for a rebound in the stock market.

Hana Financial Research Institute said, “Recent research shows that the MZ generation’s financial confidence and interest have increased, with the recognition that their financial capabilities have improved by taking financial-related articles,” adding, “In fact, the proportion of young people among those with more than 100 million won reached a third, and mobile-friendly and securities company transactions also increased as their size increased.”

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