A PTT Research Report — 2026

The Generation
inheriting a broken
world.

Gen Z is the most educated, most connected generation in history. They are also the most anxious, the most financially precarious, and the most politically disillusioned. This is their moment — and their crisis.

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Fact 01 — Economic Anxiety
Fact 1.
Gen Z financial insecurity jumped from 30% to 48% in a single year — a 60% spike in 12 months.
Deloitte Global Gen Z & Millennial Survey 2025 — 23,000+ respondents, 44 countries
Gen Z Financial Insecurity Rate
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
30%
↑
+60%
48%
20242025
Deloitte 2025
Fact 02 — Mental Health Crisis
Fact 2.
83% of Gen Z is either diagnosed with a mental health condition or suspects they have one.
Harmony Healthcare IT 2025
Out of 100 Gen Z Americans…
46%
Diagnosed
37%
Undiagnosed
17%
No condition
Every dot is one person.
0%
affected
Fact 03 — Political Disillusionment
★★★ ★★★
Fact 3.
Gen Z doesn't trust anyone. The distrust isn't partisan — it's total.
Harvard Youth Poll, Fall 2025 — 51st Edition
Country on right track
13%
Trump approval under-30s
29%
Congressional Democrats
27%
Congressional Republicans
26%
≈ All three institutions trusted by roughly the same fraction. The system has lost Gen Z equally.
Fact 04 — The Housing Crisis
Fact 4.
The median home price rose 109% in real terms since the 1970s. The ability to actually buy one collapsed entirely.
NAR / U.S. Census Bureau / BLS
Median home price
Boomer era 1970s
$42,600
Gen Z era 2024
$512,000
Years of income to buy
Boomer era
2× salary
Gen Z era
8× salary
Avg sq ft Boomers bought
Boomer era
1,500 sq ft
Gen Z reality
650 sq ft
Boomer, 1970s
1,500 SQ FT
Price: $42,600 (~$245K today)
$ $ $
Gen Z, 2024
YOU ~650 SQ FT RENTAL
Price: $512,000 (if you can get it)
$
Fact 05 — The Job Market
VP MANAGER MID-LEVEL JUNIOR ROLE ENTRY LEVEL almost...
Entry level: ↓ 29%
Fact 5.
They did everything right. The jobs just disappeared.
BLS / Deloitte 2025 — Interview Guys hiring analysis
↓29%
Entry-level job postings since January 2024
45%
of employers prefer a freelancer, AI, or no one over hiring Gen Z
Low-hire,
low-fire
Companies aren't laying off — they're just not letting Gen Z in. The door is locked from the inside.
Employers who'd rather hire Gen Z vs. alternatives
Hire Gen Z
55%
Prefer freelancer
45%
Would use AI
37%
Leave role unfilled
30%
And yet.
The Opportunity

The same forces
that broke the system
are building
the next one.

Gen Z didn't just inherit a crisis. They inherited the toolkit to end it — and they're already using it.

50% want to own a business
86% of students use AI tools
24% already entrepreneurs
66% have or plan a side hustle
72% say AI helps them find info faster
74% of workforce by 2030
Opportunity 01 — The Entrepreneurship Surge
Gen Z founder network — self-organizing
01

Gen Z is starting businesses at
higher rates than any previous generation
at the same age.

The locked door became the business plan. When the corporate ladder was pulled up, Gen Z didn't wait — they built their own structures. The same distrust that made them political cynics made them institutional competitors.

24%
of 18–24 year olds currently running a new business — highest rate of any age group
GEM / Babson 2024
71%
of Gen Z and Millennials are somewhat or very interested in entrepreneurship
Harris Poll / Justworks 2024
1 in 5
Gen Z founders went straight from student to founder — vs. 3% of Boomers
American Express 2024
66%
have started or plan to start a side hustle, with 65% intending to continue in 2025
Intuit Survey 2024
Why Gen Z is starting businesses
Be own boss
49%
Pursue passion
42%
Financial independence
38%
Fear of layoffs
31%
Opportunity 02 — The Knowledge Arbitrage
02

For the first time in history,
a 19-year-old with a laptop
has access to the same information
as a partner at McKinsey.

The information advantage that gatekept elite institutions for a century has collapsed. Gen Z is the first generation to grow up entirely inside this new reality. They don't know a world where knowledge was scarce. That's not a vulnerability. It's an asymmetric advantage.

86%
of students use AI tools for schoolwork — more than two tools on average
Student Survey 2024
72%
say AI helps them find information more easily — 66% say it makes them work faster
Walton / Gallup 2025
50%
of Gen Z consider themselves creators — vs. 25% of all adults
HubSpot Consumer Trends 2024
80%
of Gen Z business owners started online or with a mobile component
Intuit 2024
Information access — then vs. now
The people already doing it

Gen Z doesn't need
permission to lead.

Passing the Torch was built by two high school juniors who looked at the broken information landscape and decided to fix their corner of it. 56,000+ subscribers later, they're proving the thesis.

Jasper Gould
Co-Founder & Co-Editor
Jasper Gould

High school junior. Founded BYCIG — a 501(c)(3) teaching Gen Z financial literacy through real student-managed portfolios. Co-built PTT from zero to institutional scale while running investment analysis and writing institutional-quality macro research. Plans to launch a fund and invest in the businesses Gen Z is building — because no one understands the customer better than someone living the crisis.

501(c)(3) Nonprofit founder
17 Years old
Gen Z Future fund focus
Emile Chilingirian
Co-Founder & Co-Editor
Emile Chilingirian

High school junior. Co-built PTT into one of the fastest-growing finance newsletters in the country — with 77% corporate email penetration across McKinsey, JPMorgan, Blackstone, and Goldman. Plans a fund launch with Jasper post-graduation.

56K+ Subscribers built
77% Corporate emails
72 Issues per year
"The future belongs to those who prepare for it today. We built PTT because Gen Z deserves the same quality of financial information that's always been locked behind institutional walls."
— Jasper Gould & Emile Chilingirian, Co-Founders
56,000+
Subscribers
77%
Corporate emails
4+
Bulge brackets
72
Issues / year
Free.
Always
This is why PTT exists.

Passing the Torch
is the knowledge
that compounds.

Institutional-quality finance and economics research — written by the generation it's written about. 56,000+ subscribers. Free.

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