What separates Generation Y from X? And hey Gen Z?
By Staff Writer
Anyone who was born between 1980- 1996 (1996 being the beginning of a new generation FYI) we are the last generation that played outside until dark. We rode our bikes all over town.
We are the first to play video games & the last to record songs off the radio onto a cassette tape, we loved roller skating on Friday and Saturday nights. We played actual records.
We survived the 90’s with big guns and the era of extravagant everything. We took walks with friends without worry of being taken, we watched cartoons on Saturday mornings while eating a bowl of cereal… we programmed the VCR before anyone else… we remember learning how to use a computer for the first time, we played Atari & Nintendo.
We are the generation of Biker Mice from mars , gargoyles ,Rugrats, Gullah Gullah island, Captain America, The Simpsons, The Box, 106@park, Martin, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air , Living Single o yeah an MAD TV… We traveled in cars w/o seat belts or airbags, rode in the backs of pick ups & lived without cell phones.
We did not have flat screens, surround sound, I-Pads, Facebook and Twitter…and we had a GREAT time ALL the time with each other! Most importantly-we spent time together without a phone in our hands and had loads of stuff to talk about.
How about …..Generation X, the generation born after that of the baby boomers (roughly from the early 1960s to late 1970s), typically perceived to be disaffected and directionless. “Generation X has grown up with it. “Generation X is the demographic cohort following the baby boomers and preceding the millennials. Researchers and popular media use the early-to-mid-1960s as starting birth years and the late 1970s to early 1980s as ending birth years.
What separates Generation Y from X? And hey Gen Z, welcome to the party! What’s the cutoff? How old is each generation? Are they really that different?
It’s easy to see why there is so much confusion about generational cohorts. If you’ve ever felt muddled by this “alphabet soup” of names — you’re not alone. The real frustration hits when you realize that Millennial consumers represent the highest-spending generation in 2020 — with a projected $1.4 trillion tab.
And though their current wealth has been dragged down by not one but two “once-in-a- lifetime” economic crises during their most impactful career years, Millennials stand to inherit over $68 trillion from Baby Boomer parents by the year 2030, setting them up to potentially be the most wealthy generation in history.
Generation Z isn’t far behind, projected to hit $33 trillion in income by 2030 — that’s more than a quarter of all global income — and pass Millennials in spending power the year after.
No matter how you slice the data, the younger generations have never been more critical to your financial institution’s future. Unless you understand who they are and what they want, you won’t capture a dollar of their money.