What 2025 taught me about money: Saving, spending and growing wealth as a Gen Z

It’s not easy to be Gen Z in 2025: people often take you lightly, memes are constantly made about your daily life, and you’re either too young to have real talk or too old to act carefree. As a member of Gen Z myself, I like to think that we, as a generation, know and do far more than any generation our age did in previous centuries.

Whether or not that opinion is biased is a conversation for another day, but that won’t stop me from sharing what I’ve learned about personal finance this year, so you can make smarter decisions. The first lesson I learned is that financial literacy is cool, and saving and investing will take us places that nothing else ever will. Let’s dig in.

Pay your taxes!

I filed my income tax return (ITR) for the first time this year, and I got my refund within 5 hours. The biggest misconception young people have these days is that they only need to file ITR if their income falls under the taxable limit.

However, you can miss out on refunds if you don’t file returns, and if you wish to study abroad and apply for loans, ITR filing can help you significantly. If you’re interning, and your organisation deducts TDS, you can claim it and get your refund.

How to do things that intimidate you

This year, I took a car loan all by myself: I talked to the bank representatives, discussed additional fees, compared interest rates, got the paperwork done, talked to the credit department and took care of insurance.

While it was intimidating, the satisfaction I felt after everything was done is indescribable. In 2026, take on financial challenges that scare you and finish them by yourself. You’ll feel smarter and more confident when you check off the things in your list of challenges, and by the end, you’ll have learned way more than you can even imagine.

Use credit cards wisely

If you’ve just started earning, remember this: Credit cards can be one of your greatest financial assets only if you know how to use them wisely. I got my first credit card this year, and here are some tips:

• If you use Zepto, Instamart and other platforms regularly, get a card with rewards and cashback on grocery spends.

• Make sure you know what your credit card charges for different transactions.

• Don’t withdraw cash, as most cards charge hefty fees on cash withdrawals, and don’t miss any payments.

• If you just clear the minimum dues and carry the rest, not only does it affect your credit score and attract fees and charges, but it also becomes one of the biggest reasons for accumulating debt. Clear all bills before the due date and avoid missing any payments unless absolutely necessary.

• Remember that purchases on EMIs block the whole amount on your card, occupying a major chunk of your credit utilisation. Take note of your credit utilisation ratio and plan accordingly.

To use your card wisely, determine how you want to divide your expenses and maintain enough cash flow to pay the bills. For example, calculate roughly how much you spend on groceries through quick commerce platforms, and keep that aside at the start of every month. Spend from your credit card within that budget throughout the month.

At the end of the month, you’ll have the money to pay the bill and the reward points that you can redeem as cashback or other benefits. I have the HDFC Millennia credit card, which lets you redeem points as cash, serving as a great perk for those who make frequent online purchases.

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) deals

BNPL deals are almost always a trick to make you spend on things that you wouldn’t otherwise. As a rule of thumb, if you want to decide whether or not to buy something, think about whether you would still buy it if it cost double the amount. If you would, it means you either actually need the thing or really want it. If not, it probably means that it’s just an impulse.

I’m an impulsive person myself; I often tend to buy things I don’t need because they’re on sale or I might need them in the future, or even just to lift my mood sometimes. Over time, this habit started burning a hole in my pockets. Eventually, I realised that the reason I was able to buy these things was that I had a credit card and many platforms offered attractive BNPL deals.

These credit platforms design BNPL deals to give you flexibility, but in reality, we end up paying for things we don’t even need.

Think about insurance

In 2025, I got two insurance claims approved from my employer for my father’s eye surgery. This made me read more about insurance, because hefty hospital bills will scare you whether you expect them or not.

Learn about insurance policies, what different insurance companies offer, which cover is best for your family, what the red flags are in a policy, and how to choose the correct one. There is no better time than now; you will thank yourself when you’re prepared for medical emergencies. Your early 20s are exactly when you should start planning for financial stability and emergency cover.

Investing strategy

I made my first investment when I was 19. I was eager to handle money independently; I opened a low-KYC bank account and put my first stipend, ₹8,000, in a mutual fund that my sister told me about. That gave me a start, pushing me to read more about shares, mutual funds and investments, and helping me learn about trading firsthand.

Eventually, that helped me land my first job as a journalism major in a FinTech. As a 21-year-old with just a bachelor’s degree, I had investing experience to showcase and the willingness to experiment.

If you don’t invest, start. Don’t complicate it too much. Download a brokerage app, make an account, learn extensively about the mutual funds you can invest in and learn through the process. If you already invest, expand your knowledge. Read more about the markets, read as much as you can. Don’t try to time the market, invest for the long term and focus on building wealth.

Attention span

In the 12th standard, when I was preparing for entrance exams, I used to watch YouTube videos ardently. I watched everything, for the sake of ‘General Knowledge’: Space, geography, politics, philosophy, film studies, and everything under the sun.

I didn’t even realise how good my attention span was back then until I was in college, watching 30-second reels in between classes, when my professor was playing an Alfred Hitchcock movie for our film study class. Mind you, I had voluntarily studied about auteurs on YouTube, but just two years later, it was too slow to sit through ‘Rear Window’, a movie I used to dream of watching on the big screen.

Don’t wait too long before it hits you too; start working on your attention span. In the current digital world, we’ve been getting more and more used to short-form content. Read, watch video essays and documentaries, use Substack and work hard on increasing your attention span.

Handling money matters

Everyone has different ways of handling money, but this is crucial: Decide how you want to handle borrowing and lending situations. Personally, I believe that involving money with friends and family is tricky and not suitable for most people. Create strict boundaries, and try not to lend money; help your loved ones without the intention of getting it back.

Donate, and practise gratitude. Kindness goes a long way, and it’ll find its way back to you in one way or another.

Remember that the only thing that should matter to you is that you’re working towards a safe and stable future. Money management can look very different for everyone; determine what your priorities are and build your strategy accordingly. From one Gen Z to another, the later you start caring about money and finances, the more you’ll lose in the long run.