America’s Generations Confront the New Pocketbook Crunch

PYMNTS Intelligence surveyed 2,368 United States adult consumers from Sept. 10, 2025, to Sept. 29, 2025, to understand how different generations are coping with rising costs, debt and healthcare expenses. The research—fielded across older seniors and baby boomers, Generation X, bridge millennials, millennials, zillennials and Generation Z—shows that everyday spending pressures are converging with medical bills to reshape financial behavior.¹ Younger consumers are more likely to feel squeezed, borrow informally and experiment with digital tools. Older cohorts are tightening their discretionary spending and leaning on traditional insurance and savings. The seven data points below highlight where generational fault lines are deepest and where banks, FinTechs, payers and providers may find opportunity.

Rising Costs and Consumer Response

The Daily Strain of Rising Costs

Half of U.S. consumers across all generations say rising daily living expenses are a current challenge, making everyday costs the top financial concern. That pressure is remarkably consistent by generation. Whether they are younger adult Gen Zers just starting their careers or boomers in or near retirement, roughly one in two adults now view day-to-day spending as their primary financial struggle. Healthcare and wellness costs sit just behind, with about one-third of millennials (36%) and baby boomers (35%) flagging medical expenses as a core challenge. This underscores how household budgets and healthcare are now intertwined stress points rather than separate line items.

Healthcare as a Financial Burden

When consumers look specifically at healthcare, younger adults feel the pinch most acutely. Nearly two-thirds of all consumers say healthcare costs place at least a moderate burden on their household budget. That share climbs to more than eight in 10 for Gen Z. The key findings note that Gen Z is roughly twice as likely as baby boomers to see healthcare as a financial burden, reflecting thinner savings buffers and less robust benefits for younger workers. For banks, payers and employers, the generational gap suggests that medical bills are a central source of financial stress that can set back savings, investments and other long-term personal-finance goals.

Grocery Inflation

Behind those day-to-day financial worries sits a familiar pain point: the grocery aisle. Among consumers who say that daily living expenses are a challenge, 84% point to groceries and household essentials as the main source of strain. That stress is even more pronounced for baby boomers and seniors, 94% of whom name groceries as the primary driver of financial stress, compared with 71% of Gen Z. At the same time, rising housing costs are showing up less in rent or mortgage complaints and more in utility bills, with 68% of those worried about housing costs citing utilities as their biggest concern. Together, the data suggest that inflation in non-discretionary categories—food, power, heat—is reshaping how every generation thinks about “fixed” monthly costs.

Care Tradeoffs

For many younger adults, healthcare sticker shock is already altering their spending behaviors. Nearly one in five consumers overall delayed a doctor’s visit in the prior three months because of cost, 14% skipped a recommended test or treatment and 10% reduced their medication dosage to save money. These cost-driven cutbacks are especially pronounced among bridge millennials, millennials, zillennials and Gen Z. In fact, the key findings highlight that roughly one in four Gen Z consumers have postponed a doctor’s visit due to high medical costs. Doing so turns this financial strain into potential long-term health problems that raise costs for others. For providers, insurers and financial institutions, these patterns point to a demand for more flexible payment options and financing tools that can keep necessary care from becoming a discretionary purchase.

Borrowed Support

When paychecks don’t cover rising expenses, younger consumers are more likely to lean on informal credit. More than six in 10 consumers with cost-of-living challenges say they have cut back on everyday spending—yet that figure masks a generational divide. Seven in 10 baby boomers and seniors report trimming day-to-day expenses, compared to half of Gen Z. Instead, younger adults are more inclined to borrow: 21% of all respondents say they have turned to friends or family for money. That share jumps to roughly one-third for zillennials (32%) and Gen Z (33%). These patterns suggest that social networks are quietly absorbing some of the financial shock for younger households, creating an opening for banks and FinTechs to design small-dollar, low-friction credit products that compete with loans from family members and person-to-person (P2P) transfers.

Responses to Rising Costs

Younger consumers aren’t just taking more varied steps to stay afloat—they’re also more optimistic that those steps are working. Nearly half of millennials (47%) and zillennials (48%) say their efforts—ranging from cutting spending to adding income or adjusting credit use—have been “extremely or very effective” in easing financial pressure. By contrast, consumers living paycheck to paycheck with difficulty paying their bills report far less success. A smaller portion (11%) in that group says their actions have been ineffective. This divergence hints at a split market: younger, digitally fluent consumers who feel empowered by the tools they are using, and a more financially fragile segment for whom standard advice and products are not enough to close the gap between income and expenses.

Tech Expectations

On the healthcare side, younger generations are looking to technology to bring the same transparency and control they expect from banking and payments apps. More than one in three Gen Z consumers express interest in real-time insurance benefit-checking tools that would tell them what is covered before they book an appointment. Just over three in 10 say they want AI-powered cost-prediction tools to estimate out-of-pocket charges. Interest in these technologies falls sharply among boomers and seniors. Many selected “none of the above” when presented with options such as automated price comparison or consolidated medical bill platforms. For issuers, healthcare providers and FinTechs, these findings point to a clear generational opportunity: Digitally native patients are ready for smarter, more predictable healthcare payments, even as older patients are slower to demand them.

For more, check out the full Generational Pulse report, “Economic Pressures Split the Generations as Each Rethinks the Basics.”

^{1. PYMNTS Intelligence uses the following birth dates and approximate age ranges in 2025 for generational cohorts: baby boomers: born in 1964 or earlier and now aged 61 or older; Generation X: born between 1965 and 1980 and now aged 45–60; millennials: born between 1981 and 1996 and now aged 28–44; bridge millennials: born between 1978 and 1988 and now aged 37–47; zillennials: born between 1991 and 1999 and now aged 25–34; and Generation Z: born in 1997 or later and now aged 28 or younger.↩}