New Zogo app teaches Gen Zers about finances

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A new survey of people in their 20s highlights what worries this generation about their future. Money is at the top of the list.

Like so many others of her generation in San Francisco, Rhian Horton depends on a bicycle to get around.

The lack of parking, not to mention the expenses associated with owning a car, made it easy for the San Franciscan to decide to go carless.

"So, I just didn't want to deal with it," she said.

Horton graduated from Duke University in 2020.

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The Cincinnati native returned home for six months before accepting a job at a San Francisco fintech. Her move to the Bay Area came right at the beginning of the pandemic.

"When dealing with living in a city, with higher prices, and dealing with rent and all that stuff, and at the same time having it feel very deserted," said Horton.

She found herself unprepared for making decisions about her money matters and that scared her.

"I think I was just going to mismanage my money and my time by moving to a big city and not getting a lot of direction," she said.

Like Horton, Bolun Li also attended Duke.

The two never met while in school, but their lives would years later intersect.

Li sat through a financial seminar with his peers at Duke and quickly realized how little they knew about money.

"If you looked around the room, everyone is on their phone, not paying attention. Like, no one cared," Li recalled.

He thought there had to be a better way to deliver financial information.

Thus, he came up with an idea for Zogo, an app that delivers bite-sized information to a Gen Z audience in a way they can understand and relate.

Today, the app is co-branded by 250 banks for use by their customers.

"They can redeem their 'pineapples' for rewards. So essentially they're getting paid to learn about money," Li said.

A survey by Deloitte of nearly 15,000 Gen Zers around the world found the cost of housing, transportation and bills is their number one concern.

Nearly half of them live paycheck to paycheck.

Horton uses Zogo and found it helpful.

Today's she trying to gain a firm financial footing for the future.

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"And so I think just finding the right balance between what I can spend versus what I need to save because, you know, economic situations are so unpredictable," said Horton.

Her biggest challenge right now is saving for grad school and figuring out how to pay off any future loans she'll need to graduate.

"Obviously a big concern or the fact that I'll probably still be paying it off for many years after I go to school," she said.

"I think the scary part is getting started. Once you actually get started and get into it, it's actually not that scary," Li concluded.

The cost of living is followed by climate change and unemployment as the top three concerns of Gen Zers who responded to the Deloitte survey.

Take a look at more stories and videos by Michael Finney and 7 On Your Side.

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