Greenlight Glimmers Reveals Top Financial Behaviors for U.S. Households in 2025 and What’s Shaping 2026
ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Greenlight®, the award-winning family money and safety app, released its annual family trends report, Greenlight Glimmers, highlighting over $2 billion managed across 6.5 million+ U.S. families. In 2025, parents and kids adopted a “builder mindset,” earning, saving, and investing more, paving the way for a 2026 defined by independence, confidence, and financial growth.
Despite a challenging year shaped by economic uncertainty, inflation, and shaky job prospects, the markets were a bright spot: Greenlight kids and teens invested more than $70M (+65% YoY), doubled their recurring automated investments, and increased their average buy trade to $49.56 (up from $39.70 in 2024). Their top holdings, VOO, NVDA, AAPL, AMZN, TSLA, and a bitcoin ETF jumping from #21 to #12, show portfolios that increasingly mirror tech-focused investors.
"Greenlight’s biggest achievement in 2025 was scaling our Investing service, which was underscored in our annual family trends report,” said Tim Sheehan, co-founder and CEO of Greenlight. “When I was 15, I started learning how to invest, and I became a better and better investor over time. Learning to be a smart investor - like Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch - is how to build true wealth. At Greenlight, we want to enable everyone to become a smart investor and build wealth, and we’re thrilled to see so many parents, kids, and teens gravitating towards it.”
The report also highlights three core themes shaping financial behavior in 2026:
- Spending is down: earning, saving, and investing are up. Kids and teens are increasingly prioritizing building long-term financial stability.
- Building consistent money skills is on the rise: Kids and teens are treating financial management like a daily habit.
- Self-care and financial confidence now go hand in hand: “Self-care chores” such as reading, exercising, practicing instruments, and learning languages continue to surge.
Additional consumer insights:
- Only 15% of parents talk to their kids about money weekly.
- 67% believe they’ll be better off financially than their parents.
- Building an emergency fund ranked among the top 10 savings goals.
- TikTok Shop spending is up 50% YoY.
- Kids and teens spent $3.6M+ on concerts and shows.
- Teens spent $17M at the gas pump.
“Financially, 2025 was a tough year for a lot of U.S. households,” said Jennifer Seitz, Director of Education at Greenlight. “Despite economic headwinds, we’re encouraged to see parents, young adults, and kids move away from impulse spending and trend splurging to intentional earning, saving, and investing. As we look ahead to 2026, we anticipate more robust conversations around money, including how to manage, grow, and protect it.”
As families embrace everyday money moments and kids take more ownership of saving and investing, supported by the 90% who want to learn how to earn and the 76% who say Greenlight builds their confidence, the next generation is on track to develop lasting financial skills.
To read the full report or learn more about Greenlight, visit greenlight.com/glimmers.
About Greenlight:
Greenlight Financial Technology is the fintech company on a mission to help families navigate money and life together. Its award-winning app offers a debit card, money management platform, and safety features for the whole family. Kids and teens learn to earn, save, and invest, aging loved ones are protected against financial and digital threats, and caregivers and parents can check in by app and set flexible controls. The app also helps families, from kids to grandparents, stay safe and connected with real-time alerts, location sharing, emergency services, and driving reports.
Greenlight partners with more than 175 leading banks, credit unions, and employers to bring its family finance solution to more families through the Greenlight for Banks, Greenlight for Credit Unions, and Greenlight for Work programs.
Methodology
- The methodology consisted of a 10–15-minute online YouGov survey fielded from October 10–23, 2025, among 1,028 U.S. adults aged 18 and older who are full-time employed parents of a child aged 5–17.
- The methodology consisted of a 5-10–minute in-app Greenlight survey fielded from November 3-5, 2025, among 2,008 Greenlight kids and teens ages 10 and up.
- Findings are based on Greenlight data covering the 12-month period ending October 31, used to define each year. Child ages are calculated as of October 31 for the corresponding period.
The Greenlight Debit Card is issued by Community Federal Savings Bank, member FDIC, pursuant to license by Mastercard International. Greenlight Investment Advisors, LLC, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor, provides investment advisory services to its clients. Investing involves risk and may include the loss of principal. Greenlight is a financial technology company, not a bank. The Greenlight app facilitates banking services through Greenlight's bank partners. For more information, please visit: greenlight.com.
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