Stock market boom triples asset growth rate for Koreans in their 20s as older generations slow

Koreans in their 20s who rode the stock market rally over the past two years saw a sharp acceleration in financial asset growth, while those in their 60s and older experienced a slowdown, revealing a widening generational divide in wealth accumulation.

The findings come from an analysis by Shinhan Card's Big Data Research Institute, which used integrated data from Shinhan Financial Group to track changes in customer financial assets from the end of December 2024 through August this year. Shinhan Card isolated customers whose assets were maintained or grew across three reference points — the end of 2024, the end of October last year, and the end of August this year — and compared the pace of asset growth by age group.

The analysis found that total financial assets held by customers in their 20s grew about 37% from the end of December 2024 through the end of October last year, then surged roughly 130% from the end of October last year through the end of August this year — a more than threefold increase in the growth rate between the two periods.

Older age groups showed the opposite trend. The asset growth rate for those in their 60s fell from 112% in the first period to 62% in the second, while those aged 70 and older slowed from 154% to 58%. Those in their 30s held steady at 83% in both periods, while growth rates rose for those in their 40s, from 71% to 87%, and for those in their 50s, from 85% to 96%.

Generational differences were also evident in equity asset growth. Among the so-called "mass affluent" segment — customers with financial assets of 100 million won ($75,300) to under 1 billion won — the share-asset growth rate for those in their 20s jumped from 63% in the first period to 168% in the second. Those in their 50s also saw an increase, from 125% to 162%. By contrast, the rate fell for those in their 60s, from 143% to 85%, and for those aged 70 and older, from 156% to 79%.

Shinhan Card attributed the acceleration in asset growth among younger customers to the stock market's strong performance this year. The surge was driven both by a large influx of new investment money as equity investing gained popularity and by rising share prices that lifted the paper value of existing holdings.

The expansion of stock investment among younger customers did not simply come at the expense of savings. Among mass-affluent customers in their 20s, lump-sum deposits fell 34% over the analysis period, but liquid deposits and installment savings rose 5% and 10%, respectively. Those in their 30s saw lump-sum deposits decline 28%, while both liquid deposits and installment savings each grew 10%.

"In the mass-affluent segment, equities played a major role in driving asset growth for those in their 20s, but a two-track strategy — maintaining a financial safety net through liquid and installment savings — also appears to have been effective," a Shinhan Card official said.

The slowdown in asset growth among older customers was attributed primarily to a base effect from the heavy stock investment they made in the preceding period. "For customers in their 60s and older, the share of equities in their portfolios grew substantially in 2025 compared with 2024, which created a significant base effect," a Shinhan Card official said. "The life-cycle pattern typical of older generations — shifting from an asset-building phase to a management and rebalancing phase — is also likely to have been a factor."