It’s not always easy talking to kids about money, but the TikTok hashtag #MoneyTok is helping to change all that.
If you think TikTok is all about pranks, dance routines and cat videos, then think again. The platform, which has 23.38 million UK users per month, has always had a variety of trending hashtags on everything from books to cooking. Yet #MoneyTok is proving to be the global superstar of hashtags with an emerging group of financial influencers – known as “finfluencers” – making it their mission to encourage financial literacy in young people.
Videos tagged #MoneyTok now appear daily and have had over 11bn views, covering everything from budgeting to credit cards, compound interest, rising costs and how to make money with a side hustle. What’s more, 24% of young investors say they come directly to TikTok for investment advice, and millions view and take up saving challenges like the ever-popular #cashstuffing. As a result, increasing numbers of young people are discovering the benefits of financial education.
Why is #MoneyTok so appealing?
As we know, financial education is often missing from the school curriculum, and encouraging kids to build their financial knowledge can be a challenge when their attention is taken up with social media, video games, and streaming services.
Luckily, this is where #MoneyTok comes in. This virtual community of finance experts and content creators work on educating their audience and demystifying financial concepts in TikTok’s trademark short, sharp and entertaining way. They pass on wisdom about saving, living within your means and budgeting – all in digestible 30-second bursts.
Experts and creators like Martin Lewis, Humphrey Yang, Andreea and Jamie from StocksandSavings help to bring home smart messages about personal finance with easy, actionable advice. What’s more, these #MoneyTok creators are good at targeting everyone’s financial pain points, helping young people to see they are not alone in worrying about their earning potential, giving advice on how to build financial reserves, and considering whether renting may be better than buying a house.
Who to watch on #MoneyTok
#MoneyTok is dominated by financial influencers such as Humphrey Yang, who has 3.3M followers and 49,500,000 likes on TikTok. However, smaller creators also do well – especially those talking about everyday hacks to save money, side hustles and how to make your money go further.
For instance, Gemma Bird @MoneyMumOfficial has 82k followers on TikTok and is an oracle of money-saving tips and an advocate of the power of saving. Her most popular post shares her 'rounding up' technique for daily savings.
And at the Gen Z end of the market is Callum Carver @TheMoneyMan, teaching teens the way around money, finance, investing and entrepreneurship. He posts on how to put your money to work, live within your means, and ensure you have positive money habits.
Although #MoneyTok influencers can be a great source of information, we encourage you to do your own research and only act on advice if you're confident it's right for you.
The downside of #MoneyTok
Of course, with millions of posts and no regulation, there will always be some bad information – and scammers often use #GetRichQuick and #MakeMoney posts, along with crypto-currency advice, to lure young people in. These posts are dangerous because they often don’t talk about the potential consequences of volatile investments and ideas. Young people, in particular, are vulnerable to the get-rich-quick advice on #MoneyTok and can be reckless about where they put their money, partly because they don’t understand the risks.
Andreea Ion, a chartered accountant and one of the creators behind @StocksandSavings, agrees. “If someone claims they can give you a guaranteed return or that they have the secret to getting rich… RUN! And when it comes to specific stocks, it’s important to remember that nobody can see or predict the future. If a finfluencer tells you that a certain stock or crypto is about to go “to the moon”, then you should be extremely cautious because it’s impossible to predict these things with any level of certainty.”
Andreea adds: “There are more subtle things to watch out for, as many creators are not purposely trying to mislead or profit from their audience. Personal finance can be so nuanced that it’s virtually impossible to present all those details in a thirty-second video on TikTok.”
To help safeguard users, the hashtag #FactCheckYourFeed is part of a campaign by TikTok and the charity Citizens Advice to urge caution. It also helps to know the different types of online scams that are doing the rounds with three huge red flags to always watch out for, such as accounts and creators:
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Asking for personal financial details like your bank card number
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Requesting money transfers or monetary gift cards
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Pressurising you to send money or else you’ll lose out
A final word on #MoneyTok
While there are obvious pitfalls and concerns, #MoneyTok is filling a gap in financial literacy among young people and encouraging them to embrace a subject that many ignore until they are older. Our recent economic research has shown the lifelong impact of financial literacy, with kids who received financial education from an early age being £70,000 richer in retirement.
Thanks to #MoneyTok, finfluencers can help put all of us on the path to responsible money management – as long as you check their advice is sound and avoid anything that appears too good to be true. Most importantly, any advice you take should be relevant to your individual circumstances.
As Andreea from @StocksandSavings warns: “In the world of finance, the exact same approach won’t work for two different people unless they have the exact same age, life experiences, attitudes to risk, goals, preferences, and financial circumstances - and even then, luck will probably play a part!”
