TikTok Is the Place To Go for Financial Advice If You’re a Young Adult

TikTok is the place to go for new dances, viral taco recipes—and, now, financial advice.

The big benefit of TikTok is that it allows users to dole out and obtain information in short, easily digestible video bites, also called TikToks. And that can make unfamiliar, complex topics, such as those related to personal finance and investing, more palatable to a younger audience.

But can TikTok users, many of whom are in their teens, 20s or early 30s, trust the financial advice that is increasingly being offered on the social-media platform?

That advice runs the gamut, from general information about home buying or retirement savings to specific stock picks and investment ideas. Rob Shields, a 22-year-old, self-taught options trader who has more than 163,000 followers on TikTok, posts TikToks under the username stock_genius on topics such as popular stocks to watch, how to find good stocks and basic trading strategies.

Most times, TikTok users don’t even have to search for information that might appeal to them—it comes right to their feed based on factors such as their user profile and usage.

To be sure, TikTok isn’t the only social-media platform popular with young people that features financial advice. YouTube and Instagram carry videos with financial content as well. But TikTok is a hit with younger generations in part because of its quick-hit videos, easily navigated swiping functions and highly personalized content suggestions. And the numbers of young TikTok users viewing financial-related content on the platform of late have surged, a trend that many users and industry professionals expect to continue.

A survey conducted in late January by LendingTree’s MagnifyMoney unit shows about 41% of Gen Zers, those born roughly beginning in 1997 up until a few years ago, reported turning to TikTok for investment information within the past month, versus 15% of millennials, often categorized as those born between 1981 and 1996. Recent research from Greenlight, an allowance and debit-card app that recently launched a financial-education and trading arm, shows that 35% of respondents age 13 through 20 have turned to TikTok for personal-finance and investing advice.

“There are very few educational resources about personal finance that are accessible and compelling to young people,” says Tim Sheehan, co-founder and CEO of Greenlight. “So it isn’t surprising that kids are turning to social media. TikTok, in particular, provides quick, digestible content that can instantly capture your attention,” says Mr. Sheehan. However, he adds, “Misinformation dominates social media and it can be very difficult to discern the facts.”

Dana Eble, a 25-year-old public-relations professional in Detroit, says she likes the idea that she’s learning things on TikTok from people who are close to her age and don’t come across as judgmental or preachy about what she should be doing with her money. Many of the finance articles she sees online, she says, target people in their 40s and 50s and the advice isn’t always pertinent to her.

“A lot of people my age are living on a shoestring budget, and the advice on TikTok seems to match where younger people are in life,” says Ms. Eble. “TikTok doesn’t make me feel bad if I buy a Starbucks once a month.”

But some financial professionals and TikTok users themselves express concern about the accuracy of financial advice sometimes given on TikTok and a lack of transparency, in some cases, regarding the identities and qualifications of people giving the information. While some trained investment professionals post TikToks, there are other so-called social-media influencers who post about financial matters on TikTok who have little or no formal financial background. In some cases, it is hard to find a TikToker’s real name, and it can take legwork to figure out their qualifications or whether they have a personal financial motivation for promoting themselves on TikTok. What’s more, some TikToks contain misleading or wrong information, make overly rosy claims about investment potential or include overly broad statements that could lead to significant financial missteps, according to financial professionals and users who have come across these types of TikToks.

Content related to general budgeting, saving money, cutting expenses and making smarter purchasing decisions is pretty innocuous, says Brian Walsh, senior manager of financial planning at SoFi, an online personal-finance company that offers products like loans and investments as well as free financial advice. But Mr. Walsh says there are other TikToks that concern him, such as the handful he saw that claimed that a fail-proof way to invest is by mimicking the holdings of top-performing actively managed mutual funds. Such lists of holdings are only historical snapshots, Mr. Walsh says, and the technical factors that might have led a fund manager to purchase those stocks might have changed in the meantime.

Mr. Walsh says he also is bothered by TikToks he has seen that proffer advice about buying rental properties and leveraging the risk, and that encourage home buyers to put down as little as possible up front. While these strategies might be appropriate for some viewers, he says he is worried about the possibility of younger people—who might be more naive or trusting—blindly following overly broad advice and being harmed financially as a result.

For its part, TikTok, on its financial-related hashtag pages, warns users to be careful of the financial advice they see on the platform and to report behavior that might fall short of community guidelines. On its #fintok page, with more than 296 million views, it states, “Before following any financial advice, keep in mind that all investments involve risks and consider doing your own research.” The company places similar notes of caution on pages for terms such as #stocktips, #cryptotrading and others. TikTok also has consumer guidelines against fraud and scams, including multilevel marketing operations. In addition, many TikTokers add disclaimers to their profiles saying things like “my opinions” and “not advice.”

“TikTok aims to promote a welcoming atmosphere for people to learn and find entertainment,” a company spokesperson says. “We’ve seen our community embrace a range of enriching ideas and content, and we’re focused on supporting that with both creative tools and safety features to help that authenticity thrive.”

Potential concerns aside, many young people in their 20s and 30s say they find TikTok’s medium appealing and use it to help educate themselves about pertinent financial-related topics that they often haven’t learned in school or from their parents.

“Many millennials don’t want to sit through a 30-minute or an hour or full-day seminar on finance,” says Amanda Israel, a 35-year-old certified pediatric sleep consultant in Philadelphia, who uses TikTok to learn about various financial topics she’s unfamiliar with, such as teaching children to be savers, buying investment properties and business financing.

The platform is a good starting-off point for learning about topics such as budgeting and retirement, says Lindsey Tayne, a 23-year-old senior at Northeastern University in Boston. If something catches her eye on TikTok, she says she makes sure to read posters’ bios and Google the topics to learn more.

“It’s a very fun, easy way to digest and eat all this content up,” says Taylor Price, a 21-year-old influencer with one million TikTok followers. Ms. Price is also chief executive at TAP Intuit, a financial-education platform that focuses on Gen Z. Ms. Price, who majored in finance and management in college, posts on a variety of basic investing topics that many young people aren’t learning in school; recent subjects include debunking common money myths, renting vs. leasing, summer side hustles, her current investment strategy and how taxes work.

Before posting a money-related video, Ms. Price says she does “extensive research” about the topics. “However, just because I do my own research does not mean viewers shouldn’t do their own due diligence, too,” she adds.

Several TikTok users also say they’ve made financial decisions based on TikToks they’ve watched.

Kim Bayle, a 30-year-old footwear-company sales director in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., says she was recently inundated with TikToks about cryptocurrency and she decided to invest $100.

“I have no idea why I bought what I bought,” she says. “They just said buy ethereum, so I did. It feels kind of stupid saying that. But I find myself getting influenced on TikTok all the time.” Still, she says she feels comfortable with her small purchase. “Anything more than that, I probably would have been uncomfortable with it,” she says. She has also bought a number of stocks based on investment strategies she has seen on TikTok.

The best thing to do when considering advice seen on TikTok, experts say, is to double-check everything with a reputable source, such as a financial adviser or accountant, before acting. “If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is,” says Ivan Knauer, a securities enforcement and litigation attorney in Ballard Spahr’s Washington, D.C., office. “When you hear someone spouting their personal opinions from the TikTok mountaintop, you should take whatever they say with a hefty grain of salt.”

Several TikTok influencers say that young people should be encouraged to educate themselves financially and that they should not take influencers’ recommendations blindly. “It’s hard to tell what is real since there are so many people out there,” says Mr. Shields, the options trader and TikToker. While Mr. Shields feels confident in his expertise, he says others need to do their own research to make sure they are making solid financial choices for their circumstances. “Wouldn’t you want to research it yourself because it’s your money?” he asks. “I’m still a dude on the internet.”

Happy is the family whose members—parents, grandparents and grown children—trust each other enough to cooperate on shared goals, especially financial ones. When that is truly the case, Uncle Sam’s tax rules can help as well.

This matters especially now that mortgage rates are above 7%, and many families are looking for ways to help younger members. If the elders have resources and are confident younger ones can cooperate, a family loan could make homeownership possible while providing the elders with a useful income stream.

Other strategies can actually lower taxes, such as when funding 529 plans or Roth IRAs, or when someone inherits a traditional IRA with required withdrawals larger than they will need.

Here are three strategies useful for functional families.

Intrafamily loans

It is perfectly legal for families to lend money to a relative for a down payment or even a private mortgage.

But it is important not to cut corners, says Ryan McKeown, a CPA with Modern Wealth Enhancement in Minnesota. If the loan is for a down payment, be honest with the mortgage provider and have a formal agreement. The lender owes tax on the interest payments received.

If the loan is for a private mortgage, both sides should have legal representation with a formal written agreement, including payment terms. The lender owes tax on the interest, and the borrower often can deduct it if he or she itemizes.

To avoid IRS trouble, the interest rate shouldn’t be lower than the agency’s Applicable Federal Rate at the time of the loan. Currently that is about 5% for loans longer than nine years; about 4.5% for loans three to nine years; and about 4% for loans three years or less. Currently, traditional mortgage rates are generally above 7%.

In addition, the lender could use the $19,000 annual gift-tax exemption (described below) to forgive some or all of the interest or principal annually. If both lenders and borrowers are married, that is up to $76,000 a year. There is no tax for the borrower on such forgiveness, because it is from a gift.

If you’re going this route, McKeown advises against having a fixed plan to forgive the debt. Instead, do it in one-off letters specifying the amount—and keep careful records. Otherwise the IRS might try to treat the loan as a taxable gift.

Asset gifts

Powerful tax-saving moves for families often use gift-tax provisions. Under current law, anyone can give anyone else up to $19,000 of assets annually, free of gift tax. That means a married couple with three grandchildren could give them a total of $114,000 in 2026.

The gifts can be cash or other assets, like stock. For noncash gifts, the cost basis—which is the starting point for measuring taxable gain after a sale—“carries over” to the recipient. So if someone buys $1,000 of stock and gives it away when it is worth $5,000, the recipient’s cost basis is $1,000. If the recipient later sells the shares for $8,000, the taxable gain is $7,000.

Here’s an example showing how gifts could save a family taxes. Grandma is a widow of modest means, while her child and spouse have prospered. The couple has two children, and they want to contribute $5,000 to a 529 college-savings plan for each—but they need to sell stock to do it. Their tax rate on the sale would be 18.8%, and they would need to sell about $11,000 of stock.

However, Grandma’s federal tax rate on the stock sale is 0%. If the couple gives $10,000 of shares to Grandma, she could sell them, pay no tax, and fund the grandchildren’s 529 plans. This saves about $1,000 of tax.

These moves are legal, and they could be used in other ways, such as to help a young person fund a Roth IRA.

But trust among family members is essential: Under the law, givers can’t put conditions on a gift. Grandma could use her stock proceeds to take a cruise, but she makes 529 contributions instead.

Mark Sellner, a retired tax attorney and CPA living in Sarasota, Fla., uses this strategy. His children sell stock he gives them and fund 529 plans for his grandchildren.

The family’s tax savings aren’t huge, but he likes other benefits. The sales by his children don’t boost his adjusted gross income, which in turn could raise his Medicare Irmaa premiums or his 3.8% surtax on net investment income.

Sellner doesn’t worry about his children using the funds for another purpose.

“There can’t be any strings attached to gifts. Of course, it is up to us to decide whether to make them in the future,” he says.

Two caveats: The “kiddie tax” applies to most children under age 24, and it is levied at the parents’ rate on investment income above $2,700 in 2026. Consider this before making gifts to a young person.

Investors who give away stock also forgo the step-up, an important provision that exempts assets held at death from capital-gains tax.

Sellner knows he’s losing a step-up, but says, “The children could use a little more now. Why should they wait 20 years to get it?”

Disclaimers

A disclaimer is a highly useful strategy in which one heir renounces an inheritance in favor of another heir. Assuming family members cooperate, this can save taxes.

Here’s one example. Dad died and had a large traditional IRA that he left to Mom. She has enough assets and income to cover her expenses, and she lives in a state with a stiff estate tax. The inherited IRA would put her estate over the threshold.

Also surviving are three young-adult children. If Mom disclaims all or part of Dad’s IRA within nine months of his death, that amount could go directly to the children. They will have 10 years to empty the account, and the family as a whole will likely save estate and income taxes.

Disclaimers have many key details, especially regarding beneficiary documents. Although heirs have great freedom in choosing what assets to disclaim, the rules about who gets disclaimed property are rigid. It is best if the original owner names tiers of heirs so that if one disclaims, the next recipient is clear.

TikTok Is the Place To Go for Financial Advice If You’re a Young Adult

The short videos are ideal for many people. But is the advice any good?

Strong family financial planning can help reduce taxes and support younger generations. From intrafamily loans and asset gifts to inheritance disclaimers, strategic cooperation can create meaningful financial benefits—when families have the trust and structure to make it work.

Intrafamily loans

Asset gifts

Disclaimers