On this episode of Atlanta Business Radio, Lee Kantor talks with Barbie Palmer, Vice President of Business Technology Integration at Bank of America, about the Better Money Habits Gen Z Report. Barbie shares insights into Gen Z’s financial challenges, spending habits, and reliance on digital tools for money management. The discussion covers Gen Z’s attitudes toward saving, investing, and financial literacy, as well as their decreasing dependence on family support. Barbie offers practical advice for improving financial health and highlights Bank of America’s commitment to empowering young adults through accessible financial education resources.
Barbie Palmer is Business Technical Integration Manager within Operations at Bank of America.
She joined Bank of America in 1985. Progressing through Lockbox Services senior leadership roles, she became one of the first recipients of the prestigious Global Diversity and Inclusion award in2010.
Due to her exceptional leadership and volunteer efforts, she was the recipient of the Global Diversity and Inclusion award again in 2016 and 2022. Due to Barbie’s exceptional volunteer work, she was the recipient of the Global Volunteer Award in 2018.
Active in her community, she is a former CASA volunteer where she was the voice of children that were in the juvenile court system. She has developed partnerships and led several volunteer initiatives with the YMCA, Boys and Girls Clubs, Girls Scouts, Cool Girls, the Women of Cherith, Kindred Teen Spirited Moms, Mary Hall Freedom House and the Beverly Cunningham Outreach Program.
She has achieved milestone fundraiser amounts for United Way, Susan G. Komen and Lukemia Light the Night programs. Barbie is a recent graduate of United Way Volunteer Improvement Program.
In 2010, she was a recipient of the Neighborhood Excellence Initiative Award for developing a robust volunteer recruitment program with Operations Hope to deliver financial literacy to over 4,000 students in one year. In 2014, she was the recipient of the NAACP Jondelle Johnson Community Volunteer Award.
As the former Chair of Community Volunteers Atlanta from 2010-2014, Bank of America was recognized as the 2014 recipient of the Corporate Volunteer Council Impact Award and the 2013 recipient of the Corporate Green Day Environmental Award. In2017, she was the recipient of the Saving Our Children and Families Economic Empowerment award.
She was recently featured in Bank of America ads in 30 local market newspapers promoting her volunteer work. Barbie was also featured in 2022onward taping of iHeart Radio’s Black Information Network (BIN) for her work as a Better Money Habits Champion lead.
An Atlanta native, she received several certifications in Accounting and Management. Barbie is Greenbelt Certified. She has received a BA in Business Leadership at the University of Arizona at the highest level of summa cum laude. She serves as a mentor to new college students.
Currently she is working on her graduate degree in Organizational Management graduation in December 2025.She was inducted into the National Honor Society, Alpha Sigma Lambda and Golden Key International Honour Societies.
Connect with Barbie on LinkedIn.
What You’ll Learn In This Episode
- How Gen Z is actually managing money in 2025
- The cost of “adulting” and how this generation is adapting
- Where financial wellness, mental health, and self-care intersect
- What can Gen Z be doing to build their savings
- What are Gen Z’s financial coping mechanisms
- How is Gen Z tracking on financial milestones, such as saving for a home, retirement and investing
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio. Brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.
Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the show, we have Barbie Palmer, who is Vice president, business Technology Integration with Bank of America. Welcome, Barbie.
Barbie Palmer: Hi, Lee. How are you today?
Lee Kantor: I am doing well. So excited to be talking to you. Tell us about your work at Bank of America. How are you serving folks?
Barbie Palmer: Thank you so much for that. I’m glad to be here today. Just wanted to let you know I will be celebrating 40 years with Bank of America. I will, it’s been a journey, but I am so happy that I’m able to celebrate 40 years. But I work in Treasury services. I also lead our better money habits champions within Bank of America, where we go out into into the community and make financial lives easier. So it’s been a great, great venture for me. I’m so excited.
Lee Kantor: So as part of your work, I would imagine is the release of the Bank of America’s Better Money Habits Gen Z report.
Barbie Palmer: It is correct. Today I will be reviewing the results of the Gen Z report. We had the opportunity to survey 1000 and about 100 Gen Zs to talk about engines. These are age 18 through 28, and we just had an opportunity to solicit their feedback to see how they’re managing their financial success.
Lee Kantor: So any kind of learnings you’re willing to share?
Barbie Palmer: As far as some of the findings, it was noted that Gen Z is finding adulthood more expensive than expected. Many are spending more than anticipated to cover daily costs. A third say that they feel as if they’re stressed about their finances. 52% of them are saying that those economic inabilities is primarily the root cause, and just saving continuously seems to be a struggle for much of this generation. And the charity report not being reports that it’s not being able to save as a top barrier to financial success at higher rates then in 2024. So despite financial pressure, Gen Z embraces the power of small treats. Whether to cheer themselves up or to celebrate a win. So they are also less financially dependent on their parents. Just 39% of the Gen Z are receiving financial support from family, which is down from from last year’s results. So when you think of it, Gen Z is is our next future. So we want to make sure that they have all the tools that they need in order to become more financially savvy. Thank you.
Lee Kantor: Now, how are they interacting with banks and financial institutions? Are they, you know, going into banks like maybe their parents would or are they rely primarily on digital, uh, financial services?
Barbie Palmer: So of course, Gen Z’s are more Technically savvy. They are leveraging the of course the Better Money Habits website. Which is better money have that better money habits.com. They’re leveraging those technical tools, such as visiting the budget and credit to and resources that shares all type of material and curriculum to assist them with, with understanding where to really where to start. And then in some cases, we have noted that they will from time to time seek financial advisor. But primarily they leverage remote technology and their and their phones to see what they can do to be able to manage their money coming in versus their money going out. And from there, they’re making adjustments to see what can they do differently. So definitely leveraging technology tools in order to identify I were. Room is needed for improvement.
Lee Kantor: Now, are they relying on professionals or are they kind of crowdsourcing their financial literacy? Are they leaning on sites like Reddit or some of the other kind of online portals where they could be learning about these skills? Or are they actually kind of walking into a Bank of America branch and chatting with a banker?
Barbie Palmer: So in actuality, we noticed that they’re leveraging better money habits. Com website, which is a free financial education platform designed to help people access trustworthy financial information that empowers them to improve their financial health. So we’re seeing more Gen Z’s leverage the website versus going into your typical brick and mortar. From time to time, you may see a Gen Z meeting with a financial advisor to primarily talk about investing in other, more sophisticated financial Aspects, but but 99% of the time the Gen Z are leveraging technology tools.
Lee Kantor: Now, are they kind of leaning into the power of compounding? Are they putting money aside every month to grow financially?
Barbie Palmer: Is a great question. So as far as some of the tools that Gen Z are using, of course, definitely being able to manage money more effectively. The goal is for Gen Zs to create an emergency fund, and with the emergency fund, we’re looking at saving finances for at least three months, up to a year, or whatever works best for them. So that’s one of the aspects, is for them to be able to create an emergency fund. But of course, the the most important thing is being able to leverage budgeting, saving, monitoring their credit as well as investing. Investing is is a is a great opportunity that the Gen Z are very r are very conscious of and interested in doing more. And of course, one of the things that they’re interested in, but due to some form of economic constraints is retirement. They’re looking to see what they can do for retirement planning. Saving is definitely a key component to that.
Lee Kantor: Are they still believing in the American dream?
Barbie Palmer: Absolutely. That’s a great question. They’re very they’re they’re advocates for the American dream. And I can just tell you, Leigh, I just taught financial literacy to over 50 Gen Zers from a nonprofit organization. And they were so eager to learn about what’s out there for them in order to be able to manage their money from being able to to read and understand their paycheck to being able to set up direct deposit. So instead of them getting a paper paycheck, they’ll receive that money directly into their bank bank account. And then from there, just literally setting up a savings account. And then credit is I think we spent probably about an hour talking about credit, because they want to make sure that they’re not making the wrong choices when it comes to credit, because most of the time when they go to college, they have people, they receive things in the mail saying, hey, you can get this credit card, and of course you’ll get this big gift. But they never tell them about the impact when they go and charge their credit card to the to the, to, to the max, and then they have to pay it off.
Lee Kantor: So you feel like they’re more literate maybe than previous generations when it comes to managing that type of debt.
Barbie Palmer: Based on my understanding and what I have witnessed over my 15 years of being a better Money Harvest champion, I would definitely, definitely say yes, that they feel as if the tools are out there primarily resources. They can just use their phone and search for having issues with saving and from there things pop up primarily. Better money happens if they enter w WW dot better money habits.com. They’re able to search by credit savings budgeting, investing. All of those things are readily available at their fingertips. Whereas other generations when you think of baby boomers, they may not have had the tools. Of course, they didn’t have the tools that’s in front of the Gen Z that they have today to assist them with being more financially savvy.
Lee Kantor: So is this generation actively investing or are they, um, kind of waiting until they get a little more financially stable?
Barbie Palmer: So I would just say about 35% of Gen z C investments as a key marker of financial independence. Yet only 21% of Gen Z invested in the stock market over the past year, which of course is higher than last year, which is which was 15%. They’re well aware of the importance of retirement planning, but saving for the future is a luxury much of this generation can’t afford right now. But the ultimate goal is to be able to start saving and leveraging the tools that they have in front of them to ensure that they’re making the right decisions that will not impact them in the future. But 1 in 10 say they don’t think that they will be able to invest or may have enough money to retire comfortably. So there’s still a lot of work to be done. But there are some great tools out there to assist us in getting to a point where they can retire comfortably, as well as they can invest without having any, any bad results of it.
Lee Kantor: Now, um, in your experience working with so many Gen Zs and, um, and in the work you’re doing, is there any tangible, actionable advice that a Gen Z can be doing right now or in the near future in order to build their savings?
Barbie Palmer: Absolutely. Great question. Some things that they can start doing right now is of course, I would recommend that they. Manage their money through knowing what’s coming in and what’s going out. Creating a savings account. Setting goals for savings. Continuously check your bank statement. Check receipts. Shop at lower price grocery stores. Look for affordable housing. Paying your bills early versus on time and then transferring money to savings. So those are some some tools that can definitely help us to get on the right track to being financially stable.
Lee Kantor: So based on the report, what kind of sets Gen Z apart from other generations?
Barbie Palmer: That is a great question. I would say primarily, as I mentioned earlier, Gen Z’s are eager. They want to be able to save money and be financially stable. Being open about their finances is one of the key contributors. So naturally talking about it to their family members, being transparent, talking to their friends, they don’t let peer pressure stand in the way of them establishing their financial goals. And then they don’t feel, as I mentioned, pressured from friends if they may have to cut out going out on the weekend because they’re spending more money versus staying home cooking their own meals. And then also, I would just say 42% of Gen Z say they are comfortable turning down social plans and just solely admitting I can’t afford it. Some people won’t say that, and they’ll continue to spend and spend and spend, but Gen Zs are aware of what’s going on. So in response to the rising cost of living, they’re passing up on those great events with friends and save money. So the biggest thing when it comes. Even when it comes to dating, Gen Z’s priority prioritizes financial responsibility. In a romantic partner, those are some things that they look for in order to set themselves apart from other generations.
Lee Kantor: If somebody wants to learn more about the report and about the website, what is the best way to do that?
Barbie Palmer: Yes, the best way to find out about the report is to visit Bank of America, and you can learn more about the report. There’s also the report is also listed under Gen Z. So you can you can click on the link for Gen Z. And it will give you all the tools that you need in order to see the results of the actual survey.
Lee Kantor: Well, Barbie, thank you so much for sharing your story today, doing such important work, and we appreciate you.
Barbie Palmer: Thank you so much. I greatly appreciate your time. I wanted to leave you with just one comment. At Bank of America, we’re We’re very committed to helping people lead better lives. We are helping them with all the skills and knowledge and tools that they need in order to be successful. We encourage all of our our clients to leverage the Bank of America website. We currently have over 500 better money habitat champions like myself, who go out into the community to promote Bank of America curriculum. I wish that I would have learned this earlier on in life. So to our Gen Z’s, you’re not giving up. We know you’re not giving up. You got this. A reminder please go to Better Money Habits. Com to learn more. Thank you so much.
Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.
