Younger Koreans With Lower Financial Knowledge Rely More on Social Media
People in their 20s and 30s who show confidence in stock investing actually lagged behind in assessments of their actual financial knowledge. According to the Korea Financial Consumer Protection Foundation's '2026 Financial Education Survey' released on the 28th, the share of respondents who said their stock investing knowledge was higher than others' was highest among all age groups, at 35.7% for those in their 30s and 35.6% for those in their 20s. Those in their 20s had the lowest rate of top-tier financial knowledge across all age groups.
Actual financial knowledge assessments, however, showed the opposite. The foundation classified respondents as 'high' for five or more correct answers out of seven financial knowledge questions, 'medium' for three to four, and 'low' for two or fewer. Only 45.5% of those in their 20s received a 'high' grade, the lowest among the surveyed age groups.
The less knowledgeable respondents were, the more they overestimated their own abilities. Among the 'low' knowledge group, 35.5% said their stock knowledge was superior to others', higher than the 'medium' group (28.7%) and the 'high' group (28.3%).
Information sources also diverged by knowledge level. In the 'low' knowledge group, 10.3% cited social media—blogs, Instagram, and Telegram investment channels—as their main source of information, roughly double the 'high' group (5.4%). The 'low' group also relied more on online communities and portal sites such as stock cafés and stock discussion rooms, at 11.8% versus 7.6% for the 'high' group. By contrast, 13.0% of the 'high' group chose specialized economic media outlets, ahead of the 'low' group (10.4%).
Across all respondents, only 29.7% rated their stock knowledge as higher than others'. Some 60.2% said they lacked knowledge, while 10.1% found it hard to judge. The share of respondents who had received financial education within the past three years was highest among those in their 20s, at 20.6%, but the overall average stood at just 13.6%, falling for the second consecutive year after 16.2% in 2024 and 14.1% last year.
The foundation stated that "the tendency to overestimate one's stock investing knowledge appeared among those with lower financial knowledge and among younger age groups." The survey was conducted online from July 13 to 29 with 3,000 adults aged 19 to 69 living in Seoul, the metropolitan area, and six major metropolitan cities.
