'Seoul Young Tech' Participating Youth... Net Assets Increased by 45% in 2 Years

Financial Counseling and Education for Youth
Notable Increase in Both Total and Net Assets
Income Growth Allocated to Savings and Investments

Youth who participated in 'Seoul Youngtech' for more than two years increased their savings and investments by 24%, and their net assets also grew by 45%. Introduced by the Seoul Metropolitan Government in November 2021, 'Seoul Youngtech' is Seoul's representative youth support program that provides financial counseling and education to help young people systematically build assets.

On the 28th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government held the '2024 Seoul Youngtech Performance Sharing Meeting' at the Seoul Metropolitan Youth Center in Yongsan-gu and announced the results of the program.

Kim Byung-min, Deputy Mayor for Political Affairs of Seoul, is delivering an encouraging speech to young attendees at the '2024 Seoul Young Tech Achievement Sharing Meeting' on the 28th. Photo by Seoul City

As a result of investigating the cash flow and asset-liability status of a total of 1,106 youths who received financial counseling for more than two years, expenditures slightly increased (9.6%) compared to the beginning of counseling, but income (14.3%) and savings and investment amounts (24.0%) increased more significantly. In particular, it was found that participants allocated 35.1% of their income increase to expenditures and 61.1% to savings and investments. The subscription rate for fund savings such as the Youth Leap Account and Tomorrow Filling Deduction increased by 5.07 percentage points, and the payment amount increased by 48.2%. For personal pensions, the subscription rate increased by 9.96 percentage points, and the payment amount rose by 88.4%.

The total assets of the youth increased from 101.7 million KRW to 141.4 million KRW, a 39.1% increase. Net assets also rose from 64.7 million KRW to 93.67 million KRW, a 44.8% increase. The Seoul Metropolitan Government explained that compared to Statistics Korea’s Household Financial Welfare Survey results from last year (which showed a 3.7% decrease in total assets and a 4.5% decrease in net assets per household), youths participating in Youngtech counseling actively managed their assets and sought growth. Additionally, the scale of financial investment assets (7.04 million KRW → 9.81 million KRW) and personal pension assets (1.49 million KRW → 3.37 million KRW) also increased significantly. The monthly rent deposit increased from 37.21 million KRW to 48.93 million KRW, which was evaluated as somewhat helping to improve housing conditions.

On this day, Seoul also announced the 'Seoul Youngtech 2.0 Innovation Promotion Plan' to be implemented next year. The plan aims to create a 'Seoul Youngtech Governance' that links economic and financial education conducted by various public and private institutions to generate synergy. The 'Youngtech Class' curriculum will focus on courses on topics of high interest to youth, such as real estate and investment, and the education difficulty will be subdivided into three levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced) to cover from young adults with little financial experience to those with investment experience.

Customized financial counseling and financial education will also be provided by dividing the target groups according to social entry status and income. A separate education course will be established for university students who have not yet entered society, and for youth urgently needing debt management, financial adjustment and rehabilitation procedures will be supported in connection with specialized institutions such as the Youth Companion Center and the Credit Recovery Committee. Kim Byung-min, Deputy Mayor for Political Affairs of Seoul, said, "We will link public and private financial capabilities and innovate the education system to more precisely meet the needs of youth and elevate the Youngtech program to become a nationally representative youth financial policy."