The entrepreneurship American Dream 2026 may look very different from the one previous generations grew up with. New Wells Fargo research suggests that owning a business is increasingly tied to financial independence, while younger Americans are also navigating significant economic pressure.
According to Wells Fargo’s 2026 Money Study, released on March 30, 2026, 61% of US adults say owning a business is part of the American Dream. The figure rises to 69% among Gen Z adults. The findings reflect how modern Americans define financial success, with business ownership increasingly associated with control over work and personal finances.
Among Gen Z adults who do not currently own a business, 74% say they want to own one someday. Eight in 10 Gen Z respondents say business ownership would give them more control over their future. That ambition exists alongside considerable financial uncertainty, however.
The study found that 31% of Gen Z adults with full-time jobs are worried about losing their employment over the next year, compared with 17% of employed Americans overall. More than half of Gen Z respondents also say they are putting more cash aside in case they lose their jobs, while 57% say they would run out of money in less than three months after losing their current income.
The same workplace uncertainty is increasingly showing up in popular culture. LinkedIn News noted on August 23 that recent TV shows such as FX’s Adults and HBO’s I Love LA are reflecting Gen Z’s struggles with layoffs, rising living costs, AI-driven changes to work and career uncertainty. That cultural shift mirrors the financial picture in the Wells Fargo study: for many young adults, building a secure future increasingly means finding alternatives to a traditional career path.
This helps explain another finding: financial support from parents remains important. Some 64% of parents with Gen Z children aged 18 to 28 say their children rely on them financially through money, housing or other forms of support. More than half of those parents, 56%, say this support is putting pressure on their own finances.
At the same time, consumer savings behavior in 2026 points to a more cautious approach to money. Wells Fargo found that 47% of consumers have increased their savings or investments during the past year. Meanwhile, 90% say they want to be more intentional about spending, up from 84% two years earlier. The term “moneymaxxing,” which means lifestyle with maximum savings, becomes applied to Gen Z more often. Though young adults tpday don’t expect to be financially independent until age 37, they don’t give up on their entrepreneurial dreams.
That is visible in separate research from Intuit QuickBooks, the financial software business serving small companies and self-employed workers. Its 2026 entrepreneurship survey found that 43% of Gen Z respondents were considering starting a business, compared with 39% of Millennials and 21% of Gen X. The research is also not oblivious to reality stopping those dreams from coming true, having also found that money remains the biggest barrier to starting a business, cited by 47% of respondents.
For fintech companies, these trends create a potentially important customer group: first-time founders who may need banking, payments, accounting and cash-flow tools before they have established businesses. Neobanks and other financial technology providers could increasingly design products around people moving from salaries and side hustles into business ownership. Some examples include simpler business accounts, automated tax and expense tracking, access to payment services and financial guidance built directly into the tools new entrepreneurs already use.
The Wells Fargo survey was conducted by Versta Research, gathering opinions among 3,773 US adults and 215 teenagers.
