How 22-Year-Old Corey Phillips is Turning Gen Z into Investors

At 22, Illinois native Corey Phillips is making a bid to change how his generation thinks about money. As founder and CEO of Social Storm LLC, he’s turned a personal obsession with investing into a growing platform that teaches financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and professional development, aimed first at young people who rarely see themselves in the conversation.

“I saw a lot of financial educators who worked on Wall Street and were typically older,” Phillips tells me. “I didn’t see many young people who could relate to them.” His answer was to become the messenger he wished he’d had: energetic, plain-spoken, and close enough in age to feel credible to teens and twenty-somethings.

“I can share this information in a way that’s engaging and fun,” he says.

Relatability, of course, only goes so far in a field where experience matters. Phillips has heard the skepticism—questions about his credentials, his age, and what qualifies him to advise anyone about money. He counters with outcomes. “Every time I present or people see my content, they’re excited to get started and learn more,” he says. “It’s about showing real impact.”

His story starts in a tight-knit Chicago household, the youngest of triplets, with a retired police officer for a father and a paraprofessional for a mother. Work ethic was non-negotiable. As a teenager, Phillips split time between retail and fast-food jobs but bristled at how quickly paychecks disappeared.

Determined to make his earnings last, he dove into books, tutorials, and YouTube channels on investing. With his mother’s help, he opened a Roth IRA and brokerage account. “I started contributing my part-time paychecks and saw tremendous success,” he says, returns he credits to research, discipline, and calculated risk since 2020.

Those habits underpin Social Storm’s programming: events, workshops, and speaking engagements that bring together aspiring entrepreneurs and mentors. The focus is 16–24-year-olds, with special attention to communities on Chicago’s South and West Sides.

The audience is broad—Phillips says his message resonates strongly with Black and brown participants who often lack access to practical financial coaching. “They’re highly ambitious, but they don’t know where to start,” he says.

The scale is growing. Phillips estimates he worked with more than 2,000 young people in Chicago in 2024, creating a peer network through panels and collaborations that showcase relatable success stories. “That exposure shows young people they have peers doing great things,” he says.

While Gen Z is his core constituency, Phillips’ reach stretches beyond it. He frequently speaks with parents and older adults about reframing money habits, from budgeting to long-term investing. “Investing and building wealth isn’t just for the wealthy,” he says.

“It’s for everyday people.” It’s a perspective he adopted young—as a 16-year-old opening retirement accounts—and one he now offers to those approaching retirement age. The message: start now, whatever your starting point. “The best day was yesterday,” he says. “But the next best day is today.”