How do young adults view investing after COVID turmoil and market swings?
How do young adults view investing after COVID turmoil and market swings?
The stock market has seen some wild swings and plenty of uncertainty over the last few years, between COVID-19 lockdowns and Big Tech stock ups and downs. All of this has been watched by a whole new generation of potential investors — millennials (also known as Generation Y) and Gen Z. So how are they feeling about the market?
Christopher Davenport started his freshman year at the University of Michigan in 2020 when the pandemic was in full swing.
“There were no social things going on. You could barely get out of your dorm,” he said. “All the classes were virtual.”
So he joined Michigan Interactive Investments, a club on campus. The group learns about investing by managing a small portfolio originally funded by alumni. Davenport is now the club’s president. Though most members are business students like himself, he said the pool is diversifying.
“You hear all about the WallStreetBets and people talking about crypto online and people going on different Discord chats and whatnot. It’s definitely gotten investing generally to a wider demographic,” he said.
That includes young people who found themselves with a little extra time and money.
During the pandemic, “we definitely saw a large number of deposits during the appropriate time period where people are saying, ‘This is because I got a stimulus check that I didn’t really need,'” said Dan Egan, director of behavioral finance and investing at Betterment, an automated investment adviser.
Meanwhile, it’s become easier to invest than ever. There’s app-based and commission-free trading, said Terrance Odean, a finance professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
“And now you can actually buy fractional shares — buy not only less than 100 shares, you can buy less than one share,” he said, adding that that’s increased access for people with less money.
A Federal Reserve survey from 2019 found that about half of Americans invest. How much has that changed? Odean said we don’t know. Surveys of millennial and Gen Z interest in investing have mixed results.
That’s partly because “what you live through affects how you view the market,” Odean said.
Studies show that young people’s opinions on investing are especially correlated to market returns. So how’s Davenport in Michigan doing with his personal investments?
“I didn’t have that much money to begin with, and I still don’t really have that much,” he said. But hey — he’s learning.
Stories You Might Like
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
