According to a recent survey by Bankrate.com, only 26% of millennials under the age of 30 actively invest in the stock market. That’s compared with 58% of people over 50, based on data from MarketWatch.
Understandably, at the begining of one’s carreer it is often difficult to prioritize investing over spending. However, according to the survey, a lack of money and knowledge are actually the biggest reasons why the under-30s are avoiding the stock market.
21% of survey respondents under 30 cited not knowing enough about the market when asked why they weren’t investing in stocks.
53% said the biggest obstacle to investing in stocks is not having enough money.
The millennial generation has been exhausted by student debt as well as underemployment as a result of the most recent recession, which has essentially affected their overall relationship with investing. “They’ve seen a lot of turbulence in the stock market and I think it’s understandable that people may be a little bit wary,” says Claes Bell, an analyst at Bankrate.
While Millennials are still wary about jumping into investing, the availability of a new breed of investing tools and apps is making it easier and more comfortable for this age group to learn about investing. The Robinhood app for instance, aims to spur millennial investing with $0 commission stock trades.
To make it easy for peers to help one another invest in stocks, users on Tip’d Off can not only share information, but also their actual portfolios. Increased transparency along with a distinctive social layer allows users on the site to invest based on the collective knowledge contributed by peers and experienced traders, and learn about stocks using a social networking environment that they are already well-acquainted with.
