Are Millennials Ready for Investing in Gold
Most people, at least at some point of their life, desire an investment portfolio that grows over time and provides some financial security, especially as we approach retirement. Acorn, which did a study on Millennials in November 2016, wanted to ascertain how Millennials – look at money, savings and investments.
Millennials have surpassed Baby Boomers as the nation's largest living generation, according to population estimates released this month by the U.S. Census Bureau. Millennials, defined as those ages 18-34 in 2015, now number 75.4 million, surpassing the 74.9 million Baby Boomers (ages 51-69).
While that is a far reaching age range (certainly a 35 year old will have different attitudes than an 18 year old), the report does outline what the goals, challenges and anxieties are for the average Millennial when it comes to financial well-being and investment. For instance, why are some Millennials saving for a house while others are saving for a vacation?
The study surveyed nearly 2,000 Millennials and found that the answers for the most part showed that young people are concerned about their financial well-being and many would do just about anything to get out of debt. However, many Millennials simply do not have the education or know-how to invest properly. Acorn lists these tips as ways to start thinking about investing to provide some sense of security and the potential for financial growth.
The following are highlights from the Acorn Study:
- What would Millennials do to get out of debt? Acorn found almost 1 in 10 millennials would opt to go to jail for a week to pay off $10,000 in debt. Likewise, some answered they would be willing to forgo social media for six months and nearly half said they’d give up meeting their favorite celebrity.
- Do Millennials budget? Acorn found that 73% do not have a monthly budget, and 60% have a general sense of where their money goes each month.
- What was your top financial concern of 2016? Thirty-one percent named daily expenses as their biggest financial concern.
- Which of the following influences your purchases the most? Millennials said “word of mouth” would influence their purchase. This age group is not about to take the word of an advertisement, as kids who grew up with access to online resources, what others think outweighs all other purchase enticements.
- Coffee Consumption: Acorn even asked about coffee consumption among Millennials and 41.29% admit to spending more on coffee in the past year than they invested in their retirement.
- Preferred source of financial news? The answers would vex any Gen Xer or baby boomer as 24-percent said social media (22-percent said financial media site).
- Mobile Access to finances increased your interest in the subject? Mobile access to finances seems to have a profound effect on Millennials as 58-percent agree that mobile access has spiked their interest.
- News Consumption: How often do you follow financial market trends? This would trouble most “adults” as 85% do not follow market trends more than once a month.
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: My high school and/or college education prepared me to manage my money. As predicted, nearly all respondents (70-percent) do not feel that their education prepared them to manage their finances. This has been the case on other studies as well.
- Which life event are you currently saving the most for? Only a bit over 8-percent of Millennials are saving for retirement, while 22-percent are saving for a vacation and 19-percent said they were saving for a home.
- How would you describe your level of savviness when it comes to investing? Acorn reports that since retirement placed last on the list of saving goals, they wanted to know, how do Millennials felt about their knowledge of investing? The answer was that one in two described it as low: while they know investing is important, but not sure how to go about.
- On a scale of 1-10, how important a role do you think investing will play in your future financial success? According to the Acorn Study, on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being very important, the average score came in at 7.
- Concerns about investing: Many Millennials (especially just starting out in life and may not yet be top of the pay-scale) list losing money narrowly tops lack of knowledge as the #1 concern about investing.
- What is your level of anxiety when thinking about your financial future: The study reported that 39.15% feel very anxious.
- Have financial struggles ever impacted your overall health and well-being? Nearly half (over 45%) admitted that they have been impacted by financial struggles.
At GSI Exchange, we believe strongly in the importance of investor education. For millennials looking to better understand how precious metals can be integrated into a successful investment portfolio, we offer a number of helpful resources, including our popular Gold and Silver Investor's Power Guide, which explains many of the key benefits to owning gold bullion and silver bullion.
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