How Gen Z and millennials invest differently
A recent Bank of America survey revealed that 85% of young adults with extra income have adapted their investment strategies due to the economic challenges in the past year. How do millennials’ and Gen Z’s investment strategies differ?
Bank of America President of Preferred Banking Aron Levine notes a “get rich quick” approach by Gen Z opposed to long-term, retirement focused decisions made by millennials. The survey was carried out on young professionals who have between $50 thousand to $1 million in investable assets, who according to Levine have “good earning power.”
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Video Transcript
JULIE HYMAN: And, Aaron, what are some of the biggest investment philosophy decisions or differences, I should say, between Gen Z and millennials?
AARON LEVINE: Yeah. You know, I guess, not surprising we think again Gen Z, 18 to 26, there's a lot of let's get rich quick stuff. So probably a little more individual stock-buying, a little more risk-taking, a little more I'm trying to do something fast. Whereas the millennials are thinking more long term, which is terrific. Probably, 10 years ago, they might have had a different philosophy. But right now, they're thinking retirement, they're thinking long term investing. And so that's kind of an age thing. And I wouldn't be surprised if that Gen Z cohort 5, 10 years from now starts doing the same thing.
JULIE HYMAN: I mean, how much of that, though, is sort of TikTok-driven or social media-driven for Gen Z that there is that philosophy out there that you can get wealthy quickly in the market?
AARON LEVINE: It's certainly there. You know, actually, one of the things I was surprised about with this survey was over 50%, it was 52%, said that they don't believe social media is a good place to get financial advice. And that was pretty encouraging. And I bet you that would have been a higher number-- a lower number a few years ago. So I do think that while social media, TikTok, has big influence there's no question other sources, more reliable sources are becoming more and more used certainly by the millennials. And hopefully, Gen Z will do the same.
JOSH LIPTON: And, Aaron, in terms of this are the demographics of the people you're surveying, any more color there? You know, how much are they earning for example?
AARON LEVINE: Yeah. So sure. For the millennials, so it's really folks that have about $50,000 to $1 million in investable assets-- sorry, $100,000 to $1 million. And then Gen Z, we went $50,000 to $1 million. So these are all certainly young professionals who have good earnings power and investable assets that we're talking about, which is, again, these are the folks that are in the market, they're active.