Generation Z Has The Right Attitude

What are the new kids on the block like? What do their money moves look like? Our project explores...

Andrew Willis 12 June, 2020 | 1:19AM
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What are the financial attitudes and behaviours of the newest investors out there? We’re talking about the super-connected, yet currently-building-their-life-foundations-in-a-pandemic, Generation Z. Our insights into this large and diverse demographic are limited, so we checked in on them recently and found some encouraging signs.

In his latest project, Morningstar senior behaviour scientist Stan Treger surveyed more one thousand 18 to 25-year-old American investors on how they feel, and what they're doing about their retirement preparation, debt, homeownership, and investing. And for the most part, they’ve got the right attitudes!

To start, these investors are not missing milestones amidst the coronavirus. They’re not letting a crisis get in the way of getting admitted into and graduating from college, obtaining their first jobs, or even buying their first homes.

But perhaps after seeing the struggles of Millennials with debt, they may have developed an aversion to lines of credit – with 76% of respondents looking to keep bills off their back before saving for retirement. And only 39% actually believing they could afford a home in the future.

That said, they’re fairly optimistic, and most participants were engaged in long term financial planning with a belief that planning for retirement was important to learn about. They also said finance should be mandatory to learn about in school, although they were confident in their investment knowledge.

Which could be from technology, as they’re actively using financial apps – yet still more trusting of human advisors over robo advisors.

For Morningstar, I’m Andrew Willis.

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About Author

Andrew Willis

Andrew Willis  is Senior Editor at Morningstar Canada. He previously produced content for Fidelity Investments and finance industry events for Euromoney Institutional Investor and has written in the past for Thomson Reuters and CNN. Follow him on Twitter @Andrew_M_Willis.

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