Every quarter, CNBC does a special report that they call the All-American Economic Survey. And in their newest one on Nov. 3, investing trends for millennials showed an immense opposition to stocks and more trust in both real estate and gold.
Part of this appears to be the fact that many millennials have grown up in the decades of the dot com bust and the 2008 credit crisis which saw their parents and grandparents lose upwards of 40% of their retirement portfolios tied to the stock markets. And with the millennial generation known for truth and straight talk over political correctness and subterfuge, perhaps it is not surprising that the younger generation has a much greater distrust in banks and Wall Street, and has little appetite for riskier investments, especially since the markets are manipulated so highly by the Fed and by HFT computer trading.
Steve Liesman: We are taking a laser focus on millennials in the All-American survey, where we compare them to other groups in the economy and separately sampled them to make sure we got the full demographics of them.
The first thing you notice about millennials and stocks is… they have less of them. And what they think is the best investment is a very interesting investment paradox. They are younger, but they like stocks less.
Real estate is their top pick and gold is their number two pick for best investment. This is followed by stocks and finally savings accounts. - CNBC
Interestingly, this aversion to stocks and to risks is nearly the same as in late August when the last survey was conducted, and occurring at the same time as when the pullback in equities was just beginning.
For millennials, who tend to listen to and trust alternative media much more than older generations do, recognition that most paper investments are manipulated bubbles has been a strong theme for those just starting their careers, and who are leaning towards other investment platforms. And while the dichotomy of this generation finding real estate a much better form of investing despite the fact that few actually own property because of their massive debt loads, creating wealth through sound physical assets appears by far to be the primary foundation for which the millennials hope to achieve their investing success.
Kenneth Schortgen Jr is a writer for Secretsofthefed.com, Examiner.com, Roguemoney.net, and To the Death Media, and hosts the popular web blog, The Daily Economist. Ken can also be heard Wednesday afternoons giving an weekly economic report on the Angel Clark radio show.
