While you might think that dismissing something as "for old white men" is a line right out of today's political campaigns, you might be surprised to find that the classification applies in investing, too—at least, according to millennial women.
A survey from investment app Stash found that millennial women dismiss investing not only as something typically done by an old white man (60 percent said so), they also find it confusing (76 percent said so).
But millennial women aren't the only ones turned off by investing; in general, the vast majority of millennials (79 percent) responded that they're not putting their money into the stock market.
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While millennials might be buying mutual funds earlier than older generations did, it's not because they have this inner drive to invest. Instead, it's probably because they're participating in a retirement plan at work. And that can be a problem, since lots of millennials aren't necessarily participating in those plans.
Although student debt is a huge problem for that generation, despite the popular wisdom on the topic the Stash survey finds that outstanding student loans are not the chief cause of millennials' market abstinence; only 13 percent chalk up their lack of investing to the need to pay off those loans.
Instead, many believe they don't have enough money to invest; 70 percent think they need at least $100 to invest in the market—obstacle enough for some of them—but 38 percent believe they need at least $1,000.
As a result, 41 percent say they just don't have enough money to do so.
It goes beyond money, though; trust factors in as well. Despite the fact that, if they had to choose between a traditional investment firm or a payment app, more than a third of millennials (37 percent) say they would trust a payment app more with their money, that doesn't mean that they trust a robo-advisor to choose their investments.
Sixty-seven percent of millennials say that, if they were to invest in the stock market, it would be very important for them to decide which companies or funds to invest their money in.
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