Younger adults’ wealth levels are increasing faster than older people’s, but it’s uncertain whether it’s making them happy.
“Americans under 40 saw their wealth rise by a staggering 80% since pre-pandemic, a far higher rate than any other age group,” Emily Peck recently wrote at the news site Axios, using data from the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
Older adults hold most of the assets, but their wealth is not increasing at the same rapid percentage it is for those under 40, according to the Federal Reserve data. The younger group’s more rapid rise stems from the money they are getting from the great wealth transfer; they have also received much of the pandemic-related stimulus, and because they are young they invest more aggressively for higher returns.
But these heartening statistics aren’t relieving the worry of this cohort, say their financial advisors.
Elizabeth K. Miller, founder and president of Summit Place Financial Advisors in Summit, N.J., said the younger generation of investors are good savers, but they also suffer from doubts.
“They are asking for feedback: Are we doing the right thing?” Miller said in an interview. At a time these younger investors are embarking on their peak earning years, they’re looking to advisors for guidance. They’re receiving good pay packages, but they also want to make sure they’re building a base for a desirable lifestyle in the future.
“The under-40s are aware of the need to manage their money and are open to professional help,” Miller said.
The younger generation of savers and investors also worry more about retirement at an earlier stage than previous generations, said Kamila Elliott of Collective Wealth Partners in Atlanta. Elliott works with a lot of high-net-worth and first-generation wealth investors.
“The young people worry about retirement because there is a lack of conviction that Social Security will be there for them and there are very few pensions left,” Elliott said in an interview. “They know they have to take an active role” in planning.
Risk is not viewed as a bad thing by this cohort, though they’re looking for as much information as they can get to manage the risks they are willing to accept, Elliott added.
Georgia G. Bruggeman, an advisor with Meridian Financial Advisors in the Boston area, agreed that young accumulators are concerned about their retirement prospects, and that’s prompting them to save more than older generations did at the same point in their lives.
They are also going to be the beneficiaries of the great wealth transfer. “Annual gifting from parents and grandparents is happening, in addition to outright inheritances,” Bruggeman said in an interview. This money will build up over their lifetimes and “has the potential to be huge.”
For instance, Bruggeman said she has a client whose husband recently died unexpectedly, and who started giving significant gifts to their children. “Finances are complicated for young people today. They came of age during the financial crisis and it took a toll on them.” So they are more worried about retirement, even as they receive significant funds from their parents and grandparents, she said.
The 2008-2009 financial crisis left a lasting impression on younger earners, who also worry about issues such as climate change and other world crises, said Landon Tan, founder and lead planner at Query Capital in Brooklyn, N.Y., in an email exchange.
Tan works with millennials who are experiencing growth in their wealth levels from prudent saving, stock compensation and inheritances. They are frequently new to investing.
“Coming of age around the recession resulted in reluctance to invest due to uncertainty about the future, as well as difficulty with the ups and downs of investing or the difficulty in differentiating between various risks inherent to investing,” Tan said. It takes time to help young investors put risks in perspective and to align their portfolios with their growing wealth levels and their goals, he said.
Mitchell Kraus, a co-founder, along with his father, of Capital Intelligence Associates in Santa Monica, Calif., also spoke about the investing and retirement fears plaguing many of his firm’s second-generation clients.
“Younger generations do not think the government or their employers will look after them in the future,” and regardless of their wealth levels, they are concerned that “they won't have a happy future unless they take care of it themselves,” he said. Most are more concerned about their lifestyles in retirement, as well as their finances, he added.