All three generations had similar equity holdings, with Apple, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, Microsoft, Facebook and Alphabet coming in at the top. Millennials also had Tesla and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust in their top six. Gen Xers, too, had Tesla in their top six.
The most popular ETFs were U.S. broad funds, according to Schwab’s data. And all three generations held the Schwab U.S. Broad Market ETF, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF and the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF among their top exchange-traded fund holdings.
Mobile trades were popular among millennials and Gen Xers, with both groups scoring the same percentage at 22%. Boomers came in slightly higher than last quarter at 16%. Millennials once again had the highest percentage in cash out of the three generations at 16%, which was higher than last quarter’s 15.66%. The cash holdings for Gen X and boomers also increased to 13.95% and 12% from 13.08% and 11.86%, respectively.
The data showed that the average age of participants was 51, and men are significantly more likely to use self-directed brokerage accounts as part of their 401(k)—76% of the accounts were held by men versus 24% held by females.