Over a third of affluent millennials think they will have to work past the age of 65, partly because they're wary about putting money into the stock market, according to a survey by Investopedia.
The survey also found that 43% of these millennials—those with an average household income of $132,000—use a financial advisor. Of those using an advisor, 27% reported their investments were performing extremely well, the survey said.
"The survey paints a picture of a generation that is trying to tackle planning for the long term while perceiving investing as risky, all despite having the funds to invest," Joetta Gobell, vice president of research and insights at Dotdash, Investopedia's parent company, said in a prepared statement.
Authors of the report said they focused on affluent millennials—a generation made of up of those between 23 and 38 years old—to study what motivates the investment decisions of the first generation to have entered into adulthood during the recession that followed the financial crisis of 2008. "By examining a segment of the population that makes a greater-than-average yearly income for their age group, we hoped to eliminate financial hardship from the reasons they may not invest," the report said. Investopedia, a financial education website, partnered with Chirp Research for the survey.
What researchers found is that these high-income millennials were cautious about putting their money into the stock market, while aware that their hesitancy to invest in equities was probably going to force them to work beyond the traditional retirement age.
Of the 1,405 millennials surveyed, nearly 40% said they view the stock market as risky, and almost a quarter find the market "overwhelming," the report said.
Forty-six percent of the respondents said they aren't saving enough for retirement, 39% said they expect to be forced to work beyond age 65 and 12% said they don't contribute to any retirement fund at all, the report said.
Affluent millennials are particularly cautious when compared with Generation X, generally considered to be made of those between 40 and 54, even though millennials have a longer investment horizon, the survey found. For example, only about 37% of affluent millennials are likely to own stocks, compared with 47% of Gen Xers, according to the survey.
But the survey also found that millennials are leaning on financial advisors when dealing with investing.
Affluent millennials, for example, consider financial advisors their most trusted source for investment information, over books, TV shows, newspapers, podcasts/radio, magazines, websites or YouTube, the survey found.