For millennials, a lot of us have never had the best relationship with Wall Street. Most of us are old enough to remember the Great Recession and a good amount of millennials who were born in the 80’s and early 90’s were already investing around the time of the recession. Right when they were getting in the market, it crashed; what a wonderful way to start off your career.
Luckily for me, I started investing in the spring of 2014 when the economy was out of the recession and the markets were moving in the right direction. Because of this, I took my savings out of a savings account and started investing that money in the stock market to enhance the potential for my money to grow on it’s own.
I’ve talked before about the how money in the savings account doesn’t go anywhere, but it also doesn’t do anything. The interest is below 1% and you have no chance of making that money work for you. The problem isn’t that college students aren’t working, because now more than ever, college students are working part-time and even full-time jobs while in school. The problem is that college students and millennials aren’t saving and growing their money the right way.
Less than 25% of people ages 18-25 are invested in the stock market. To be fair to older millennials (ages 26-35), they were getting into the stock market when the Great Recession hit in 2007, so their first experience in the market was far from pleasant. However for younger millennials, the market has recovered drastically since 2009 and not having invested during this bull market has been a missed opportunity.
The good news is that the market is still going strong. The bad news is that it’s been going strong for a while now and it’s only human nature that it’s bound to take a turn for the worse at some point. I don’t worry about this too much when I hear about strong jobs numbers and growth within the economy; but when growth and earnings start sliding, the stocks will follow the trends.
Investing in the stock market isn’t that difficult. Putting even a small percentage of your income in the market can do wonders for you. It’s just important to know what you’re investing in and know how the market is moving.
There are plenty of good and strong stocks that have great potential for the future.
