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Like Father…like Mother?

My mom gave me an article to read the other day. She told me it was because she thought it would make a good post for my blog. But I think she had an ulterior motive.

The article title glared back at me from the black and white xeroxed copy - ”The Young and the Riskless.” 

The subtitle began - “Investors under age 35.” Yep, that would be me. Maybe this article was less for this blog and more as a message from my mother that I need to step up my investments.

I decided to read it anyway. After all, I don’t want to hurt mom’s feelings.

There was a statistic that grabbed my attention: “Today only 34% of people under age 35 say they’re willing to take substantial or above-average risks in their portfolios, down from 48% in 2005, according to the Investment Company Institute.”

That statistic doesn’t really come as a surprise, but what is interesting is that young people are investing less and that could mean damaging things for our future.

I’m not quite sure what the solution is. The unrest in the Middle East, now in Libya, has been threatening the stability of the stock market everyday. Maybe our generation is taking fewer risks because we are so exposed to world affairs and we see how our investments can drop or entirely disappear in an instant. Just as quickly as something gets posted on Twitter, the stock market could plummet.

The article warns that young adults are not saving enough to have a comfortable retirement. I think this phenomenon may also be due to our feelings as a generation of living in the present. With all the technology that surrounds us, we’re most concerned with what’s happening now. Not really with what’s going to happen next week never mind in 50 years.

The article refers to twenty and thirty somethings as growing up in the so-called Lost Decade. That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that reference. Perhaps we were “lost” in the shuffle of all the changes in the past few decades. But I’m confident we’ll find our way through and maybe even become a little more financially “risky.” Now, I better go call my financial advisor.