- Millennials still haven’t quite recovered from the 2008-2009 financial crisis, so weathering the recession created by the coronavirus pandemic is even tougher because they are so ultra-conservative financially. A study shows 43% have never even made an investment.
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Experts have long worried the 2008-2009 financial crisis kneecapped the earnings potential of millennials, the moniker for the 73 million Americans born between 1981 and 1996. Many of those millennials (myself included) entered the job market just as the economy was cratering. Job offers were suddenly rescinded, hiring was frozen across a range of industries, and even when a paycheck came, it was often for far less than what was required to both support yourself and pay back the mountain of student loan debt you most likely had.
Ten years later, millennials are older, wiser, and translating the financial hangover from the recession into ultra-conservative financial practices. Those worries were well-founded. One 2019 study found that 43% of millennials have never made an investment. Because of this, millennials are also more primed than older generations to see just how broken the current system is — and not just because of the coronavirus pandemic.
In Other News: SEC plans, SheEO and GoParity
The SEC Commissioner wants asset managers to explain their ESG products more clearly. Rethink Impact raised its $182 million second fund to invest in women-led tech companies. Wall Street is trying to hire more Black analysts, but can they retain them? Seed-stage investor SheEO has 12 women-led portfolio companies reducing plastic waste. Retail impact investing platform GoParity has funded its first green energy project in Africa. Should the U.S. Postal Service expand into banking the unbanked?
Levity Break
There is at least one way to give a socially distant hug, but it involves dinosaurs.
