Dear Millennials,
Welcome to the glory age of investing. Or golden age. Take your pick.
This period is not without headwinds though, I get it.
I get that you’re stressed about buying a house. You’re not even sure if home ownership is right for you. Depending upon where you live and your long term plans it’s probably not right for you. At least not right now. Just rent and stay out of your parent’s basement. It will be more fun.
I know you have concerns and different attitudes about your career too. For one, I consider you and your friends a job-hopper. According to a report I read earlier this year about 21% of you left your job to find something new. That was just within the last year. Regarding your career or work it seems difficult to keep you engaged. Stated another way maybe some of you are actively disengaged. On the positive side I see this as an opportunity for your current employer or a prospective employer to motivate you. You can reap the benefits of this.
Whether you realize it or not you’re also the future of the financial industry. You’ve helped champion a recent wave of financial technology (fintech) innovation whereby at the touch of a tablet you can do pretty much anything. You can chat with your virtual financial advisor. You can browse the real-time status of your portfolio – a portfolio you shouldn’t tinker with by the way.
You continue to push the trend for more low-cost financial products. Competition is good. We have, as a collective group of retail investors, never before been provided with the plethora of low-cost, diversified funds to help us grow our money. We have you in part to thank for that. Lower cost financial products are an expectation now not a niche.
When you decide to save and invest after your student debt is gone, you can do so with a low-fee account structure. Beyond the free online chequing and savings accounts already available to you, you have commission-free Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) to buy from some of Canada’s leading discount brokerages. You have simple all-in-one mutual funds to start your investing journey with. You also have online courses and tutorials to take on demand. You’ve got money forums on the internet and blogs galore you can read for free (hint: including this one!!) that can provide insight into investing experiences and lessons learned so you don’t make the same mistakes.
You haven’t lived through massive inflation. You haven’t lived through high borrowing rates. You haven’t lived through multiple market crashes. You’re blessed with parents who have embraced the virtues of The Wealthy Barber and wish to pass on Roy the barber’s frugal and practical money management approaches onto you. Listen to them although I know it’s painful to listen to your parents sometimes…they only want the very best for you.
You don’t realize this today, this glorious age of investing, because there are so many other things vying for your attention. I simply encourage you to carve out just a small portion of time, maybe a few minutes each week, to learn how to save and invest. I can almost guarantee if you do your future self will “Like” you for doing so.
I am only just in this generation but I would like to think I am well ahead of my peers. I am already investing (although new) in the Australian Stock Market which I have had slight success in so far. I am a long term holder. I want to see these shares (stocks) double or triple over time or even just provide an extra income from dividends. I would like to retire on my dividend income, a long way to go but this is the goal.
No doubt if you index invest, over time, your assets will double and triple if you save and invest and stay invested for decades.
As for the stocks you pick, hard to say what might or might not happen but if those companies have been around for 50-100 years or more, then potentially you’ll get the same results.
Good luck on your goals and thanks for reading.
Amen.
Sage words for this important generation.
Well thanks!