Access to financial markets can have a material impact on the financial health trajectory of families and individuals seeking to build wealth. In aggregate and over the long run, financial assets have offered solid returns in exchange for accepting market volatility. Alongside a decline in the cost of retail investing in recent years, 金融市场投资已经从一项由高收入个人主导的活动扩大到一个具有更广泛基础的活动. Market commentators and other researchers have cited increased access to information, 减低交易佣金, and social media networks as contributing to the demographic trends.
本报告通过按年龄划分的活动特征,对最近零售投资的扩大提供了更全面的看法, 性别, 和种族. Demographic attributes may correlate income growth and liquidity—two features of financial flexibility that predict investing transactions. Each of the population subgroups we study increased their transfers to investment accounts out of their take-home income as of 2023 compared to pre-pandemic levels, and each group experienced a peak during the pandemic-era savings boom.
更高频率的投资动态揭示了大流行期间某些群体之间的行为差异. Transfers from checking accounts to investment accounts of younger individuals and men increased more aggressively around the historic March 2020 volatility in stocks and during a stimulus-driven investing fad in early 2021. 在最近的美国.S. 商业周期, 男性和年轻人通过劳动收入暴露在经济风险中的比例过高, 根据学术研究. The relative increase in exposure to financial market risk of the same groups may amplify negative outcomes in the case of prolonged downturns in markets and the economy. Future crises may feature analogous investing behavior, and a sharp rebound—as experienced in the wake of the pandemic—is not guaranteed.
We base our analysis on a sample of over 10 million active checking account users spanning 2008 to 2023. We use transfers from checking accounts to external investment accounts to identify investing transactions. Taking differences by age, 性别, 和种族 反过来,我们发现以下内容:
发现1. 过去10年,40岁以下个人每月将资金转移到投资领域的比例增加了两倍以上, outstripping increases for those 40 and over.
发现2. Peaks in market volatility in 2020 and a fiscal stimulus-fueled investing surge in early 2021 were associated with a temporary increase in the share of investment transfers for men.
发现3. The share of Black and Hispanic individuals transferring money to investment accounts increased relative to White individuals over the past decade and peaked around the timing of pandemic-era fiscal stimulus.
参与金融投资的决定涉及一系列可能与所考虑的人口群体有关的因素. Having the financial flexibility to generate savings is essential, as indicated by the roles of income growth and liquidity highlighted in the prior 研究所 report.
Decision makers and industry practitioners can use this report’s findings to gauge the evolving population investing through brokerage accounts and consider the results in understanding the needs and recent behaviors of investors, particularly new entrants to the market.