Millennials and the stock market

[vanillabean]

Why most millennials don’t invest in the stock market

[mongstradamus]

i wonder if its still backlash from 2008 , and they are afraid they will lose all their money? I am not longer in that age bracket, but if you are investing for long term you have to realize there will be ups and downs , and stock market will rebound. 

[Santi78342]

I'm 24 and have been wanting to jump into it for some time now, but I just don't know where to start! I also don't believe I have enough money to start investing. I have about $5k in an emergency fund, which I don't think is near enough. I also have about $2k set up in a separate savings that's going towards home renovations. Each week, a little over $50 goes into each account so they grow about $200-$250/month. My income is $53k FWIW.

Can anyone offer any guidance?

[MarineVietVet]

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@Santi78342 wrote:

I'm 24 and have been wanting to jump into it for some time now, but I just don't know where to start! I also don't believe I have enough money to start investing. I have about $5k in an emergency fund, which I don't think is near enough. I also have about $2k set up in a separate savings that's going towards home renovations. Each week, a little over $50 goes into each account so they grow about $200-$250/month. My income is $53k FWIW.

Can anyone offer any guidance?

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Have you visited the Personal Finance board?

[mongstradamus]

When you feel comfortable with the amount in your emergency fund you can start. Every little bit counts due to compounding interest and the such. I would start with something like vtsmx and convert it to vtsax when you reach $10,000. Alternatively you could start with etf since min are an lot less

[SomeGuyNamedFred]

I'm a millennial and it is a little scary investing right now with the market at record highs and a lot of talk of a correction coming - in addition to the big learning curve for a new investor.  However I've been reading about a correction for the past two years and while waiting for it to come I was missing out on 10-20% annual gains.  Fianlly realizing I'll never be able to time the market, I've started investing in index funds (i'm not knowledgeble enough to feel comfortable picking individual stocks), and if a big correction eventually comes or worse another crisis, then I'll buy even more.  The strategy being that with time on my side, the market will eventually rebound and will average out to significant gains.  I just wish i wasn't in school and had money to invest during the last crisis ($$$)...

[mongstradamus]

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@SomeGuyNamedFred wrote:

I'm a millennial and it is a little scary investing right now with the market at record highs and a lot of talk of a correction coming - in addition to the big learning curve for a new investor.  However I've been reading about a correction for the past two years and while waiting for it to come I was missing out on 10-20% annual gains.  Fianlly realizing I'll never be able to time the market, I've started investing in index funds (i'm not knowledgeble enough to feel comfortable picking individual stocks), and if a big correction eventually comes or worse another crisis, then I'll buy even more.  The strategy being that with time on my side, the market will eventually rebound and will average out to significant gains.  I just wish i wasn't in school and had money to invest during the last crisis ($$$)...

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that is smart way to look at it , the last bad crash in 2008 was bad but if you kept on investing you would have doubled all the money you lost by now, thats one way to think about it. 

[Anonymous]

Try to understand the market and see whether your prediction over the market is going right or not, study chart patterns. Take time so that you can enter the market for long term.

[Steelersboy]

I'm a millennial and I've been investing for some years now via an IRA and small brokerage account. And if you have a retirement plan at work, you're already investing. Lol

[saltlakere]

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@SomeGuyNamedFred wrote:

I'm a millennial and it is a little scary investing right now with the market at record highs and a lot of talk of a correction coming - in addition to the big learning curve for a new investor.  However I've been reading about a correction for the past two years and while waiting for it to come I was missing out on 10-20% annual gains.  Fianlly realizing I'll never be able to time the market, I've started investing in index funds (i'm not knowledgeble enough to feel comfortable picking individual stocks), and if a big correction eventually comes or worse another crisis, then I'll buy even more.  The strategy being that with time on my side, the market will eventually rebound and will average out to significant gains.  I just wish i wasn't in school and had money to invest during the last crisis ($$$)...

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You're actually being pretty smart. I'd also suggest mutual funds. I lost a lot of money in 2008 picking individual stocks. I'm in index funds and am looking at REITs again. Utility funds tend to be a good idea as well.