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They associate wealth with success and happiness, compared to boomers view of it as independence.
Millennials are also most likely to say the pandemic altered how they plan to use their wealth.
Wealth no longer means what it used to for high-net-worth millennials.
The pandemic has caused the wealthy to alter their lifestyles and reassess their priorities, changing how they perceive wealth in the process, a new report by Boston Private found. The report, titled the Why of Wealth, surveyed high net-worth individuals with at least $1 million of assets.
Millennials, who turn ages 25 to 40 this year, changed their perceptions of wealth the most. More than three-quarters (89%) said the pandemic altered the way they define wealth. The generation was also most likely to say the pandemic shifted their wealth priorities and their emotions about wealth, with 85% of respondents feeling this way about each change.
First 2020 brought a housing boom, and now 2021 is bringing a home-renovation boom.
First-time buyers are more likely to buy fixer-uppers but older homeowners are the ones really spending on DIY.
It s yet another chapter in generational inequality, and another way homeownership is less affordable for millennials.
The other side of the housing boom is here: home-renovation projects.
As Americans were left with more time on their hands and more time in their houses, they began fulfilling their wildest HGTV fantasies. Home improvement and repair spending grew by nearly 3% to $420 billion in 2020, per a recent study by Harvard University s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS).
At least, through stock and bond investments.
The generation can expect average annual real returns of just 2% on their investment portfolios, according to Credit Suisse s global investment returns yearbook. That s a third less than the 5%-plus real returns that millennials, Gen X, and baby boomers have seen. Credit Suisse s analysis took in average investment returns since 1900 and forecasted them going forward for Gen Z.
That difference sounds slim in the short-term, but looks a lot larger in the long-term. Imagine a millennial investing $1,000 for 20 years at the 5% return they ve benefited from and a Gen Zer investing the same amount at a 2% return during the same time frame.
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White older millennials have a median wealth of $88,000, compared to $5,000 for Black older millennials.
One reason for this divide may be that Black millennials have a heavier student debt burden.
Older millennials born in the 1980s are making a wealth comeback, but there s a vast racial wealth gap lurking underneath this progress.
In 2016, older millennials wealth levels were 34% below older generations at similar ages, per a 2018 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Within three years, the first part of a new St. Louis Fed study found, they had narrowed that wealth deficit down to 11%.