Public.com Releases Survey of 3,000+ U.S. Adults, Showing Massive Shift in Approach to Stock Market

Today’s investors are 4x more likely to turn to their social circles first to discuss their portfolios than they are to tap investment professionals

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Public.com, the social investing app backed by Will Smith’s Dreamers VC, NFL star J.J. Watt, bestselling author and entrepreneur Sophia Amoruso, and the original investors in Venmo, has released the results of a survey fielded in partnership with the personal finance media company, Finimize. The report compiles data from more than 3,200 U.S. adults to uncover new trends in how people approach investing.

The report finds that money is no longer a taboo topic for many Americans, who are tapping into social networks to build their brain trusts. Of those respondents who invest, 75% said they talk to other people about their investments, with 63% of investors turning to friends or online communities as their primary source for such conversations. The youngest cohort of respondents, 18- to 29-year-olds, were significantly more likely to discuss investing with their friends and socialize financial strategies prior to making their investments.

Additional insights from the study include:

• Self-made: A majority of investors, 55%, say they taught themselves the basics of investing; less than one-fifth say they learned in a high school or college course.
• Better late than never: Nearly one-quarter of respondents didn’t learn the basics of investing until after their 30th birthday.
• Friendly advice: Respondents say they’re nearly 3x more likely to talk about investing with friends and communities before their own families, and 4x more likely to tap into their social circles as a first resource than they are to consult a professional.
• Shifting strategies: Younger investors are more likely to weigh business trends and company values in their decision-making. That said, a company’s financial health was the most common criteria for making investment decisions across all cohorts (83%).
• Coins before condos: 25% of respondents said they invest in cryptocurrency, which was higher than the 21% who said they invest in real estate.

The American stock market has been the biggest driving force for prosperity in human history, with returns of approximately 10% annually on average¹. However, 51% of U.S. millennials are not investing² due to economic and psychological barriers to entry. When asked about building financial literacy, more than one in four of those polled say they can’t afford a professional, or don’t know where to go for more information. More specifically, women were more likely to be unsure about where to get started.

“Today’s investors are turning to their peers and communities to share ideas and grow their knowledge,” said Leif Abraham, co-CEO of Public.com. “For young investors in particular, money isn’t a taboo subject, and—in fact—the common behavior is to build literacy through open conversations with others.”

Read the full report from Public.com and Finimize here.

About Public:

Public.com is a social investing app that makes it possible to own the companies you believe in, with any amount of money - commission-free. Through an unmistakably simple experience, Public members can buy slices of stocks and ETFs, follow interest-based themes, and learn from a transparent community of subject-matter experts and friends along the way.

The company is headquartered in New York and is a member of FINRA and SIPC. Visit Public.com to download the free app for iOS or Android.

About Finimize:

Finimize is on a mission to empower everyone to become their own financial advisor by demystifying financial news and providing the information and tools you need to invest with confidence. Finimize’s first product was a daily newsletter that has attracted hundreds of thousands of readers, and the company has since expanded its platform to include a dedicated app, events, and more.

Finimize was created by people who previously set up $100 million businesses, were selected by Forbes to the “30 under 30″ list, worked at Barclays, Goldman Sachs, Facebook, Google and many others. To learn more, visit Finimize.com.

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¹ NerdWallet, May 2020
² Gallup via The LA Times, Dec. 2019

Contacts

Bubba Gramkow

bubba@bevelpr.com