The Coronavirus has changed many aspects of our daily lives, straying society from a sense of normalcy. People developed new interests as a result of being stuck at home. My age group (18-24) saw a stark change in how we spent our money post-pandemic. Although this trend may have started before the pandemic, the lockdowns exponentially increased the rate of new investors.
Before the pandemic, my age group usually spent our money on video games or on tickets to sporting events, and that was what we predominantly discussed amongst ourselves. However, since the lockdowns, our conversations have moved into personal investing. Instead of discussing and spending our copious amount of free time on sports or other hobbies, our focus shifted to investing.
Robinhood, an online discount brokerage, has seen an estimated seven million new users since last May per a recent Business of Apps article. With the rise of Robinhood in recent years, more and more younger investors have started on their own. The traditional fundamental investor is being pushed around by new investors. To see the true power of the newer type of investors is to look at the aptly named “Meme Stocks”, or even the short squeeze in January. It remains to be seen just how these investors fare during the long term, encouraging younger age groups to become increasingly involved in personal finance.
By: Tyler Klein