Americans feel more confident about financial goals: Schwab

According to Charles Schwab’s Modern Wealth survey, nearly two-thirds of Americans feel like they are in a better position to achieve their financial goals than previous generations.

Rob Williams, Charles Schwab’s Managing Director of Financial Planning, Retirement Income and Wealth Management, sits down with Alexandra Canal on Wealth! to discuss the reasons why Americans – across all age demographics – feel better equipped to build their wealth, including clearer access to educational resources and investment platforms.

“We find that people are actually still not that willing to talk about their finances with people. It’s really information from places like Yahoo Finance, access to information of any kind, whether it’s investing or any way to live your life .” says Williams. “So many of the respondents tell us they get information from social media, they get it from financial media and use that as part of their inputs to make investment decisions. They also tell us they use their friends and family , but it’s actually encouraging to see that more and more of them are also saying they use professional financial advisors.”

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Wealth!

This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video transcript

More than 60% of Americans feel they are in a better position to achieve their financial goals than generations before them.

And this positivity can be fueled by stock market participation.

That’s according to a new report from Charles Schwab, Rob Williams, Charles Schwab’s managing director of Financial Planning, Retirement Income and Wealth Management joins us now to discuss and Rob is an interesting case study given that we’re in this era of high inflation and high interest. the rates.

We hear a lot about affordability issues when it comes to buying a home.

But despite all this, why do Americans feel like they’re in such a better financial position than previous generations?

Well, this comes as a surprise, I guess if you look at, you know, inflation, some of the negativity, certainly we’ve all been faced with the fact that there’s been a multi-year trend really in access to investment.

So here we see that confidence is really the investors that were surveyed in our survey, which is across all age groups, all demographics that tell us they feel much more confident in their access to markets, access to ways to built wealth and the generation that came before them.

So that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a connection point between their confidence and their access to the markets and how they invest and how they get information and so on.

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But we’re really encouraged to see that.

Yes, this, this multi-year democratization of access to markets, the ability to invest has increased confidence.

Each generation has told us that they feel more confident in their parents and the generation before them and that they have choices with which to engage in their finances and of course encouraging to us and Rob, what is driving this access to information?

Is the platform like Yahoo funding the ability to quickly research something or is it increasing conversations with friends and family?

Because I know anecdotally, it seems like people are more willing to talk about investment strategies and money than they might have been before.

I think it’s a little bit of both, but we find that people are actually still not that willing to talk about their finances with people.

It’s really information from places like Yahoo finance, access to information of any kind, whether it’s investing or whatever way you know, to live your life.

So a lot of those surveys tell us, they get information from social media, they get it from financial media and and they use that as part of their inputs to make investment decisions.

They also tell us they use their friends and family.

But it’s actually encouraging for us to see that more and more of them are also saying they use a professional financial advisor, they’re looking for more education that goes deeper.

It goes beyond what you can just find, you know, out there, you know, on the internet, etc.

There is so much information, there is so much noise.

If you want that, we’re seeing a trend and, and, and people wanting help and how to put all this information together.

So that’s what we see in the survey, we find it encouraging because this can be complex.

A healthy mouthful is not enough when it comes to saving for retirement, buying a home, etc.

And the internet is great.

A lot of information, but how to put all those pieces together.

It is a profession.

It is, it takes a lot of work, it takes education and in many cases it takes help.

And to that point, only one in five Americans say they’re on top of their finances according to the survey, what steps can people take to make sure they don’t fall behind?

Right.

So part of managing the noise, as I describe it, is having a plan.

And so you have many choices, but what are your priorities?

What steps will you take?

Are you saving for a home first?

We hope to start saving for retirement.

And we saw that 50% or more of the respondents said they didn’t feel good about, you know, their finances that, you know, achieving their goals, even though they had access to, you know, investments, for information, for stock research, latest trends, etc.

But those who had a plan in place, whether it was just written like, uh, hey, I’m going to save 5% of my paycheck, you know, into a 401k.

Uh, I’m going to prioritize as well, uh, saving for a house doesn’t have to be big steps, but just having some form of financial plan written down really boosted confidence and, and that’s really what we suggest is a lot of information, a lot of noise out there.

But whether it’s alone or hopefully with a financial professional, a certified financial planner that puts all those pieces together is a little bit like a health plan, to really build confidence and and help bring all those pieces together. .

And what is the biggest financial planning problem you tend to see with your clients?

Well, I think it’s uh, started late and said, well, I can do this tomorrow.

I can, I can wait, and it’s really encouraging that even Gen Z, the younger generation, has said that they’re starting, saving and investing earlier.

Of course not all, but the respondents said that they started long before their parents did.

The average Boomer says they started investing at age 35 after they started saving at age 34.

So the biggest mistake is not getting started early, because that’s really the magical power of investing, the composition of being an owner in the US and global economy is really what it’s all about not picking individual stocks, not trends the hot one.

Of course we can start small, we can start with a few dollars of savings and investments that increase your confidence, expand your education.

But as we mature and have more at stake in our finances starting earlier, learning from mistakes, getting help when you need it.

All those things are, are, are really, these are the success stories.

Biggest mistake is not committing, learning and um and going down that road at a young age, some great advice there, Rob Williams, Charles Schwab, Financial Planning, Retirement Income and Wealth Management, Managing Director .

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you.