The Rise of the Investor Generation

15% of U.S. Stock Market Investors Got Their Start in 2020, Schwab Study Shows

Amidst a global pandemic, economic uncertainties and market volatility, a new generation of investors was born: 15 percent of all current U.S. stock market investors say they first began investing in 2020, according to a new Schwab survey. And they’re not all young and focused on the next hot stock. Looking ahead, these new investors are more bullish about their financial prospects and the market than those who began investing before 2020, and they’re ready to invest and plan for their futures.

“We’ve seen tremendous growth and engagement among individual investors over the past year as a result of lower trading costs, new products and services aimed at greater ease and accessibility, and the investing opportunities presented by market volatility,” said Charles Schwab senior executive vice president and head of Investor Services Jonathan Craig. “A big part of this growth is Generation Investor – the large number of people who are bound together not by their birth years but by when they got started in their investing journey - who are now on a path to ownership and reaching their financial goals. And while it’s exciting to see this new generation of investors, the industry now has a call to action – to give this group the tools and services they need to be successful over the long term.”

	Generation Investor (Gen I)	Pre-2020 Investors
Optimistic about the U.S. stock market	72%	63%
Think the stock market will increase in value in 2021	57%	44%
Plan to invest more in the stock market	43%	20%
Plan to spend more time managing their portfolios	30%	19%

Who is Gen I? Opportunistic and eager to learn

With a median age of 35, Gen I is younger than those who began investing before 2020 whose median age is 48, but this new generation of investors spans all age groups: 51 percent of Gen I members are millennials, 22 percent are Gen X, 16 percent are Gen Z and 11 percent are Baby Boomers.