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The coronavirus pandemic has shed unwelcome light on many aspects of American life. Now a new survey from MagnifyMoney reveals another one.
More than half of respondents regretted a past investment decision that came to light during the crisis, including 92% of arguably less-experienced Gen Z investors and 79% of Gen Xers.
In comparison, only 33% of baby boomers and 24% of older investors said they had made a mistake in their investments.
Qualtrics conducted the online survey from April 28 to May 1 among 2,008 Americans 18 and older, including 1,183 investors and 866 non-investors.
Mistakes Happen
The mistakes investors owned up to were not particularly surprising; they included the kinds of decisions advisors have long inveighed against.
Twenty-three percent of respondents — 29% of Gen X and 27% of millennials — regretted lack of portfolio diversification. Thirty percent of men in the survey did so, too, compared with 13% of women.
Nineteen percent of participants said they had taken on risky investments and regretted it. Most sorry were about a third of Gen Z respondents and a quarter of Gen Xers.
The report noted that high-risk investments included IPOs, structured products and venture capital trusts. Trying to time the market for maximum returns — considered a no-no by many experts — is also risky, it said.
A third investment mistake 13% of respondents and 27% of Gen Z owned up to was keeping all of their savings in the stock market. Considerably fewer investors from other generations said they had done this.
