This One Money Mistake Most Millennials Are Making Will Lose Them Millions Over A Lifetime

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A good chunk of millennials are too bogged down by their everyday expenses to give a second thought to long-term monetary goals. Student loans debts, credit card bills, rent, are the main culprits in the stagnation of future gains. A mind-bending study found that six in 10 Americans don’t have enough savings to cover a $500 or $1,000 unplanned expense.

Well, a new analysis by NerdWallet is here to make millennials feel even worse about our financial standing, by informing us of a mistake most of us are making with our limited funds.

The one big mistake: not taking advantage of the stock market by investing while we are young, when our money has time to grow.

Via The Washington Post:

Fearing the market, millennials are putting their money in savings accounts. And the potential loss of future earnings is huge, like $3.3 million huge, according to new analysis by NerdWallet.

The online site says it looked at 40 years of market returns and interest rates. Using that data, they factored in how much a 25-year-old earning $40,456 saving 15 percent of this income could amass, assuming the market does what it’s done.

Sixty-three percent of 18- to 34-year-olds surveyed are saving for retirement in a savings account, a strategy that could lose them millions over the course of the 40-year period. Millennials fear the volatility of the stock market, but research shows that even if someone invested only over the 10-year period, the numbers still come out in favor of the stock market by a wide margin.

Anyone know a to start blue chip stock or ways to start earning passive income with my $500 net worth into? DM me.

[h/t NerdWallet]

Matt Keohan Avatar
Matt’s love of writing was born during a sixth grade assembly when it was announced that his essay titled “Why Drugs Are Bad” had taken first prize in D.A.R.E.’s grade-wide contest. The anti-drug people gave him a $50 savings bond for his brave contribution to crime-fighting, and upon the bond’s maturity 10 years later, he used it to buy his very first bag of marijuana.