E*TRADE Study Reveals Varying Ways Couples Approach Saving and Investing

Mar 19, 2018 / Amanda Chase, Horsesmouth Assistant Editor

E*TRADE Financial Corporation recently announced results from the most recent wave of StreetWise, its quarterly tracking study of experienced investors. Results revealed the habits of married couples as they manage their shared investment portfolios:

  • Most share or discuss investing in one form or another. For married couples, over half (55 percent) either share investing responsibility equally (17 percent) or have a discussion with their partner before making a decision (38 percent).
  • Yet millennials are significantly more likely to be comfortable giving discretion to their partner. Whether due to the longer time horizon to recover from investing decisions gone wrong, or perhaps simply from trust and confidence in their partner, three out of four millennial investors (75 percent) are comfortable with their partner making an investment decision without their input. This population is also the most likely (53 percent) to be making decisions on their own, without discussing with their partner.
  • And baby boomers are far more likely to feel the opposite. Conversely, older generations are actually more likely to be uncomfortable giving investing discretion to their partner (58 percent). Given boomers’ proximity to retirement, perhaps this generation feels too much is at stake not to be involved and aware. Further, this generation is also the most likely of all the age groups to actually be making decisions as a team.

This wave of the survey was conducted from January 1 to January 15 of 2018 among an online US sample of 923 self-directed active investors who manage at least $10,000 in an online brokerage account.

To see more data, view the press release.

 

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