3 reasons millennials are afraid to invest: JPM

According to a recent JPMorgan Chase (JPM) survey, 32% of Americans consider investing the most intimidating financial activity, beating out paying taxes, credit card debt, student loans and buying or saving for a house.

Kelli Keough, global head of digital wealth management at JPM, said this could seriously impact millennials, the group in the study that was most overwhelmed when it comes to investing. “If you don’t break down those barriers for investing early, it could have a compounding effect on you because investing early is really the key to success for people in the future,” Keough said.

So why does investing scare people so much? Keough says there are numerous reasons.

First and foremost, she says, “They don’t think they have enough money.” She said the industry can appear out of reach for people. To that end, the company has launched an online investing platform You Invest, which aims to make investing more approachable to newbies. “We’re trying to make it more accessible for people, regardless of how much money they have,” Keough said.

Keough says another reason investing is intimidating is that people, especially millennials, don’t know where to begin.

“How do we help educate people to make it easier to start? Education has been key for us, we’re really focused on breaking it down so people can start to invest,” Keough adds.

The survey also found the people lack the confidence to invest.

“We saw that people who are not investing have much lower confidence in investing and lower confidence that they’ll reach their financial goals,” Keough said. “So what we can do through education, through helping people just get started, is really build up that confidence.”

Ralph Rezza is a production assistant at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @rrezza2

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