The stock market can be a scary place. It can feel like inexperienced investors don’t stand a chance against high-powered traders, and well, there’s the constant up and down of stocks. So it’s not surprising that young American investors cited intimidation as one of the top reasons they didn’t pick the stock market as their top long-term investment over the next decade in Bankrate’s 2025 Long-Term Investment Survey.
In total, 21 percent of Americans say the stock market is not their top investment choice over the next decade or longer because they’re intimidated by it. Young Americans feel that intimidation even more: 29 percent of Gen Zers (ages 18–28) and 24 percent of millennials (ages 29–44) cited that reason. In contrast, just 14 percent of Gen Xers (ages 45–60) and 22 percent of baby boomers (ages 61–79) named intimidation as their…
