The Fed said last month that it would stop interest rate hikes for the second time since March 2022. While one more hike in 2023 is in the future, the pause brings hope that long-sticky inflation may be on its way out of the picture, which bodes well for the stock market and investing in general.
SoFi, a personal finance company, has released a report that takes stock of investor behavior and attitudes after the first half of 2023. The company surveyed about 35,000 Americans and found that two thirds of investors believe the country is currently in a recession. A majority say they are lagging behind their investing targets, which aren't even reaching their investment goals.
Despite this bleak situation, three quarters remained bullish on their market outlook.
Here are the top five places where investors have put their money through the first half of the year, along with the percentage of SoFi poll respondents who said they're invested in each category.
Crypto and ETFs, both of which are most popular investments, are also the two areas where investors feel they lack the most knowledge. Almost a third of thosesurveyed said they don't know enough about Cryptocurrency or ETFs to invest in them. Index funds and real estate also fall into this gap, with about one-quarter of respondents saying they don't know enough to invest in either.
What are the concerns of different generations of investors?
56% of investors said they haven't invested enough at this point in their lives. Generation X, or people who are between 43 and 58, is the most concerned with falling behind. Nearly two-thirds of this generation believe they haven't invested enough.
Boomers are the only generation that feels more confident than not in how much they've invested, with just under 43% of 59- to 77-year-olds concerned that they haven't done enough.
The biggest fears investors have are in the realm of not doing enough, rather than doing too much. About 30 percent worry about being too conservative and 38% worry about not investing enough, while only 14% worry about being too aggressive.
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