[Applause]
I'm here to talk to you today about
Millennials and money and about the
changing paradigm of life
what does wealth mean to you does it
have to do with the car that you have
studied in the parking lot does it have
to do with how many zeros are at the end
of your bank account or how much money
you make every time you cash your check
each week what matters to you as a
millennial I ask 10 of my friends what
wealth meant to them and you might be
surprised to find out that not once did
I hear the word money in any of their
responses so what did I hear when I ask
them what wealth meant
I've heard things like well to me means
knowing that my family is there
well to me means security well to me
means not having to worry about the
future job security for my parents
generation meant working for the same
company for 25 or 35 years
it meant oil tea it meant retiring with
a pension that would take care of you in
retirement well whether you blame the
financial crisis or lack of discipline
or Millennials it's clear that that
dream is dead or at least too late a
little bit as a millennial my definition
of wealth has had to change and adapt
and as a financial adviser I can tell
you with certainty that money does not
necessarily equate with happiness in his
book in podcast Jeff point turned the
core point of the term a little tongue
twister
the portfolio lifestyle he states that
in depth being just what we do for a
living
perhaps were made up of all of the
different activities in our life that
bring us joy so what brings you joy
do you like volunteering at a pet
shelter do you love your job
do you enjoy helping people do you enjoy
being creative maybe mark perhaps well
it for the sum of all of these things
together maybe it has less to do with
money
and more to do with fulfillment on a
personal on a spiritual on an emotional
and on a financial level as a millennial
we've got to get creative with our
definition of wealth and we've also have
to get creative and how we make money
Millennials to coin the term decide not
sure if any of you got a part of it
my investments plank wanted it when I
was in college I had three different
sources of income
I worked 95 for real seekers of
assistance
I sold weight-loss products for a
commission and on the weekends I worked
doing compliance checking for the state
of Pennsylvania sparse program and this
Tom house behind you the second one in I
rented that Tom house down that counted
four bedrooms in it I rented three of
those bedrooms out and when everyone
paid rent I made money I invested that
money and I loved it to grow and I used
it on the down payment for a
single-family home I rented that house
top while I finished school and I sold
it two years later for a 20% profit the
fabulous job security for Millennials
has changed we can't rely on
for the same organization for 10 or 20
years and unless we're a teacher a
police officer or a tradesman we can't
rely on a pension either the average
millionaire has seven different streams
of income in retirement
where are your streams of income gonna
come from
do you have a pension do you collect
Social Security well at the Millennium I
can't depend on a pension and Social
Security
hold up anyone's guess so where are my
income streams in retirement going to
come from I got to get creative
Millennials don't value products we
value experiences and fundamentally that
doesn't make us any different than most
of the other generations sitting in this
room in fact 70% of Americans reports
valuing experiences more than products
but Millennials were willing to spend
our savings on those experiences a
recent survey found that the majority of
Millennials are willing to spend more
than five thousand dollars and we're
having children later the average age of
the first-time mom is well in her 30s
our definition of wealth has shifted and
our values have changed so how we plan
for those values and how we plan for
that wealth has to adapt and change as
well quality of life is important to us
instead of moving to that single-family
home in the suburbs in our mid-20s
Millennials are staying competitive
because we value the community
being able to walk to work and uber to
happy I met with the woman this week who
told me she would gladly take a lower
paying job if the culture at that
company was superior our values and the
things that we care about are different
than our parents values work and our
strategies and how we plan for those
things has adapted as well refusing to
compromise on our values and our beliefs
what does authenticity need to you the
dictionary tells us that authenticity
has to do with our actions matching up
with our beliefs and Millennials more
than any other generation we're willing
to put our money where our mouth is what
does that mean socially responsible
investing have you ever heard of it if
you're a senior citizen you might not in
fact I was reading a study in an article
the other day in CNBC that said that
only 6% of seniors were familiar with
sustainable or socially responsible
investing while over 82 percent of
Millennials reported being engaged in or
familiar with the term we're willing to
put our money where our mouth is and
make investments that align with our
values our definition of wealth has
changed and so is how we earn our money
we literally have the power to transform
the financial marketplace and how
corporate America does business just
last week I was sitting in my office
watching the MD
and the CEO of Goldman Sachs came on the
screen and he stated that from here on
out they refused to take the company
public unless there is at least one
woman on the board of directors so
socially responsible investing putting
our money where our mouth is investing
in companies that practice good ESG ESG
environmental factors companies that
care about the environment that care
about climate change that care about
their carbon footprint
social factors companies that believe in
equality companies that have diversity
on their board of directors companies
that hire better end government
companies that have transparent
accounting procedures companies that
care about product safety as the
millennium item I thought was authentic
and I care about the impact that my
wealth has on this world so what does it
matter and why should you there about
millennium and our generation and our
definition of wealth and how we relate
to money only 3% of the money in this
country is in the hands of Millennials
but that's about to change
the largest transferred wealth that this
country has ever seen
will take place over the next 10 years
over the next ten years it's estimated
that 78 trillion dollars will pass from
the baby boomers to their millennial
beneficiaries so do you know what your
millennial daughter values do you know
what your son cares about if you don't
know maybe it's time to find out thank
you
[Applause]