Millennials and Money: FINRA Study Demonstrates Young People Need More Guidance

FINRA Investor Education Foundation issued a new study titled "The Financial Capability of Young Adults - A Generational View," which reveals that millennials display low levels of financial literacy, engage in problematic financial behaviors and are worried about their debt.

According to the results of the study, low levels of financial literacy hamper most millennials, with only 18 percent of young millennials (those who are 18 to 26) able to answer four to five questions correctly in a five-question financial literacy quiz.

Among other results, the study details the following:

• Almost half (46 percent) of millennials are concerned that they have too much debt, which is much higher than the 38 percent of baby boomers and 23 percent of respondents from the silent generation who feel they have too much debt; and
• Forty-three percent of millennials have engaged in costly non-bank forms of borrowing in the last five years, which is, again, much higher than the 21 percent of boomers and 8 percent of the silent generation who used non-bank forms of borrowing.

Somewhat surprisingly, the study also found that millennials express levels of financial satisfaction that are on par with Gen Xers and boomers.

See: FINRA Study.