Opening Bid Unfiltered is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Most people are not feeling the market boom, even as stocks continue to rise. In this Opening Bid Unfiltered hot take, BNY (BNY) Investments’ global head, Jose Manaya, explains why the real divide is not returns, but access to markets in the first place. He argues that more diverse retirement plans, broader 401(k) participation, and technological advancements are slowly drawing everyday savers into ownership of stocks and even alternative investments. Over time, he says, that quiet democratization of investing is the only real path to narrowing the wealth gap.
Listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch on our website for full episodes of Opening Bid Unfiltered.
This post was written by Langston Sessoms, producer for Opening Bid Unfiltered.
00:00 Speaker A
We always love to get a hot take from our guests. about two minutes. Uh nothing planned, but this is something that I’ve really been thinking a lot about. It’s been a tremendous year for the stock market, notably seven stocks. Uh, but if you have not been invested in stocks, you may not be feeling this wealth. I how do we get that transmission transition mechanism going from the wealthy to folks that may not have much money in the stocks, they’re feeling good? Like what has to happen?
00:31 Speaker B
Yeah, and by the way, look, I I and there’s one thing that maybe hasn’t happened quick enough, but it’s been in process for quite some time, right? If you think about when I talk about demographics and what’s even happening in our markets today, think about the retirement markets. Right, the individuals who own stocks today are more diverse in terms of where who they are, where they come from than they were 20, 30 years ago. No question about it. Is it as diverse? No. But again, technology is playing a part. Right, this idea now around 401k and you’re even hearing about alternatives coming into 401k. All these things that you may start getting worried about, well, is the transparency there? Do we have enough regulation around it? These things will come. But at the end of the day, I think it’s technology that’s kind of helping create the ability to get more get more of the everyday individuals kind of invested in our markets. Who’s invested, like I said, who’s invested in our markets today is what drove kind of a more passive kind of push to markets. The active is always going to be there, but how this is growing now and what you need to kind of manage people portfolios is changing dramatically. So again,
01:38 Speaker B
in some cases maybe not moving quick enough, but you see that that’s the path that we’re going towards.
01:44 Speaker A
How can someone begin their investing journey? Let’s say that they’re in their early 20s. They they have heard that, wow, the stock market is at records. I can get rich too. Like what should they even do today?
01:57 Speaker B
You know, I I being in this industry, you know, obvi- obviously I get a lot of friends asking me that question, you know? And um and you said that word, like a lot of times the question is coming from like, how do I get rich doing this? Or heck, I remember sitting in business school and people were day trading during class, right? That was a whole thing. That is not what I tell people and and and and folks, right? It’s not a get rich thing. Again, when I you asked me about alternatives before, I’m like it’s not about outsized returns. In some cases, some of the best opportunities out there are like 4% return driven strategies. It’s to tell people, you have to think about now your outcomes and your retirement. And by the way, a lot of this is tied to the growing, being part of this growing economy. Right? I often say, well, should I get in or out of the markets? I’m like, well, getting out of the markets, if you are right over the long term, I don’t think it matters where like, I don’t think cash or gold are going to help you in a world where in the next 10, 20, 30 years the markets don’t don’t kind of materialize. That’s right, it’s society, it’s how we build. So, for me, it’s telling people like I tell my kids, go invest in your 401k, put in the max that they tell you, be diversified. Don’t, it’s not about large cap, mid cap. It’s not about the mag 7 or these other things. It’s about just kind of be in that market and then understand the outcomes that like being in the market get you and the different options that are affordable to you.
