MUMBAI:
Instagram reels
are not all that keep
Gen Z
glued to their phones.
With a deluge of user-friendly
investment apps
and move towards a mobile-first approach, a section of the Gen Z cohort (aged 12-24) have taken to investing like a fish to water.
Take, for instance, Madhur Katta. The 22-year-old investor from Jaipur initially jumped on the stock market bandwagon out of FOMO.
“Right after the pandemic, the markets were all people were talking about. I also got drawn in because of apps like Zerodha. Until then, I didn’t know of anyone who offered an interface that was as user-friendly… Placing buy & sell orders is now a piece of cake,” he said.
The transition to digital fintech platforms has been a game-changer for many, but especially for tech savvy youngsters. These apps have made stock market accessible as investors can now engage with the markets without having to call brokers/banks to make their transactions for them.
Rising discretionary spending, better understanding of personal finances, readily available information – whether it’s from friends, family or finfluencers – are all building young Indians’ appetite to tap into alternate sources of income. Jillian Tauro, 19, started investing early as she understood the power of
compounding
. The idea of generating profits after analysing the market gives her a sense of financial responsibility.
Gen Zs are focused on saving and gaining financial independence. But volatility in the market has made them cautious. “As they invest, people realise that making money in the market is not easy, especially when they are volatile. In such times, either they do their due-diligence or opt for safer alternatives like SIPs,” Katta said.
‘Finfluencers’ and social media platforms tend to have some sort of a hold on the group’s choices. Wayne Almeida, 25, believes they are a good way of keeping up-to-date with market trends and potential investing opportunities. But the financial information available online comes with a caveat: it may give you unrealistic expectations which are unlikely to translate into the desired performance of your portfolio. To protect investors, Sebi has come down heavily on finfluencers who actively provides investment advice through social media. It has also placed some restrictions on regulated intermediaries’ interaction with finfluencers for use of their services for promotion of their products.
