Wrecking Ball: Millennial Voice For Economic Change Is A Call With Grit

The anti-Wall Street battle cry roared again this morning.  Just as CentSai officially said “hello world”, we heard America’s millennial generation telling us why they overwhelmingly want to deal with Bernie Sanders and not with one anyone else as America’s next president.

Sanders’ popularity among those born between 1980 and 2000 is not surprising. But what intrigued me about our poll of 2,287 millennials is that, while holding an anti-Wall Street stance, and being deeply concerned about student loans and health care, two-thirds are also confident of their economic progress in the next four years.

Meaning: Millennials may be angry and disappointed with the establishment, but they are confident in themselves to aspire for a better financial future.

We spoke to many young men and women this past year as Team CentSai moved from hundreds of whiteboard sessions to beta and now live. The message was unanimous: They wanted to gain control of their financial lives. They do not want to be talked at by men and women in suits. They do not want their lives to be controlled by big banks. 

Elliot S. Weisbluth, CEO of HighTower, a Chicago financial advisory firm (Weisbluth has recently become a contributor to CentSai) wrote in 2013: “(millennials) are not waiting for the big financial firms to undergo a great moral awakening. They are not sitting on their hands hoping the government will pass some glorious reform making the financial system safer. Instead, millennials are looking for the right people with whom to do business.”

Their determination has its roots. Many millennials were direct or indirect victims of Wall Streets’ irrational behavior in 2008. They either saw their parents lose their jobs, their homes, or millennials themselves were unable to find jobs after coming out from college.  In addition, many of them have tens of thousands of dollars of student debt.

From a spend-spend-spend culture, that typified the baby-boomers lifestyle, millennials are open to change. They talk about returns on their education, they want to save for a rainy day, and they are asking how they can be self-sufficient in creating their financial futures.  While they remain curious about the stock market, they do not want to blindly trust a wealth manager.  

Millennials loathe opacity and lack of ethics. This is not left-leaning thinking per se. A vote for Sanders is also a vote against being controlled by the establishment.

This brings me to answer the question I have been asked by many people in the past one year: Why CentSai? Why financial education? What could a start-up do that this country’s school system can’t?

CentSai represents freedom. It brings the tricky and shy conversations about money and wealth into a social setting.

Out from behind closed doors.

Managing one’s financial future is like sport. Unless you do it yourself— instead of passively watching from the sidelines— you only half-learn.  Lindsay VanSomeren is a millennial writer for CentSai. Her recent blog headline: “I was Terrified About Striking Out on my Own…But I’m Doing It” typifies the millennial spirit. 

I don’t know who Lindsay is rooting for. But what I do know is that she represents a large group of millennials who are committed not to drive this country into another economic mess like the one that we saw eight years ago.  As a whole, they take pride in their frugality and embrace social responsibility.

CentSai’s aim is to bring people like Lindsay together, on a digital platform, sharing stories, inspiring each other to learn.

While only time will tell who becomes America’s next president, it doesn’t really matter.  Contrary to the myth that millennials are a self-entitled generation we believe—no matter what—they will prosper.