Business

Millennials have little tolerance for stocks, risk

The Great Recession is haunting today’s millennials.

New York public high-school teacher Brian Heiss is hardworking and as financially conservative as someone born during the Great Depression —and a surprising new study reveals that his approach is typical of his 21- to 36-year-old age group.

The study, by UBS Wealth Management, also dispels notions of millennials as lazy, narcissistic, entitled and digitally obsessed.

Heiss, 29, single and living in Bedford-Stuyvesant, tends bar part time to supplement his teacher’s salary and occasionally plays drums in a rock band.

“I always want to work more, and I always want to do well,” Heiss told The Post, admitting his mindset has been darkened by the 2008 financial crisis. “[My parents’] investments got hit terribly hard during the crisis. I was managing a restaurant at that time, and it went under. I was soon out of a job, and it was a tough time.”

Though the Great Recession is history, its effects linger in the millennial mind.

“Millennials seem to be permanently scarred by the 2008 financial crisis,” said Emily Pachuta, head of investor insights at UBS WMA.

“They have a Depression-era mindset, largely because they experienced market-volatility and job-security issues very early in their careers, or watched their parents experience them — and it has had a significant impact on their attitudes and behaviors.”

Cash is king for this group. While one in three millennials, the so-called Generation Y, describe their investment-risk tolerance as either conservative or somewhat conservative, typically more than half their portfolio is made up of cash.

That’s a startling contrast to the 23 percent in cash for other investors, the UBS WMA study reveals.

Older Americans overall have 46 percent of their money tied up in stocks, compared with 28 percent for millennials. Meanwhile, only a meager 12 percent of millennials said they would invest “found money” in the market, and a mere 28 percent consider long-term investing a path to success.

“Though investment theory suggests that Generation Y should be the most aggressive investors due to their age, they are actually the most conservative,” according to a separate survey of American households by Hearts & Wallets. “Seventy percent of their assets are in cash.”

Simply put, millennials are wary of taking financial advice from advisers. “Do I trust Wall Street? Not really,” said Heiss. “I mean, there [are] obviously good people doing good things on Wall Street. But a lot of the finance types are in it for themselves.”

Heiss — who has about $30,000 in student debt outstanding and for whom any thoughts of retiring on a public pension are a distant dream — plans to work hard and save hard to shore up his personal finances, though he admits that’s tough with his financial obligations.

Heiss has already brought his student loans down from $50,000

The study found that money is the single most important indicator of success for nearly half of millennials, with a household income of $220,000 seeming about right to meet that standard.

“I see the friends in my circle, they’re really ambitious and hard-working people,” said Heiss. “Every once in a while, one of them might have to go on unemployment, and that is not something they like to do.”

“Money means a lot to me,” he said. “I need to take care of my student loans because that is where I can maximize my dollars.”