Sustainable investing and younger generation

AF Advisors’ analyst Ján Micenko published an article about pension and sustainable investing in Financial Investigator. In the article, Ján discusses the lack of interest and involvement of younger generation in these topics.

Younger generation is all about now. They require immediate results, satisfaction and validation. Understandably, it is quite difficult to get them involved in sustainable or pension investing. Firstly, saving for pension will have impact on their lives in 30-40 years. Secondly, it can take number of years in order to see the real impact of sustainable investing on the society.

Ján says that young people want to do good overall and care about the environment. Nevertheless, in their everyday lives, young people do not make the most sustainable or responsible choices. For example, flying carbon neutral or buying only sustainable products is more costly and relatively rare among the young people.

One possible solution how to make young people more involved is to remind them that large part of their wealth is actually allocated to their pension. It has to be made clear that their choices regarding the manner of investment of their pension (sustainable or not) can actually have a significant impact on the society. List of exclusions and being the UNPRI signatory is a starting point but it says nothing to the vast majority of the audience. Follow up with a negative story about the excluded companies. Do the same for the most sustainable holding in your portfolio. Making the impact real to the audience might as well be a way how to make younger generation more involved in pension and sustainable investing.

Read the article (in Dutch) here.