As you've read in your text, the overall percentage of U.S. citizens participating in a stock...

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As you've read in your text, the overall percentage of U.S.citizens participating in a stock market either through individualholdings or through financial intermediaries such as mutual fundshas declined since the 2008 recession. Prior to 2008, a greaterpercentage of Americans held stock market investments than do in2018. This is an interesting characteristic, given the followingfactors:
Investing in the market through savings plans, 401k or 403baccounts, individual IRAs, or similar retirement plans has neverbeen easier given the amount of information available to anyindividual. Individuals can invest small amounts such as $20 andbenefit from dollar-cost averaging through automatic deposits andelectronic transactions such as payroll deductions.
While a vast majority of Americans will be dependent on SocialSecurity as their primary source for retirement income, the messagethat relying solely on SS for retirement continues to be broadcastby media outlets such as the AARP.
Since 2008, the markets have rebounded significantly from their2008 lows.
Basic principles of investing are easily located on theinternet, from a variety of sources. For example, see the "IndexCard" resource posted in Week 5, which is a short list offundamental investing principles.
For this discussion post, you are to state a position andpresent an argument related to the above state of investing by U.S.citizens today. Why has the overall percentage of Americansinvested in the market decreased in the last decade? And,subsequently, what can be done about this? Inyour argument, which is to be supported by both textbook andoutside research, delve into one or more of the primary conceptspresented in this week's readings. These include the various stockmarket indexes, international markets, the role of the mutual fundindustry, active versus passive investing, in addition to multipleother concepts.

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The most reliable and widely available statistics on the of Americans who invest in the stock markets is based on the Gallup organization Since 1998 every year the organization asks the Americans about stock investments their nationwide polls They ask whether the Americans have money invested in the stock markets through direct ownership of shares mutual funds or retirement plan such as a 401k or an IRA The statistics say that in 2007 just before the 2008 economic crisis 65 of the Americans were invested in the stock market through one of the routes mentioned above In 2012 the number was the lowest at 53 The stock market participation has improved only slightly since then until 2017 Another thing to note is the demographics In the top 30 See Answer

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As you've read in your text, the overall percentage of U.S.citizens participating in a stock market either through individualholdings or through financial intermediaries such as mutual fundshas declined since the 2008 recession. Prior to 2008, a greaterpercentage of Americans held stock market investments than do in2018. This is an interesting characteristic, given the followingfactors:Investing in the market through savings plans, 401k or 403baccounts, individual IRAs, or similar retirement plans has neverbeen easier given the amount of information available to anyindividual. Individuals can invest small amounts such as $20 andbenefit from dollar-cost averaging through automatic deposits andelectronic transactions such as payroll deductions.While a vast majority of Americans will be dependent on SocialSecurity as their primary source for retirement income, the messagethat relying solely on SS for retirement continues to be broadcastby media outlets such as the AARP.Since 2008, the markets have rebounded significantly from their2008 lows.Basic principles of investing are easily located on theinternet, from a variety of sources. For example, see the "IndexCard" resource posted in Week 5, which is a short list offundamental investing principles.For this discussion post, you are to state a position andpresent an argument related to the above state of investing by U.S.citizens today. Why has the overall percentage of Americansinvested in the market decreased in the last decade? And,subsequently, what can be done about this? Inyour argument, which is to be supported by both textbook andoutside research, delve into one or more of the primary conceptspresented in this week's readings. These include the various stockmarket indexes, international markets, the role of the mutual fundindustry, active versus passive investing, in addition to multipleother concepts.