THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, March 16, 2020 |R7

D

uringa lunch break

in Gloversville, N.Y.,

Ryan Scribner

made his first You-

Tube video. As he

sat in his 1999

Honda CR-V with

a busted air condi-

tioner, he explained

how an 18-year-old

can build credit.

That was October 2016. Now the 24-

year-old is one of the most popular You-

Tubers giving financial and investing ad-

vice. Mr. Scribner’s YouTube account has

more than 550,000 subscribers and

counting. His videos draw up to 500,000

views a week. Mr. Scribner also has a

website, InvestingSimple.com, where he

reviews investment products like robo ad-

visers and online investing services. Last

year, he says he made around $500,000

from his YouTube channel and website.

“I just captured all this pent-up de-

mand,” he says.

Mr. Scribner’s meteoric rise under-

scores how many millennials are grappling

with financial literacy and turning to social

media for help. About 1-in-2 millennials,

defined as born between 1981 and 1996,

want to start investing but don’t know

how to begin, according to a survey con-

ducted in late 2019 for The Wall Street

Journal by MarketCast.

These wannabe investors are more

comfortable learning about finance online

than at bricks-and-mortar banks. The

WSJ survey also found that 46% of mil-

lennials prefer to learn about finance on a

website, while 18% prefer social media.

That compares to the 25% who say they

would opt to go to an in-person expert

like a financial adviser.

Still, some of the ways in which such

influencers are compensated point to po-

tentially thorny issues, including possible

conflicts of interest. Compensation for

some influencers, for example, can include

sponsorships by the very companies

whose products they recommend.

BYDIETERHOLGER

FROM TOP: MARY INHEA KANG FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL; DANA ULLMAN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Video Learning

Millennials often look to social-media

platforms, including YouTube, to learn

about saving and investing.

Monthly uploads of YouTube videos

related to investments, indexed to

highest number of uploads

Source: the company

1.00

0

0.25

0.50

0.75

2013 ’14 ’15 ’16 ’17 ’18 ’19

Mr. Scribner’s website includes a sec-

tion titled “FTC Disclaimer” that men-

tions the presence of “affiliate links” on

the site, which according to the site

means “if you choose to make a pur-

chase, we may receive a commission.”

The disclaimer also says, “We only rec-

ommend products/services that are

helpful and useful to our readers.”

Mr. Scribner, whose father is a finan-

cial adviser, says he thinks many millen-

nials view traditional wealth managers

as old-fashioned and shun them because

they think it requires more financial

know-how or money than they possess

to enlist an adviser’s services. They pre-

fer to use investing apps, he says.

Social-media companies say millenni-

als are talking more than ever about in-

vesting. On YouTube, monthly uploads of

videos on investing increased nearly

ninefold between 2013 and 2019, accord-

ing to data provided by YouTube.

A spokesperson for Instagram, the

Facebook-owned social-media platform

popular with millennials and their youn-

ger Gen Z counterparts, says there were

more than three million posts on invest-

ing in the 30 days ended Feb. 11.

One of the biggest finance-focused

accounts on Instagram is @MrsDow-

Jones, a creation of 28-year-old Haley

Sacks, a self-taught investor who posts

investing memes, including one that hu-

morously compares actual earnings and

adjusted earnings to a Khloe Kardashian

before-and-after makeover.

“Everyone likes memes and no one

likes finance,” Ms. Sacks says.

Her account has grown to more than

120,000 followers since launching in late

2017. She self-publishes and has her own
      site, mrsdowjones.com. She is working
      on increasing her YouTube presence and
      creating online courses and e-books. Ms.
      Sacks says she makes money through
      partnerships with brands, speaking en-
      gagements and her clothing line.
      Ms. Sacks declines to
      share how much money
      she makes from her
      brand.
      A lot of her work is en-
      couraging millennials to be
      more open about how they are
      saving and spending money.
      “Most people would rather talk
      about death or sex than about
      finance,” she says.

Another challenge, Ms. Sacks says, is

helping millennials realize that finance

isn’t untouchable and that they don’t

necessarily need to pay someone to

start investing. “It sort of feels like

we’ve all been duped into thinking that

this is so difficult.”

There are Instagrammers who take a

more conventional approach to teaching

their followers about finance. Jessica

Ghaney of Nova Scotia runs the Insta-

gram page Forex Tips 101, where she

posts graphics on topics like how to spot

when to buy or sell currencies based on

patterns in their trading results. She

started the account in April 2019 and

now has more than 80,000 followers.

Ms. Ghaneya nursing-school graduate, is

a self-taught trader who started her ac-

count to find like-minded investors.

The 25-year-old says most of her rev-

enue comes from her online courses on

technical analysis. In less than a year,

she says she has made around $97,000

from her brand. Including her personal

trading and real-estate income, she says

she makes around $230,000 a year.

As more millennials head to social

media to learn about investing, banks

are trying to cash in as well. Bank of

America and Wells Fargo are among the

top financial companies paying influenc-

ers for endorsements, according to mar-

ket-research firm SocialBakers.

Chris Smith, enterprise social media

executive at Bank of America, says the

bank has research that suggests millen-

nials and Gen Zers rely on influencers

just as much as they do family and

friends for advice. “We partner with in-

fluencers to help educate our audiences.”

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo has

contracted with influencers for various

campaigns, including the launch of its

Propel credit card, says Jamie Moldafsky,

chief marketing officer at Wells Fargo.

“The influencer should also be a cus-

tomer in order to share their real-life ex-

periences with the product,” she says.

Neither Wells Fargo nor Bank of

America would say how much they pay

influencers for their sponsorships.

Ms. Sacks, for her part, says in an

emailed response to a question about

how banks are using social media, “The

#1 goal of the partnership should be in-

tegrity! If this is not a priority and mil-

lennials are swayed by influencers who

don’t really know the financial product

they are selling and they end up misrep-

resenting it or it ends up being bad—it

will only further the distrust millennials

have in financial institutions (stemming

from the financial crisis in 2008 that

shaped the job market we came into)

which is exactly what we DON’T want.”

Ms. Sacks adds: “I say ‘no’ to so many

products that I don’t believe in or that

just aren’t up to my standard because

the trust of my audience is more impor-

tant than any paycheck.”

Mr. Holgeris a reporter for The Wall

Street Journal and Dow Jones

Newswires in Barcelona. Email him at

[email protected]..

I am always leveraging from

technology while my parents have

learned how to manage money

more empirically. They have learned

through experiences while I like

to read and instruct myself in

handling it.”

—José Rodríguez Moreno, 29, M.B.A. candidate

46%

Prefer to learn

about finances

on a website

JOURNAL REPORT |MILLENNIALS & MONEY

To learn about finances,

millennials turn to

social media. Meet the

new influencers.

The finance-focused Instragram account of Haley Sacks, @MrsDowJones, has more than 120,000 followers.

The Gurus

For a New

Generation

Ryan Scribner’s YouTube account has more than 550,000 subscribers

and his videos draw up to 500,000 views weekly.