The Investor Diaries

Welcome back to Fintech Takes. I'm Alex Johnson, joined by Tim Flacke (Co-founder and CEO of Commonwealth) to unpack The Investor Diaries, their 15-month research project on how low-to-moderate income Americans invest.

This is a different kind of episode, one where you’ll hear select voice diaries from the consumers themselves, representing households earning between $25,000 and $80,000 a year.

One of the stats from Commonwealth’s research surprised me: 54% of adults living on low to moderate incomes now invest, and retail investing in this cohort has grown 2.7x since 2020.

We dig into what pushes new investors to pause or pull money out, and what providers could build to keep them in the market.

Highlights include:

What changes when you're the first person in your family to cross what Tim calls the "Risk Rubicon"?

Why do providers present their products like a catalog, without a point of view?

If the business model for helping someone build a small cash cushion is, in Tim's words, "terrible," why should brokerages offer a savings option anyway?

What does Commonwealth's research on bank chatbots say about how AI earns trust?

Plus, Tim shares how to make the most of Trump accounts and the more than $20 billion now on the table for kids.

Tune in for a closer look at a growing group of investors the industry too often flattens into a stereotype.

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This episode is brought to you by Ocrolus.

Better lending starts with better intelligence. A borrower's cash flow only tells half the story, so Ocrolus fills in the rest with behavior signals and industry benchmarking. Visit https://www.ocrolus.com/ for more.

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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson

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Follow Tim:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothyflacke/

The Investor Diaries: https://buildcommonwealth.org/research/investordiaries/