Are Millennials More Stressed About Money or Politics? The Answer May Surprise You

While the majority of America cannot seem to find solace in our current political climate, millennials are more worried about their finances.

Millennials claim that money is more stressful to them than politics, work, or their health, according to a new study.

"Politics is a huge stress for people, and we know work is a big stress," Michael Katchen, CEO and co-founder of Wealthsimple, told CNN Money. "But we found that money is twice as stressful as work for people, and several times more stressful than politics."

Wealthsimple, the online investment management service, was behind the study, which also discovered the majority of the aforementioned anxiety comes from knowing one should currently be investing but have yet to do so.

The study, conducted by The Harris Poll, found that 92 percent of young people from the ages of 21 to 37 have accumulated some kind of savings, but only approximately one-third of the age group have invested in something besides an employee retirement plan — while almost half of Gen Xers and half of the Baby Boomer generation have outside investments.

The reason for millennials being reluctant to invest?

They claim they do not know how to even begin.

According to the study, 30 percent of millennials who have not already invested outside of a retirement plan claim they are confused about the actual process of investing.

And women not only have fewer investments than the men their age, they are also more stressed about money than their male counterparts. Just 26 percent of young women are investing outside their retirement plans, compared to 40 percent of young men. And almost half of these women claim money is causing them the most stress in their lives, while only 34 percent of men report the same concerns.

And women being more reluctant to invest is contributing to the gender wage gap even further.

According to Katchen, the compound interest associated with investing is so severe for women "that if they aren't taking advantage of investments, that pay gap will grow over their earning life."

Wealthsimple has been working to help millennials get over their fear of investing.

"Are we going to retire at 65 as a generation? Probably not," Katchen said.

But they’ve found that millennials are not interested in investing more now in order to get a larger return later in life. Instead, they are more passionate about the idea of investing in something that is good.

Katchen claims that "millennials think about money differently.”

"It isn't just about making money. It is about putting their money into causes they believe in and globally investing and putting money into socially responsible investments,” he continued.

He also claimed that millennials are more committed to financial freedom, saying, “Young people want to live the lifestyle they want.”

"Maybe I want that at 40 or 50 or at 80. We've got to figure out a way to engage them on the future, because they aren't set up for it. They aren't set up to have the financial freedom they want."