Interviews with 36 College Students Depict Investment Perceptions
The Taiwan Academy of Banking and Finance released the 2026 Taiwan Financial Life Survey, conducting in-depth interviews with 36 enrolled college students aged 19 to 26 with real investment experience. The results show that ETFs, odd lots, and dollar-cost averaging have become common entry tools for young people, but under the combined influence of family, peers, schools, and digital platforms, many students have redefined such investments as savings or anti-inflation tools rather than high-risk investment behavior.
Opening Accounts at 18 as a Rite of Passage, Investing Becomes Adulthood Ritual
Zheng Han, Research Fellow and Senior Director of the Inclusive Finance Division, pointed out that some students believe funds held in banks will be eroded by inflation, so after opening bank accounts or payroll accounts at age 18, they go on to open securities accounts. The convenience of the financial system has lowered barriers to market entry, gradually making investing something one should do after reaching adulthood. Families provide principal, accounts, and a safety net, peers bring topics and comparison, schools provide professional knowledge, and digital platforms provide information and order-placement channels, jointly shaping decision-making mechanisms and risk boundaries.
Small-Principal Paradox Raises Leverage Incentives
The study also found the so-called small-principal paradox. Because invested principal is limited, even profitable investments yield insignificant actual amounts, leading some young people to find low returns unattractive and instead increasing their willingness to pursue high-risk products and leverage. If trusted people around them have already entered the market, product stories are simple and easy to understand, losses would not affect daily life, plus urgency brought by rising markets, all may become reasons to enter the market. Students with a family safety net still have chances to try again even after losses, while students lacking a safety net may bear greater financial pressure once losses occur, and may even be forced to exit the market.
Clarifying Savings vs. Investing, Promoting TISA on Campuses Next Year
Gao Yicheng, President of the Taiwan Academy of Banking and Finance, reminded that Taiwan's economic growth remains promising, but markets will inevitably see short-term volatility, and young people should not assume investments will keep profiting just because of a period of bull market. He stressed that investing is not a slot machine, savings is the most fundamental financial foundation, and the difference between savings and investing must be clarified. Next year, the Academy will, through the Taiwan Individual Savings Account (TISA), work with the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Association and the Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corporation to design teaching materials, and arrange volunteer lecturers to enter colleges and universities to convey long-term investing and compounding concepts. The study also categorized college student investors into 8 types, including ETF savings-preservation type, peer-influenced semi-follower type, family-capital inheritance-governance type, quasi-professional knowledge-intensive type, short-term thematic bull-market speed type, high-risk trading stimulation type, intimate-relationship resource type, and reflexive restrained risk-ethics type, and stressed that types may change with resources, interpersonal relationships, market conditions, and life stages.