Jim Cramer believes the younger generation has turned to speculation and meme stocks instead of saving and investing over the long term.
In a recent interview with CNBC, Cramer argued that the new generation has "given up" on saving money and investing in individual stocks because they see it as too difficult.
"Well, I think that what’s happened is people gave up," Cramer said. "I find this new generation, GenZ, plays a lot of stuff that I regard as being, let’s say one one-trick pony. They love the meme stocks or zero-day options, but they don’t invest over time."
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‘I Don't Want People to Work and Die At Their Desks'
Cramer said young people view saving as tough and assume they'll never be richer than their parents. He believes investing in individual stocks is easier than it was 20 years ago, thanks to artificial intelligence and search tools that make company-specific data readily available to everyone.
"I just want people to invest because I think I don’t want people to work and then die at their desks because it’s so hard to save. They think it’s hard. They always think they’ve given up. They think that their parents are always going to be richer than we are," Cramer said.
Cramer said young people should invest in companies they interact with every day, pointing to Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ:HOOD) as examples. He reiterated his philosophy of buying and holding stocks for the long term rather than reacting to temporary bear market swings.
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"When I was living in my car, I put away $10 to $50 a month and it ends up being a lot of money," he added. "We, I lived in a generation where I presumed I was going to be richer than my parents."
Asked whether investors can make money during market downturns, Cramer said it's possible to "ride through" market crashes as long as they stay invested.
"And that’s where Warren [Buffett] was so right. Remember, he said, if you had held, you did fine. Now, people who needed their money in 2010–2011, they got hurt," according to Cramer.
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