Table 4
Stock Ownership by Income Bracket, 19891995
Family Income
Families Owning Stock (% )
(constant 1995 dollars)
1989
1995
Increase
<$10,000
3
6
+88
$10,000$24,999
13
23
+79
$25,000$49,999
32
47
+46
$50,000$99,999
52
67
+28
$100,000 & more
82
81
-0
Source: Board of Governers of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Reserve Bulletin, January 1997,
and unpublished revisions.
Fifty percent of
had completed high school, compared to
45 in 1992 to 43 in 1995--this in an aging
stockholders had
81.7 percent of Ameri-cans generally.
American population.
Seniors, meanwhile, have started to wait
household
Occupation
longer before liquidating their equities. The
incomes of
Shareholding increased among all the
last three Surveys of Consumer Finances--
$50,000 or less.
occupational categories reported by the
1989, 1992, and 1995--chronicle a striking
Surveys of Consumer Finance from 1989 to
increase in stock ownership during the first
1995. Executives and professional workers
decade of retirement. Among families head-
continued to dominate the ranks of share-
ed by persons aged 65 to 74, the percentage
holders. But farmers, laborers, and house-
holding stock increased from 26.7 to 34.2, a
wives had above-average rates of growth in
28.1 percent spike in six years. By 1995,
stock ownership. (See Table 6.)
seniors 65 to 74 were replicating stock own-
ership patterns formerly associated with
Race
those a decade younger. Investors are
In 1935, The Gallup Organization report-
preparing for longer, more active lives. They
ed that only 3.9 percent of "Negros" owned
are accumulating capital assets earlier and
securities.3 3 This was less than one-fifth the
holding them well into retirement.
ownership rate of the general population.
Education
Government sources have only recently
The absolute numbers of investors
begun to track investment habits by race. The
increased across every educational group-
most comprehensive source, the Federal
ing between 1989 and 1995--an unsurpris-
Reserve Board's Survey of Consumer
ing fact, given the broad dispersion of DC
Finance, reports financial assets in only two
plans. But the median educational level of
ethnic categories, "White non-Hispanic" and
investors remains distinctly higher than
"nonwhite or Hispanic." Two facts emerge
that of the general public for two reasons:
from those sketchy data: stock ownership
the proportion of high-school dropouts
among nonwhites has been rare but is
who invest is low, and the proportion of
becoming less so. (See Table 7.)
college graduates who invest is high. In
For the most part, it is DC plans that are
1995, 39.9 percent of investors had four or
bringing minorities into capital markets.
more years of college, compared to 23.0 per-
From 1992 to 1995, nonwhites increased
cent of the general population; 93.4 percent
their participation in such plans by 35.2 per-
11