Anwar Adam: Hey everyone, welcome to Inheriting the Future, the Noyack Wealth Club podcast where we chat with experts to share ideas and tips for you to help you build wealth for the life you want. I’m your host this week, Anwar Adam, and I’m thrilled to have Noyack CEO and frequent guest CJ Follini back with us today. We’re diving into Noyack’s annual Millennial money predictions for 2025. What trends will shape your money management this year? Let’s peek into what’s coming so you can learn and even get closer to achieving your money goals for 2025. And before we get started, make sure you subscribe to the Noyack Wealth Weekly Newsletter with either the link which is going to be in the description of this video or by scanning the QR code. CJ, welcome back to the podcast. It’s great having you here.
CJ Follini: Thanks, and it’s always great to be back and love chatting with you about financial education. Let’s kick things off with a quick look back. How do you think you did with last year’s prediction?
CJ Follini: Well, looking back, I’d give myself a solid seven out of 10 or if you’re thinking of an old school grade maybe a B, possibly a B minus. Some predictions like the rise of alternative investments and the growth of crowdfunding platforms were spot on. Those trends really took off in 2024. Also, I predicted that real asset investments would return to stability and that did happen, their income not being eroded by five-six percent inflation. That was good for anyone who believes in both alts and real assets whether it’s collectibles, real estate, etc. But I definitely missed some things. For example, retail investors did not abandon the stock market. In fact, it was the opposite. They had some of the greatest involvement in the stock market which is why some people think we’re actually in a bubble right now. I’m not going to give my prediction or my opinion on the stock market. I really don’t talk about stocks, but there’s definitely validity to the inflated values of the stock market because of the involvement of the retail investor. So I got that one wrong. Let’s see what else. Newsletters, I think I nailed that one too. Newsletters were everywhere. In fact, who doesn’t have a newsletter? We have one, Noyack Wealth Weekly. Shameless plug. AI powered wealth manager, well, I still think that’s… I’m positive I will be right. I just wasn’t right on that prediction in 2024 which is why I’m bringing it back for 2025 but we’ll get there. So yeah, I’m gonna go with a seven out of 10 and maybe I’m an easy grader.
Anwar Adam: Got it, that sounds like a fair assessment CJ. Let’s move forward now and let’s talk about what’s in store for 2025.
CJ Follini: Great, got it. And you know this year like always you come, you have 10 predictions for 2025. Let’s start off with your first prediction which is on AI powered investing. So you’ve highlighted AI’s impact on investing and now can you please explain how these hyper personalized portfolios will change the game for Millennials?
CJ Follini: Absolutely. First, as you can see, this is my first prediction because I don’t like to give up and I don’t like to be wrong. So just as I was saying that I was dead wrong about an AI powered automated wealth manager for 2024, I’m doubling down for 2025 and leading with the role that AI is going to provide in all aspects of both institutional wealth management, wealth management on behalf of others meaning registered investment advisors, and ourselves who like to DIY our own wealth management. We’re going to be using new AI tools to make financial decisions for our own money. Now, what does the… How… I’ve learned a little bit more. I go to so many conferences and I talk to a lot of experts. Another shameless plug, we’re building our own personal wealth management tool, but it’s more of an education, not a manager. It is really just to guide you as a co-pilot. So what I’m seeing is that there is going to be not a broad-based AI involvement but really a hyper personalization. For example, AI uses vast data sets to craft strategies that aren’t just tiered to risk tolerance but dynamically adapt to life events. So if you’re a believer as I am in goals-based investing instead of focusing on the financial metrics, then how AI is going to be used by financial institutions and personal wealth managers is going to be just for you. For example, if someone is saving for a wedding, the AI co-pilot could shift the advice, shift the responses about their investments and their portfolio construction to lower risk assets as the wedding date approaches. And it also could become more liquid in its suggestions. So it’s not just about the convenience of an idea like that, it’s about the precision and ensuring that you can hit financial milestones with less stress, more confidence, and you know you have like a friend who is guiding you, his or her arm around your shoulder providing you advice and insight. It’s going to make everyone… I think confidence is a key word. It’s going to make all decisions… You’re going to be making decisions more confidently and usually when you’re not indecisive those confident decisions have a higher probability of success. Does that answer why I believe that AI is going to personalize and revolutionize investing?
Anwar Adam: Oh yeah, it totally does. I think we can all relate to what you just described over there. The benefits of it, we’re just too early for it now but in the longer run it’s inevitable. Think of any goal whether it’s buying a first home, as I mentioned, planning for a wedding, retirement planning. Oh my gosh, it’s going to take over retirement planning which is going to make some investment advisers not so happy because they may be disintermediated by the productivity of AI but it will change how retirement planning is accomplished right now. That is what I mean by revolution. Alright, so I went straight into the AI for number one, doubling down on my miss from last year. Let’s keep going.
Anwar Adam: Yeah, so moving on CJ, now let’s dig into tokenized funds and how they’re redefining investing. Tokenized funds are a buzzword for 2025. What opportunities do they unlock for investors?
CJ Follini: Well, it’s about fractional ownership, it’s about democratization, and it’s about alternative investments. Now all of those things we have discussed as trends for probably two years now. Last year, crowdfunding, fractional ownership, the increased adoption of alternative investments were all predictions of mine once that I came true. But what’s going to accelerate each of those and combine them is doing it on the on-chain, blockchain enablement of fractional ownership with smart contracts that ensure transparency and efficiency. Plus there’s round-the-clock trading. Not that alts are really traded like a stock market, but imagine the Holy Grail of making illiquid alternative investments more liquid. Not truly liquid like securities on a stock market, that’s many many years away. But tokens, fungible tokens that have what’s called ERC smart contracts embedded that each of the elements of a transaction and how it happens, any contingencies, any compliance, you can even embed KYC which is know your customer regulations from the SEC. You can embed those in the tokens as well so it cannot be transferred one token to another person until that KYC compliance is met. Amazing. So achieving liquidity or even a measure of liquidity for private investments is going to blow open the door on all and every prediction that says this will be the year of the alts. Once fungible tokens can be traded for fractional ownership of a private investment, that really will be the year of the alts.
Anwar Adam: Great, thank you. Moving on to your third prediction, which is on millennial investing. DIY investing is skyrocketing. How are millennials leveraging technology to manage their finances independently?
CJ Follini: Well, let’s see. We’ve already talked about two that aren’t even here yet: the AI powered wealth manager and blockchain liquidity or blockchain token representation of private investment ownership. But those are the future. The current state is already there are plenty of tools, there’s education, there’s online education tools to teach yourself financial literacy, financial education, teach yourself how to trade, how to trade options, how to invest privately in alternative investments. And then of course there are the robo advisors. Now you can set up a plan in literally 30 seconds online. Again shameless plug, disclosure, you can do it on our platform. You can trade stocks, fractional shares of stocks on Robinhood, Wealthfront, M1. You can access alternative investments online, YieldStreet, Fundrise are the three known retail asset managers. There are tools like Monte Carlo simulations where they allow you to test investment portfolio strategies. You can input all the different asset classes of a sample portfolio, maybe one you’re considering or one you have, into these online tools and they can run all types of sensitivities based on interest rate, price rise, employment rate, all the different known indicators and give you an idea of how sensitive your portfolio is to a variety of external circumstances that could happen. Even a Black Swan event they can test. I’m going to call the DIY investing movement the democratization, a very overused term and me, I’m now contributing to that overuse, the democratization of financial knowledge because schools plus the education, they break down the intimidation factor that’s kept younger investors on the sidelines. The only people who profit when younger or any investors don’t empower themselves are the gatekeepers, the people who want to make you think you need them in order to access wealth, manage your money, get a retirement plan, get a 529 plan for your kids’ college future. Those institutional gatekeepers need you to believe it’s a black box. Democratizing financial knowledge opens up the box and you take it.
Anwar Adam: Thank you, and moving on to your fourth prediction now, which is on goals-based investing. CJ, you mentioned that Millennials are focusing on goals-based investing. Why is this shift significant?
CJ Follini: Well, goals-based investing was very popular a while ago. I believe it was about late 90s. I was there. As you can see from the lack of hair, I have a few years under me. I’m not even a millennial, I’m definitely older than a millennial. Goals-based investing was very popular. It had a moment, it was a movement. Really what it means is that you align your portfolios, your investments with what you want to achieve in life versus “Hey, I want to hit a 10% return metric, I want 5% on this, I want 4% interest.” Instead of focusing on the numerical metrics and money for money’s sake, you say “You know what, I want to invest so I can buy a home, I want to invest so my family’s secure, so I don’t worry about what happens in case I’m not here.” I want a retirement at this age and I need to start planning now. What do I need to do that versus instead of focusing on “Hey, how do I get 6%?” That’s what goals-based investing is and it’s a mindset shift. Traditional investing always prioritized the returns, the numerical returns, but younger generations like Millennials and Gen Z, they don’t think that way. Now that earlier movement of goals-based investing is back. I see it everywhere. Even banks like Bank of America and Citibank, they don’t talk about how much money you want, they talk about what do you want in life. They ask, “What is your why? Why are you investing? Why do you need to invest?” Understanding your why is understanding your goals and then how to do goals-based investing. That’s the first step, understand why you think you want to invest. What are you trying to accomplish in life? It’s more of an emotional connection which, you know, I think historically a dispassionate rational approach to money has always been preached. Warren Buffet will be the first to say that, but so many studies and we did a 5000 cohort study that shows that people investing for clear goals outperform those who chase market numerical returns. That’s really all you need to know. It’s more successful and that’s why this strategy and style is back and I think it’s here to stay.
Anwar Adam: Great, I can actually relate to that CJ. Coming from a Gen Z audience myself, my shift has changed. When I first started off my investing route, I used to think about the numerical way but as I got a little bit more mature, the way I have thought about investing has completely shifted towards having a goal-setting mindset where now I look at things at a bigger picture rather than chasing numerical values where I feel like it has just been easier on the mind as well and you have less pressure and you’re actually able to think rationally when it comes to making financial investments. I can totally see this and I’m seeing the shift personally with around my friend circle and my colleagues around me.
CJ Follini: If you’ve discussed it then what is the number one goal you see? Is it retirement? Is it family? Is it legacy, aka philanthropy? Is it just diversification which is more of a portfolio goal? What do you see as the common goal? What is your goal? What is your most important goal? What is your goal priority and what do you see from your friends?
Anwar Adam: For sure, I would say retirement is too far of a fetch. One thing most Millennials and Gen Z are chasing now is buying their dream home. For example, in my friend circle or anyone around my age, they’re trying to invest in a way that they can move in and actually own a home because in the past decade or so it’s almost like the American dream of buying a home and starting a family has been becoming more and more of a myth rather than a reality. That is one thing that most Millennials and Gen Z are looking forward to. Retirement, they’re not too concerned about it at the moment but home is their first step and then after that going after retirement.
CJ Follini: I’ll push back on that last one. Millennial is a giant generation. I do think that the older Millennial, the 35 to 43 part of the millennial generation, definitely retirement might be number one. But the 23 to 32 where you are younger Millennial and cusp Gen Z, aka Zillennial, definitely home whether it’s a condo, your first domicile that you own. Building wealth, which is still today the first and most important way to build wealth, is through your first home ownership. I can see the bifurcation between retirement and home but those are definitely top two, one and one. I actually love goals-based investing and I’ll give you a little quote from my favorite economist Milton Friedman from the University of Chicago. He once said that if you drive to make money for money’s sake then you’re a fetishist of little green paper. I love that quote and I do believe that quote, which I think is like 40-50 years old, is the beginning of where goals-based investing came from. That was the inspiration and the premise is don’t make money for money’s sake, make money for life’s sake.
Anwar Adam: Great, so moving on to your fifth prediction which is alternative investments. I know I can just see the excitement in your eyes.
CJ Follini: I’m the old guy down the street, they’re like “Hey, there’s the alts guy.”
Anwar Adam: Yes, so CJ, why are Millennials turning to alternative investments like venture capital and fine art?
CJ Follini: Great question. Millennials are recognizing that traditional stocks and bonds, we just had an inflation surge over the last two years, people got crushed. Bonds were getting crushed and if your stocks, real assets, venture capital, everything dove. A lot of times they also find out that the companies don’t align with their priorities or their values.
Anwar Adam: Moving on to your fifth prediction, your favorite topic, alternative investments. Why are Millennials especially turning to alternative investments like venture capital or fine art?
CJ Follini: Well, we talked about the adoption of alts being one of the predictions and it’s happening and it’s really accelerating every year. But specifically why venture capital and fine art and other collectibles? Well, it’s a great question. Millennials now recognize that traditional stocks and bonds just don’t always align with their priorities or their values. Plus there have been financial scandals in the public markets. Sometimes they learn that there are companies that are exploiting labor in Southeast Asia. Alternatives like commercial real estate, art, or venture capital offer diversification and a sense of purpose because they love art, they know founders, they want to be a founder so they understand private equity and venture capital. Plus they’re more resilient to the market because they don’t allow you to trade in and out. Investing is a lot better than trading when you’re an individual managing your own investments. They’re more resilient to market volatility because you can’t jump in and out of an alternative investment. They’re illiquid and that liquidity, while usually a negative, is actually a positive when it stops you from damaging yourself with your own impulse of indecision. Whether it’s supporting these startups or investing in climate-resilient infrastructure, it’s not just wealth building, it’s values-driven investing. It’s values-driven wealth building. That alignment of passion and return is paramount to younger generations and that’s why alts are surging. I’ll leave this prediction with a statistic. My generation, Gen X, the average allocation to an individual’s portfolio was 6%. Millennials, they’re already at 20% and Gen Z is going higher. From one generation to the next we went from 6% to 20%. There are feelings there that are continuing unabated and they’re accelerating.
Anwar Adam: I can totally see the shift happening at this very moment. Moving on to our sixth prediction, social media shaping financial decisions made by investors. Social media is redefining financial advice. How should Millennials navigate this landscape?
CJ Follini: This is tricky. I’m a little conflicted about this one. I made the prediction, I think it’s an easy prediction because it’s already happening, but I think it’s also accelerating and I think the general public is going to become aware of it. It’s really something, it was an easy win when we get to one year from now because for the insiders we already know that influencers, financial influencers, are a thing. The reason I’m conflicted and it’s tricky is because social media platforms like TikTok, if it remains, and Instagram are filled with advice from people who have no qualifications or credentials or experience. All they know is how to edit good video. But there are also highly credentialed, experienced, educational influencers who because of those platforms are able to disseminate very needed financial education, a lot of which doesn’t exist in our school systems. They’re able to get it out there to the public because of those platforms. That’s why I’m conflicted. On the one hand, I love the accessibility of the quality financial advice or not really advice, financial insights and education that come from people like certified financial planners or just experienced people. But I’m also nervous about the dark side and the people who are hammers. This is an easy win for me in the prediction column but I’m also conflicted about the impact. Let’s all be careful, vet the people you’re listening to on social media. Avoid anything that sounds like “You can get rich quick.” Forget it, there is no get rich quick. I always wanted to do an Oscar speech, not that I’m ever going to be able to, but my Oscar speech would be this: “Thank you very much, thank you very much for making me an overnight success after doing this for 35 years because that’s what it takes to be successful. So when anyone says get rich quick you say bye.
Anwar Adam: Absolutely. There’s a lot of, you know, especially Instagram, it’s just flooded with all sorts of people scaling up to thousands of followers and promoting content that ranges from financial advice to giving them exclusive access to information. But as you mentioned, there’s a huge dark side that a lot of people are not too aware of or they often just ignore it. They don’t know that just one small involvement with following an advice of such kind could vastly impact their investment portfolio or their lifestyle.
CJ Follini: Yeah, I mean you could use the Pareto principle, there’s 20% of what you see online of financial influencers that are great. I hope there’s a way to identify them but the algorithm doesn’t evaluate the quality of the discourse and the quality of the financial education. All it evaluates is engagement, clicks, likes, and so on. Sometimes the lowest common denominator of content is what gets engaged with and then bad stuff gets emphasized and amplified. That’s why I’m conflicted. If you can individually identify that 20% that’s really good, I would make it 80% or 90% of what you listen to and forget the rest.
Anwar Adam: For sure. Okay, great. Now moving on to your seventh prediction, hybrid advisory models sound innovative. What’s the appeal for Millennials using this?
CJ Follini: This is a tricky one for me because one, I’m not a financial adviser, I don’t pretend to be one. Yes, I have 40 years of experience in personal wealth management and alternative investments but I actually see the value of having a personal wealth manager. Yet I also am self-directed almost all the time. This is sort of me looking in the mirror and saying, while I’m always about teaching yourself to empower yourself to DIY your money management, I do recognize the human value of having another set of eyes, someone to bounce ideas off even if you had an AI powered portfolio builder and it gave you a suggestion. I would still run it by a personal advisor because there’s other considerations. For example, they bring a nuance to your decisions of buying a home or planning for a family as a human advisor and with their emotional intelligence. No technology can do that. The technology can evaluate the data but the data may not speak to you personally. That’s where if you combine in a hybridized way the technology you use as tools with the insight and guidance and friendship you gain from a human advisor, I think that’s the best possible solution for yourself. I’m all about DIY but I’m still advocating a hybrid approach.
Anwar Adam: I think that is a great prediction right there. Moving on to your eighth prediction, I think we chatted a little bit about this in the past in this podcast which is on retirement and Millennials.
CJ Follini: You disagreed, you said it wasn’t number one. Although I hedged my bet on the prediction, I didn’t say it’s number one, I just said it deepens. I do believe that retirement is most important amongst Millennials but there’s a separation. Millennials are a massive generation. Think of it, 21 to 43, that’s the millennial generation right now. Imagine going to a party and seeing a party of 23-year-olds, how many 41-year-olds do you think are at a party of 23-year-olds and vice versa? Not at all, so they don’t mix much. First, what is the prediction? Let’s at least tell everyone.
Anwar Adam: Yep, so the question for me that I had for you was retirement planning is a growing trend. How are Millennials actually prioritizing it in 2025?
CJ Follini: I’ll finish what I was saying. You think they don’t, you think that buying a home which absolutely and I think they’re really six of one half dozen another. I think they’re one in one. Buying a home, planning for retirement. I say this, younger Millennials, 23 to 34, 35, home ownership is probably paramount to their consideration in building wealth. 34 to 41, 42-year-olds, I would say retirement planning has become number one on their goals hit parade. How are they doing it? They’re getting solo 401ks, they’re looking at the famous Peter Thiel example who put all of his worthless PayPal shares when he was just a startup into his first year as a Roth IRA and of course it became PayPal and all of that appreciation personally came out tax-free in his Roth. That’s the famous example and people are following that example especially with the rise of venture capital and everyone wants to be a solopreneur or a side hustle or found their own enterprise. Thinking about retirement early is critical. The tools, it’s also easier to do online. We have a retirement plan setup tool, there are several others. Companies are sponsoring a variety of retirement plans more than ever and they’re matching the contributions with and adding financial education. The number one, what people have learned is the earlier that you as a millennial start, the more you benefit from compounding. It sits there, interest, dividends, they compound, you have more money, it’s invested, that compounds. Compounding is a very powerful popular topic from Warren Buffett all the way to every financial influencer that we just talked about on Instagram. The word compounding is the number one topic, probably one that we should talk more about by the way. I feel I’m adamant that the number one topic every millennial will talk about when it comes to wealth management is retirement.
Anwar Adam: I actually agree with it. When I was mentioning to you, I definitely thought about people closer to my age but then you brought up my eyes by saying the Millennials, you reiterated that it’s such a wide age group where you have young people on the borderline of Gen Z and Millennials like myself and then you have the mid-40s and early 40s individuals who probably have a family if they have one or who are middle into their career where their priorities are different. Thanks for teaching me actually and I hope our audience got that too.
CJ Follini: Did you open up your solo 401k or Roth IRA yet?
Anwar Adam: I did, I actually did. Roth IRA, 401k, pretty much maxing out as much as I can just so I am set for retirement.
CJ Follini: Smart.
Anwar Adam: Great, moving on to your ninth prediction, philanthropy. Millennials are reshaping philanthropy. What is driving this trend?
CJ Follini: Values. We’ve talked about it before, impact. Values and the importance of impact. These are generational behaviors, this is not unique but it is very strong in Millennials, not so strong in Gen X by the way. Millennials are deeply committed to causes like social justice, education, climate change, sustainability, hence the ESG movement. It didn’t happen during the Gen X when Gen X was the majority but again when you have wants and the survey and you have the behaviors and you have people who want to do something matched with the tools to do that, that’s when things really accelerate and blow up. There are digital platforms like GoFundMe, DonorsChoose. It’s incredibly easy to integrate your charitable giving into financial plans. For example, there’s a donor-advised fund where you could take highly appreciated stock or alternative investments, put it into a donor-advised fund, continue to manage those investments on behalf of a cause you believe in. You will be in control of how well this money or investment performs on behalf of the cause you believe in and what you want to happen. 58% of Millennials approach philanthropy strategically, not randomly. They’re not just seeing it as a donation but as a way to create meaningful long-term impact while aligning with their personal values.
Anwar Adam: Great, now moving on to your tenth and final prediction, this is more into sports, especially the Stanley Cup. Your sports predictions are bold. Why do you think the New York Rangers will miss the Stanley Cup again?
CJ Follini: It’s not again, I was being definitive that they will definitely not win. I was close last year, this is the repeat of my number 10 prediction from 2024. They suck. I’m a diehard lifelong Ranger fan since the mid-70s. Yes, I just aged myself. While it’s funny, it also hurts a little sad how bad they are because I love them. When you talk about passion, aligning passion, values with how you think about wealth and money, well this is one of my passions. I spend money on going to see Ranger games that I share with my sons or with friends. Unfortunately, they’re terrible this year. This is a prediction that I’m putting already in the win column for the end of 2025. I know the Rangers will definitely not have the Stanley Cup. I have at least two predictions out of these 10 that are locks, guaranteed. I had to do that so I didn’t look so bad. This has been fun.
Thank you and unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll make next year’s number 10 the Rangers again. I’ll come up with another one that is more fun-centric.
Anwar Adam: Got it, thank you so much CJ. It was a pleasure having you here. Your top 10 predictions are unique and bold. Let’s just see how the next year, we’ll meet back again here next year and let’s see how you do.
CJ Follini: Great, it’s been great. Thank you for your time and I love doing these predictions. I hope someone gets a little bit of looking around corners and maybe they start to do something because they think that it’s going to happen and it helps them. That’s all we care about is providing financial education and access to the type of investments that change lives. Thank you very much, let’s see what happens and Happy New Year!
Anwar Adam: Happy New Year everyone. Thanks everyone for tuning in. That’s a wrap for today. We hope everyone has a great 2025 and spends some great time with your loved ones and families. We’ll be back again next week with a new topic and great experts. Subscribe to the newsletter, everybody, Noyack Wealth Weekly website, we are noyack.com. Noyack Wealth Weekly, 160,000 subscribers, woohoo. Subscribe and learn.
Anwar Adam: Thanks everyone and subscribe to our newsletter and the YouTube channel to be up to date with all our expert insights and great experts that come across and share topics that will greatly impact your future. Thanks everyone.
