A rich millennial reportedly plows 90% of his money into crypto and shuns adviser from Goldman Sachs

• Startup founder Michael Martocci tells WSJ that he puts 90% of his investment money into crypto.
• Like most rich millennials, the 26-year-old is overseeing his own wealth management.
• Martocci isn’t interested in playing golf with a Goldman Sachs adviser who wants his business.

Michael Martocci, a wealthy 26-year old based in Miami, is pushing the bulk of his investment cash into cryptocurrency, with his attraction to risk highlighting a trend among rich millennials to manage their own money instead of relying on traditional financial advisers, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal.

In overseeing hundreds of thousands of dollars in his investments, he puts 90% of his money into crypto.

“It’s easy to manage $500,000, $1 million yourself,” Martocci told the newspaper in a report published Monday, saying he spends less than an hour a week monitoring his investments.

He’s been dodging golf invitations and other overtures from a Goldman Sachs financial adviser who wants to recruit him as a client. Most of Martocci’s wealth is concentrated in SwagUp, his company that creates and distributes branded items like tote bags.

He seeks out risky investments that could potentially double or triple his money over those that offer “market type returns,” according to WSJ. Martocci, a Robinhood user, is like many other young investors who consider inexpensive, do-it-yourself digital platforms good enough to provide direction on investing. As well, many want to put money to work in riskier assets like cryptocurrencies and tech startups that aren’t offered by mainstream advisers.

Roughly 70% of households with a net worth of $500,000 or more and led by a person under 45 years of age had an investing style that was either strongly or mostly self-directed in 2019, according to research firm Aite-Novarica Group which conducted an analysis of Federal Reserve data. That figure was up from 57% in 2010.

Nearly half of the households aimed for an above-average level of risk in exchange for an above-average rate of return, growing from 35% in 2010.

The cryptocurrency market has been attractive to investors with the price of bitcoin, ether and other digital assets booming. The market surpassed $3 trillion in valuation for the first time Monday as ether hit record highs on a higher burn rate of tokens and on new money flowing into the market.

Martocci, meanwhile, said he will enlist the help of a financial adviser if he lands a windfall from selling SwagUp.