••• millennials research
Millennials finding self-employment profitable
Nearly half (48 percent) of Millennials say they would rather run their own business than be in a job for which they are overqualified or do not enjoy, according to a survey conducted for TD Ameritrade, Omaha, Neb. Sixty-eight percent of Millennials polled say working for themselves has been more financially rewarding than they expected and half (50 percent) have seen their profits increase over the past three to five years, compared to 34 percent of self-employed Baby Boomers polled who showed a decrease in profits over the same time period. A third (32 percent) of Millennial self-employed are running start-ups compared to 9 percent of Baby Boomers and 28 percent of Millennials polled say their technology-powered businesses could not have existed 20 years ago. Additionally, 22 percent of Millennial self-employed used a financial gift or loan from their family to fund their start-up, while 13 percent are using a financial gift or loan from family to run their business. Four percent of Baby Boomers and 6 percent of Gen Xers said the same. Over half (58 percent) of Millennials surveyed are willing to sacrifice short-term comfort for future success versus 50 percent of total sample of self-employed Americans.
••• consumer psychology
Money, internal pressure top list of global stressors
A survey of 22 countries measuring the major causes of stress by Nuremburg, Germany, researcher GfK shows that overall, 29 percent of people cite the amount of money they have to live on as the leading major cause of stress internationally. The pressure that people put upon themselves (27 percent) came next, followed by not get-ting enough sleep (23 percent), not having time for the things they want (22 percent) and the amount of work people have to get done in a day (19 percent). However, 30 percent of people overall are relatively stress-free, saying none of the things on the list count as a major cause of stress for them, though many rate them as minor causes of stress. In Japan, nearly half of respondents (48 percent) say none of the listed items are major causes of stress, followed by Germany with 44 percent and the Netherlands and Hong Kong with 37 percent. On the oth-er end of the scale, only 10 percent of those in Turkey make this claim, followed by Argentina (12 percent) and Mexico (13 percent).