Young adults’ lives are increasingly characterised by uncertainty, which has heightened since the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as an expectation that they transition into adulthood as entrepreneurial, responsible subjects. In this context, greater numbers of young people are participating as retail investors, motivated by the growing accessibility of financial technologies, including digital brokers. Yet this technological accessibility does not explain why or how they decide to invest. Drawing on focus group discussions with Australian young adults (19–30 years) who invest via digital brokers, this article explores their participation as retail investors. Focused on long-term financial ‘horizons’, participants explained how investing requires temporal work to mitigate existing uncertainty and enable their imagined future wellbeing. Drawing on theories of ‘futuring’, we surface their varied practices towards hedging against and with uncertain and risky futures. Such practices weigh up individuals’ circumstances, which are regulated through gender, class and contextual considerations, as well as housing or employment market imaginaries and key (imagined) milestones in one’s life. The article considers the implications of these futuring practices, where not investing becomes a risk for future wellbeing, and how these practices align with the entrepreneurial present that has become a critical aspect of young people’s transitions into adulthood.

中文翻译：

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年轻人和未来投资：通过数字经纪平台审视未来的实践和福祉

自 COVID-19 大流行以来，年轻人的生活越来越充满不确定性，而且人们期望他们在成年后成为有创业精神、负责任的主体。在此背景下，受包括数字经纪商在内的金融技术日益普及的推动，越来越多的年轻人作为散户投资者参与其中。然而，这种技术的可及性并不能解释他们决定投资的原因或方式。本文借鉴通过数字经纪人进行投资的澳大利亚年轻人（19-30 岁）的焦点小组讨论，探讨了他们作为散户投资者的参与。与会者着眼于长期财务“前景”，解释了投资如何需要暂时的工作来减轻现有的不确定性并实现他们想象中的未来福祉。借鉴“未来”理论，我们揭示了他们对冲不确定和有风险的未来的不同做法。这种做法会权衡个人的情况，这些情况是通过性别、阶级和背景考虑以及住房或就业市场想象和一个人生活中的关键（想象）里程碑来调节的。本文探讨了这些未来实践的影响，即不投资将成为未来福祉的风险，以及这些实践如何与目前已成为年轻人过渡到成年的关键方面的创业现状相结合。