TAIPEI – Taiwanese freelance videographer Konrad Su said he is “rather clueless” when it comes to money matters, but he recently took the leap to buy his first exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the advice of his peers.
Every month for the past four months, the 28-year-old invested NT$3,000 (S$121.75) in a technology-focused fund, which he plans to keep up for the foreseeable future.
“Everyone around me is always talking about ETFs, and how well Taiwan’s stock exchange is doing, so I thought I would give investing a try,” he told The Straits Times.
“When everything keeps getting more expensive, I need to think of more ways to grow my money,” added Mr Su, who also works part-time at a fashion retail store. So far, he has earned around NT$3,300 on paper via investing.
He is not the only one.
The Taiwan stock market is seeing a significant youth boom, as more young Taiwanese turn to investing to supplement their barely rising – and even stagnant – incomes in the face of intense housing pressures and concerns over rising living costs.
Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed that some 162,000 new trading accounts were opened in March, the highest number of new accounts opened in a single month. Of those, 97,000 accounts – or 60 per cent – were opened by people under the age of 30.
Despite global geopolitical uncertainty, the Taiwan stock market has been continually experiencing record-breaking highs, driven primarily by the island’s indispensable role in the global artificial intelligence and semiconductor supply chains.
On April 22, it surged past 38,000 points to a record high, with technology and AI-related stocks such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, leading the market surge. As at April 23, TSMC’s stock in Taiwan closed at NT$2,060, more than double the NT$757 on the same day two years ago in 2024.
As at mid-April, the total market value of Taiwan-listed stocks reached US$4.14 trillion (S$5.28 trillion), overtaking the United Kingdom to become the world’s seventh-largest by total market capitalisation.
“The Taiwan stock market has performed exceptionally well in recent years, which has generated a lot of interest among the public,” said Professor Robin Chou, a financial management expert at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University.
“In particular, young Taiwanese understand that there is a good opportunity to invest in the long term, because for most of them, their wages are simply not sufficient to support their eventual retirement plans,” he told ST.
According to Yahoo Taiwan’s 2025 Investment Behavior Survey, more than 60 per cent of Taiwanese Gen Z aged 18 to 24 are now active investors, while nearly 70 per cent said they were willing to take on higher levels of risk.
Half of the respondents said they had begun investing to supplement their income, while 44 per cent said they followed their parents’ examples; 20 per cent said they were influenced by their friends.
Many young professionals are increasingly feeling left behind despite Taiwan’s sustained robust economic growth, said Prof Chou.
“Taiwan’s per capita income has overtaken Japan’s and South Korea’s, but unless they are working in top jobs in the tech sector, most employees are not feeling any of these positive effects,” he said.
In 2025, Taiwan ranked fourth in Asia for per capita income at US$37,827, falling behind only Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, according to data from the International Monetary Fund.
However, the island’s tech-centric economic gains have largely benefited specialised industries rather than the broader workforce. In 2025, nearly 70 per cent of Taiwanese workers earned below the average monthly salary of NT$48,000.
Outside of the booming chip sector, salaries have stagnated for years, with real wages growing by an annual average of just around 1 per cent over the past decade.
According to a February survey by Yes123, a popular jobs portal, 64 per cent of workers had not received a raise in three years, while 13.1 per cent had gone a decade without a salary adjustment.
Many young workers have thus felt compelled to begin investing to keep up with rising living costs. “It’s financial survival,” said Prof Chou.
It helps that entry barriers have lowered, for people with limited capital to start investing.
The introduction of odd-lot trading in 2020 – referring to orders of fewer than 1,000 shares – has allowed retail investors to buy more expensive stocks, like TSMC’s, in smaller quantities. Data showed that investors under the age of 30 account for more than a quarter of odd-lot trading.
And instead of focusing on individual stocks, young investors favour ETFs – a collection of stocks or bonds in a single fund that trades on major stock exchanges – as they spread risk across multiple industries and companies. According to market research firm Ipsos, nearly half of all Taiwanese investors have invested in ETFs, with participation highest among those in their 20s.
Another factor for the increase in the number of young investors in Taiwan is the easy access of online trading, which has drawn more tech-savvy young people to buy and sell stocks via digital platforms.
“Younger investors, influenced by multimedia content, are increasingly using mobile apps to engage with ETFs,” said Ms Jane Lin, a research manager at Ipsos in Taiwan.
Despite the significant optimism surrounding the Taiwan stock market, experts warn that it should not be treated as a tool for quick wealth.
“People always forget how quickly gains can also be erased,” said Prof Chou. “Younger, more inexperienced investors should focus on long-term strategies, not short-term trading.”
With dreams of purchasing a home in Taipei one day, Mr Su, the videographer, said that he would likely invest more when he has the capability to do so.
“It’s impossible to rely on my savings forever. Unless I win the lottery, investing may be my only hope,” he said.