Revealed: Where Brits plan to save and invest in 2018

According to a new research from GoCompare Money, 25% of UK adults don’t think that they will be able to save or invest any money in 2018.  Of those who feel able to put some cash aside, most (40%) will save using a bank or building account or cash ISA (38%).

The research found that despite the low rates of return on offer, most people are likely to put any additional funds they have into deposit based savings or a coin jar.  While stock markets have reached record levels recently, only 10% say they would put money in stocks and shares and 9% in an equity ISA.

Men are more likely than women to invest in equity related products – in fact, men (14%) will be twice as likely as women (7%) to buy stocks and shares while, 13% of men compared with only 5% of women plan to invest any additional money in 2018 in an equity ISA.  Interestingly, men are also considerably more likely to invest in virtual currencies such as Bitcoin (7% compared with just 2% for women).    

Commenting on the research, Matt Sanders, from GoCompare, said: “Many people have seen their income squeezed by higher inflation and lower pay rises.  The increased cost of daily essentials has undoubtedly put pressure on household budgets, leaving many feeling financially stretched and unable to put any money aside in 2018.  Our survey revealed that many households are expecting a financially bleak year with 40% of adults anticipating that 2018 will be a very difficult year for them.

“However, we would urge that, wherever possible, people put money aside for an emergency fund to cover unexpected expenses such as repairs to a car, boiler or other household costs.  Ideally, households should aim to have at least three months’ living expenses set aside in a cash savings account as an emergency fund. 

“For those feeling financially pressured, reducing outgoings should be the first priority.  Car insurance and energy bills are two areas where costs rose steeply last year but, they’re also two of the easiest products to shop around for.  For instance, customers comparing and switching using GoCompare could save up to, £279** on their car insurance.”

Matt Sanders continued, “Even if you can only manage to put a few pounds each week into an emergency fund, small amounts soon add-up and could be a financial lifesaver when things unexpectedly go wrong.”

For more information on building up an emergency fund visit:  http://www.gocompare.com/savings/emergency-funds/ 

-ends-

For further information please contact:

Anders Nilsson or Martyn John at GoCompare on 01633 654 054 / 01633 654 725

Gordon, Jason or Liz at MAW Communications on 01603 505 845

Notes to editors:

*On 29 December 2017, Bilendi conducted an online survey among 2,334 randomly selected British adults who are Maximiles UK panelists.  The margin of error-which measures sampling variability-is +/- 2.2%. The results have been statistically weighted according to the most current education, age, gender and regional data to ensure samples representative of the entire adult population of United Kingdom. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.

**GoCompare switch and saving figures based on: Car insurance: According to independent research from Consumer Intelligence in September 2017, 51% of customers could save up to £279.42 with GoCompare Car Insurance

About GoCompare

GoCompare is a product and price comparison service that helps people to save time and money on boring things like insurance, energy bills and other household outgoings, so that they have more to spend on interesting, fun things.

GoCompare is proudly independent, free and fair. We aren’t owned by an insurer, we don’t charge our customers for using our service and we never accept adverts or sponsored listings. This means all the comparisons we make are totally unbiased and won’t cost our customers a single penny to use.

Speaking of pennies, yes we do make money. We use that money for things like paying our people, keeping the lights on and investing in new and innovative ways to make our comparison service better for our customers. 

However, what we get paid won’t affect the price you pay and you won’t find it cheaper by going direct - that’s a promise. We also never make money by selling any customer data, which means your information is safe with us.

Since we launched in 2006, we’ve saved our customers billions of pounds and we’re not done yet, not by a long way. We reckon that there are billions out there still to be saved by switching, and we want to help the UK take it back. We’ll do that by working with our carefully selected partners to get you value for money deals and make switching easier than ever before.

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For more information visit www.gocompare.com and www.gocomparegroup.com