When it comes to saving or investing, sticking money in the bank has long been the winner in Ireland. Households here now have a whopping €92 billion in deposits in banks and credit unions. That works out at something like €55,000 per household.
It’s a lot of cash to have lying around when the banks pay almost nothing in interest. What’s more, the figure has been growing for two and a half years now, with €2.5 billion more flowing into the banks from Irish consumers between January and March 2017.
Great savers
In fact, Irish people are among the best savers around right now, with net savings of nearly 6% of disposable income. Yep, it seems that one of our reactions to the banking crash has been to give more of our money to the banks!
Compare that to the UK which is way under 1%, or the Euro area average of 5.5%. It looks like we are pretty responsible savers – despite the worst interest rates in the Eurozone.
Hesitant investors
Yet information from a couple of years back suggests we fail to get savings working for us.
Compared to other countries, Irish people are a lot less likely to invest their money. 2013 stats showed that only 7.5% of Irish households held investment funds, and 13% held shares. The average value of both was under €5,000. By contrast, in the US, over 30% of households hold investments. And in the UK, around 50% of adults with savings hold risk-based investments. Why’s that?
Investing is becoming simpler, cheaper, and better risk-managed
Moneycube’s research suggests many people are put off investing because up to now it has been complicated to plan, expensive to get done, and risky too. All things Moneycube is working to change!
In fact, with investment information and account opening shifting online, and the emergence of well-diversified multi-asset funds available at reasonable prices, things are changing. Irish Life recently reported a 40% increase in the number of investors in their multi-asset funds range. That’s evidence that Irish people are starting to see the opportunity, not just the risk, in investing their savings, rather than handing it straight to the banks.
Time to get savings working for you? Get started with Moneycube today.
