{"id":397669,"date":"2025-09-04T16:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T16:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/397669\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T16:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T16:17:09","slug":"fear-of-stock-market-keeps-millions-of-brits-in-cash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/397669\/","title":{"rendered":"Fear of stock market keeps millions of Brits in cash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Millions of Brits are shunning the stock market and holding their wealth in cash, even though most admit they know inflation erodes its value, new research from Scottish Friendly shows.<\/p>\n<p>The survey found 42% of adults keep all their wealth in cash, while a further 15% hold most in cash.<\/p>\n<p>Yet nearly three-quarters (72%) acknowledge that doing so could leave them worse off in the long run.<\/p>\n<p>The top reasons cited were quick access to money (39%), fear of losses (38%) and distrust of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneymarketing.co.uk\/tag\/stock-markets\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">markets<\/a> (34%).<\/p>\n<p>The findings underline the scale of the challenge for policymakers seeking to boost retail investment, both to help savers build long-term wealth and to channel capital into UK growth companies.<\/p>\n<p>Scottish Friendly savings specialist Kevin Brown said the data highlights the \u201cmental gymnastics\u201d many savers go through.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople in the main understand the risks of keeping their savings in cash over the long term but they nonetheless cannot make the leap to invest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe result is they are making themselves poorer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The study revealed notable demographic splits.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Baby Boomers were the most cautious: 56% hold all their wealth in cash, compared with 44% of Gen X, 25% of Millennials and 21% of Gen Z.<\/li>\n<li>Distrust of markets was strongest among Boomers (40%), compared with just 23% of Gen Z.<\/li>\n<li>Fear of losses was more pronounced among women (44% vs 33% of men), while men were slightly more likely to cite distrust of markets (35% vs 33% of women).<\/li>\n<li>Millennials were the most likely to invest some money but still keep most in cash (18%).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Brown added that reluctance to invest is not just caution but a \u201cdeep-rooted fear\u201d of losing money, particularly among older generations.<\/p>\n<p>Younger adults show greater willingness to take some risk but still prioritise liquidity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis also affects the economy, leaving domestic companies short of the capital they need to grow,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Britain is to shift from a nation of savers to a nation of investors, then the industry needs to better educate and provide practical guidance to show that investing isn\u2019t reckless but instead provides greater long-term potential.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Millions of Brits are shunning the stock market and holding their wealth in cash, even though most admit&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3091],"tags":[51,2441,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-397669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-markets","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-markets","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115146931866936408","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}