It seems we haven't come all that far from the mattress method of saving.
For 54 million Americans, says a new Bankrate.com report, cash — well, in the forms of savings and CDs, anyway — is the long-term investment of choice, beating out everything but real estate.
While 25% of Americans chose real estate as their favored savings method for money that they don't need for more than 10 years, and 23% chose cash — the aforementioned savings and CDs — gold/precious metals and the stock market tied at 16% each, with bonds only the investment of choice for a measly 5%.
Considering the amount of return needed to fund a retirement, and the interest rates paid on savings and even CDs, that's no way to save for what could be 30 years out of the workplace.
But understandably, perhaps, many are skittish when it comes to investing in stocks after the Great Recession — not to mention the downturn of 2000-2002 — and it shows, particularly in GenX's least-likely penchant to turn to the stock market for their long-term investing; just 13% of them look to stocks as an investment, compared with 17% of millennials.
