Americans favor Cash

A survey by the personal finance website Bankrate.com finds that about 26% of Americans consider cash savings the best way to invest money not needed for at least ten years. Bankrate.com senior financial analyst Greg McBride says that this is not a wise investment strategy.  “When you are settling for conservative investments like cash, you are also giving up the potential for higher returns that not only preserve your buying power but actually grow it over time.” McBride finds the current trend of cash savings investments to be troubling. “It is troubling because in addition to not saving enough, settling for the very low returns that come with conservative investments like cash over the long haul means a lot of people are going to fall well short of where they need to be for future goals like retirement.” McBride says that putting money into stock investments is a wiser strategy. “When you are hunkering down in safe haven investments, the trade off you are making is for that safety you going to get a much lower rate of return and that lower rate of return is just not going to be enough to get people to award those long term financial goals like retirement or saving for their kids’ education.” To read the full survey, visit www.Bankrate.com.