Americans’ favorite investment

(continued)

Age also seemed to be associated with whether Americans said that their top reason for not preferring stocks was the market was rigged against individual investors. Younger millennials (20%) and older millennials (17%) responded at higher rates than did Generation X (13%) and baby boomers (12%).

Income was also associated with whether a respondent said the stock market being rigged was the key reason for not preferring stocks. Households earning less than $50,000 annually were twice as likely (18%) to cite this reason as those earning $50,000 or more (9%).

Comfort levels with cryptocurrency have fallen along with their price

Americans say they’re much less comfortable with investing in cryptocurrency, according to the latest Bankrate survey. Only 21% say they’re either “somewhat comfortable” or “very comfortable” with cryptocurrency, compared to 35% in last year’s survey.

In contrast, 75% of respondents said they were “not too comfortable” or “not at all comfortable,” compared to 61% in last year’s figures.

Here are the full results:

• Very comfortable – 5%

• Somewhat comfortable – 16%

• Not too comfortable – 29%

• Not at all comfortable – 47%

Last year, 28% of respondents said they were not too comfortable, while 33% said they were not at all comfortable.

Age seemed to be associated with the comfort level for investing in cryptocurrency, with younger investors reporting higher levels of comfortability.

34% of Generation Z said they were somewhat or very comfortable with investing in crypto.

29% of millennials reported they were somewhat or very comfortable.

Just 21% of Generation X responded the same.

Only 11% of baby boomers said they were somewhat or very comfortable with crypto as an investment.

On the flip side, a total of 66% of Gen Z says that it’s either not too comfortable or not at all comfortable investing in cryptocurrencies. Millennials reported a similar result (68%).

Investment preferences vary widely by age, income and gender The Bankrate survey also revealed key ways that investment preferences differed among groups, notably by age, income and gender.

Of all generations, millennials had the strongest preference (33%) for investing in real estate for money not needed in the next decade or more, consistent with results in prior years. And Gen Z and Gen X also preferred real estate above other options. In contrast, baby boomers preferred the stock market (33%) to real estate (25%). The boomers’ preference for stocks exceeded that of all other generations.

Besides being a favorite of baby boomers, the stock market was also the top pick for households headed by a college graduate (40%) and households earning more than $75,000 a year (40%).

About twice as many women (22%) picked cash investments such as savings accounts and CDS as their top choice compared to men (11%). Older millennials had the highest preference for cash investments of any age group, second only to their preference for real estate (33%).

Methodology

This study was conducted for Bankrate by SSR on its Opinion Panel Omnibus platform using both the telephone and the web. Interviews were conducted from June 17-20, 2022, among a sample of 1,025 adults. Data are weighted and are intended to represent all U.S. adults, and therefore are subject to statistical errors typically associated with sample based information.

Visit Bankrate online at bankrate.com.