Nearly Half of Americans Still Choose Savings Accounts for their Investments, Almost 3x more than Cryptocurrencies or Stocks

November 19, 8:11 am

Although the United States is the world`s largest crypto market, expected to generate $18bn in revenue or nearly half the world`s total this year, most Americans are still quite conservative when it comes to their savings and investing.

According to data presented by AtIndex.com, nearly half of Americans still choose savings accounts for their investments, almost three times more than cryptocurrencies or stocks.

Only 17% of Americans Choose Cryptocurrency or Equity Investments

It seems that Americans don`t have to think twice when deciding where to put their savings. With inflation cutting their spending budgets and the unemployment rate rising throughout 2023, many Americans have become quite cautious and turned to old-school financial products.

According to a Statista Consumer Insights survey conducted among 10,000 Americans between October 2022 and September 2023, most of them prefer the low-risk and low-reward nature of the savings account. The survey showed 48% of respondents had such an account, indicating that other investment or money-saving setups were far less popular.

Cryptocurrencies had only a 17% share among respondents, the same as equity investments like stocks or funds. Life insurance and other insurances that act like investments by offering payouts and real estate ranked in the middle of the list, with 16% and 15% among respondents, respectively. Statistics also showed that 11% of Americans choose other capital investments, while only a smaller fraction of them, or 9%, said they had money stored in precious metals like gold.

Average Personal Saving Rate in the US Drops to 3.4%, the Lowest Point in Fifteen Years

The rising popularity of low-risk savings accounts comes as no surprise if knowing that the average personal saving rate in the United States is at its lowest point in the last fifteen years. In 2020, it reached its highest level of 16.8%, meaning US individuals or families could put aside that much of their monthly disposable income.

However, according to Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis data, the rising interest rates, inflation, and the general state of the US economy have cut this figure significantly. After falling to 11.78% in 2021, the average personal saving rate in the United States dropped to only 3.31% last year and continued floating between 3% and 4% in 2023. At the same time, the total value of personal savings in the United States has plunged by nearly 80% in three years, falling from almost $3trn in 2020 to only $686bn last year.

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