What Portfolio readers have in reserve, what they invest their money in, and what they would invest in if they could

On commission by Portfolio, Datalyze conducted a representative online survey of 1,000 people to assess

• current savings habits and attitudes,
• knowledge about the world of savings and investments,
• and expectations about the future currency and financial management.

Borbála Baittrok, co-CEO of the research company, presented the results at the Portfolio Future of Finance 2022 conference, which we reported here. The results were also reported in a separate article, which can be found here.

We thought we should also survey the readers of Portfolio, and in the end 1469 of them participated, thank you all!

According to our non-representative online survey, 83% of Portfolio readers feel more or less financially secure, while 17% feel not very or not at all secure. In the population as a whole, the two proportions were 31% vs. 69%, respectively.

76% of respondents have enough financial reserves to last 6 months, while 6% would survive for no more than a month without income. In the total population, these two proportions were only 18% and 61% respectively.

Almost two thirds of respondents feel that they need enough savings to cover at least two years of living costs to feel financially secure, compared to around 50% of the total population.

Unlike 15% of the total population, 49% say they are more satisfied with their financial situation. A similar proportion to that of the general population, 21% feel they should save more, 19% feel they should be more conscious about saving. 14% would work more, 17% would change jobs and 14% would get a new qualification, which is not significantly different from the general population. In contrast to 8% of the population as a whole, 14% said they should take more risks when investing.

The most common non-regular types of savings are government bonds and shares, with more than half of respondents having at least one of these two. The share of cash is also higher than among the population as a whole, although it is not particularly high compared to other types of savings. However, the proportion of people who own investment property is strikingly high at 31%, according to the Portfolio reader survey, as opposed to just 6% of the population as a whole.

Among the regular forms of savings, pension savings and life insurance are the most common, in the reverse order to that of the total population.

By their own admission, government bonds, fixed-term bank deposits and investment real estate are the most well-known forms of savings, with the proportion of people choosing the "I know more" option being over 50%, excluding investment fund shares and cryptocurrencies.

If they had to choose a new investment or a new way of saving, most people would choose investment real estate and stock market shares, while cryptocurrencies came second after investment real estate among the total population.

While two thirds of the population as a whole do not have the savings they want because they cannot afford them, the proportion among Portfolio readers is only one third. The proportion of respondents who fear that the state would take away the money held in their desired savings is also smaller.

In times of high inflation, a relative majority of respondents thought that government bonds and investment real estate would be the most reliable protection. These were also the top two choices among the total population, but in reverse order.

The same can be said about what will be the most popular form of investment in 10-20 years' time: while in the total population, 1. investment real estate, 2. cryptocurrency. 3. shares, for Portfolio readers the order was 1. stock market shares, 2. investment real estate, 3. cryptocurrency.

A high proportion of respondents, 86%, think that the state should subsidize some form of savings, compared to 91% of the total population.

For the population as a whole, the question of who people trust to make investment decisions was a disappointing result, with two thirds unable to answer. Among Portfolio readers, only 30% gave this response, whereas most of them trust independent advisors, banks and fund managers to guide their savings decisions.

Among the population as a whole, 41% prefer branch or customer service and 19% prefer in-person assistance at home over online options, compared to 13% and 3% respectively among Portfolio readers. The vast majority prefer to manage their finances independently on a computer.

These figures are relatively close to each other regarding where we will be in 10-20 years' time, but the proportion of people who prefer a branch or customer service may fall from 13% to 5% in the future. This proportion among the total population would still remain at 25% in 10-20 years' time, according to current responses, but even for them a significant decline is expected.

Finally, the survey also asked about the vision of the future of currency: 74% of Portfolio readers think that in 20 years we will be using the euro in Hungary, but only 49% because it will be the official currency, while 25% think that only spontaneous euroization will bring it about. In the population as a whole, both proportions were lower, with 27% predicting the full survival of the forint, compared to 16% of Portfolio readers.

Cover photo: Getty Images