Your Money Haven

Cash main asset class for young

06 March 2008

Young Britons who should be thinking about investing for retirement have
too much wealth tied up in cash and not enough in other asset classes,
according to AJS Wealth Management.

While retirement seems too far off in the distance, twenty and
thirty-somethings tend to defer thinking about starting a retirement
plan until later, at the risk of missing out on the benefits of
compounding returns over the long term.

Anna Sofat, a spokesperson for AJS Wealth Management, said that for the
young and wealthy tomorrow seems a long way off.

"Young people often have too much in cash for two reasons. One is that
if they are earning money, they've got enough not to worry about it. The
second thing is that retirement is a long way off. They're enjoying
life, they're earning and they're being successful," she added.

Recent figures on the wealth of Britons published by the Office for
National Statistics show that 70 per cent of Britons have some form of
savings account or investment, with simple deposit accounts the most
popular form of saving.

Young Britons would do well to heed the advice of Albert Einstein who is
reported to have said that compounded interest was a 'miracle'.