Britons ‘becoming more enthusiastic about saving’

More people are eager to store cash in savings accounts, it has been said.

A growing number of Britons are becoming more eager to store cash in savings accounts such as fixed rate bonds and ISAs in the aftermath of the global economic downturn.

That is according to Jasmine Birtles, founder of online resource Money Magpie, who stated that the level of enthusiasm towards stashing funds away for the future among consumers has been heightened significantly by the effects of the recession.

Ms Birtles explained that there is now “much more of an appetite to save” as people have recognised the need for forward thinking and planning when it comes to their personal finances in order to avoid a situation where they may have to rely on credit or loans to make ends meet.

She went on to say that this is particularly evident in the country’s younger generations as they have been “hit the hardest” by the effects of the slump.

“The best savers, or at least the ones keenest on saving, are the young – those in their 20s,” the expert noted.

However, Ms Birtles stated there is still something of a “mixed picture” in the UK with regard to attitudes to saving.

“Those who can are actually saving more because it has hit home for them that they need to, but others are simply unable to and in fact, they’re using their savings to keep going,” she continued.

Her comments came after research by Standard Life published earlier this week (April 18th) showed that many Britons are not making adequate provisions with their money for the future.

The study found that 17 per cent of all people do no financial planning at all, while a further 45 per cent indicated they only think about their outgoings and income up to one year ahead.

Furthermore, just 16 per cent responded saying they plan six years or more in the future.

Meanwhile, Family Investments has revealed that throughout 2010, its assets under management increased by 43 per cent to more than £3 billion, a climb that the lender attributes largely to “strong ISA sales”.

Furthermore, the company stated it expects the trend of people storing cash in child trust funds to continue in their replacement form of the junior ISA, which, the government has said, will be launched on November 1st of this year.

Chief executive of Family Investments John Reeve labelled sales of such products as “excellent” over the course of 2010 and noted that their strong level of popularity “outperformed our forecasts”.

This appears to correlate with the opinion of Jasmine Birtles of Money Magpie, who said recently that there is now a greater appetite to save among many Britons.

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