WASHINGTON — What is the best long-term investment? In an annual Bankrate.com survey, real estate came out on top and cash came in a strong No. 2.
Among U.S. adults surveyed, 28 percent chose real estate as the best place to invest money that’s not needed for more than 10 years, and 23 percent picked cash as the best way to save.
Cash appears particularly appealing as a vehicle for long-term saving among younger adults.
“If you grew up in the shadow of the financial crisis and great recession, you probably saw your parents basically shrieking in horror from that experience because it was a horrifying experience,” Mark Hamrick at Bankrate told WTOP.
That has meant a lot of missed opportunities for younger investors in recent years.
“A decade later, the stock market has rallied very strongly. It has really been one of the most robust rallies we have seen in the market’s history,” Hamrick said.
The S&P 500 Index is up more than 50 percent since Bankrate’s first survey on best investment choices in July 2013, and up 16 percent since last year’s poll.
According to the survey, which included 1,002 adults living in the U.S., Republicans and households with annual incomes of $75,000 or more were the only demographic groups to select stocks as their preferred long-term investments. Baby Boomers and members of the Silent Generation (those born before 1945) are much more likely to choose stocks than millennials and Generation-Xers.
Real estate and cash ranked No. 1 and No. 2 as the best long term investments this year, followed by 17 percent who favored the stock market, 15 percent who went with gold or other precious metals and 4 percent who said bonds.
The survey, conducted between July 6 and July, has a margin of error of 3.9 percent.
