The UK’s cost-of-living crisis has been well-reported, and keenly felt by millions of families and households across the nation. The rising prices of household goods and energy have driven the rate of inflation to 9.4%, with investment experts predicting a peak rate of up to 22% as a direct result of energy price growth.
As prices inflate across the board, the spending power of the pound effectively decreases; £10 spent at the supermarket this year would buy you fewer items than £10 spent last year. Over time, this can have a devastating impact on savings, as the real termsspending power of your saved money is reduced.
The impact of inflation on savings has been addressed by the UK government before, specifically with regard to pensions. The ‘triple lock’ was introduced to protect pension pots from the attritive effect of inflation. But your savings might not be so safe from the current inflation crisis. So, what can you do to ensure the value of your money is protected?
Savings Accounts
The most common and popular passive route to protecting savings is to seek out savings accounts for your money. If your savings are kept in an account with no interest rate, they are guaranteed to lose value over time.
While there are no savings accounts that currently beat the rate of inflation, there are a number of high-interest accounts available that allow your money to accrue interest – with some offering higher rates in exchange for limited access.
The Stock Market
The stock market was, at one point, reserved for businesses and professional stockbrokers. Wealth growth and management was not accessible to the average worker, with brokers and fund managers acting the middlemen. But the fast pace of growth in the fintech industry has led to the launch of retail trading platforms, that enable anyone to engage with the stock market themselves.
Investing in businesses can be a lucrative way to grow wealth over time, especially if done using investment funds that spread risk with a wide portfolio. Day traders can grow their wealth quicker with fast, shrewd transactions on an ever-shifting market.
Those will little in the way of savings can also benefit from growth on the stock market, by engaging in practices that do not require the purchasing of assets. For example, spread betting enables you to speculate on price movements of stocks, assets and currencies without buying the assets outright.
Assets
If your savings are enough that you can afford to invest in assets, there are tangible assets you can buy that provide unique stability and security in an increasingly unstable market. For one, gold is a particularly stable asset to buy, being at one point the standard about which currency was valued.
Property is also a wise choice for stable, inflation-busting investment.
The property market has remained strong over the past year, and, while facing a brief period of potential shrinkage, will nonetheless continue to see accrual of value over time.