If you are nervous about investing, you are not alone. For those investment planning in Cheshire, a new study has found a strong link between financial confidence and people’s willingness to invest.
The latest Moneybox Financial Confidence Index has been published. It found that addressing the ‘confidence gap’ is a serious challenge, despite the dangling carrot of an estimated £137 billion just waiting to be released for retail investment.
While the index showed a slight improvement in investment confidence to 39% in 2025 – up from 33% in 2024 – this contrasted with a far higher confidence in saving, up from 79% in 2024 to 84% in 2025. The study identified a £37,000 shortfall between financially confident investors and those harbouring doubts, irrespective of income.
Why does investing make people uneasy? The survey shed some light. Of those surveyed, 40% felt they lacked an understanding of the fundamentals, while 27% said they lacked reliable expert guidance. Another factor, cited by 38% of respondents, was fear of making a loss, particularly during an economic downturn. However, this figure masked divergent generational attitudes, with barely 22% of younger investors, aged under 24, sharing this concern.
What can be extrapolated from this data? The core conclusion is that many cautious investors still stick to tried and tested methods, put off by risk and opting for the security of cash savings. Moneybox’s head of personal finance, Brian Byrnes, urged the Government to take steps to bolster and incentivise financial confidence. He emphasised that while measures such as the Advice Guidance Boundary Review are welcome, there is still more work to be done.
