Property and stocks reached all time highs in 2021 but just a few months into the new year and the economy has seen volatility and negative sentiment dominate the market, making Canadians appetite for risk lower in 2022.
This rick-off attitude is clear with about one-third (32.6%) of Canadians saying their best option for 2022 is to simply hold their assets (i.e. cash on hand or in savings) outside of some of these more volatile or speculative markets, according to a survey of 1,200 Internet users.
While fear of risk is likely a key reason for about one third of Canadians to not invest, another possible reason could be to hold assets for now and wait for a deeper market correction to take advantage of potentially lower prices in equities, real estate or digital assets later.
Still, other assets are still popular, for example, the Canadian dream of home ownership remains alive and well, with more than a quarter of Canadians (28.2%) citing property as the second most popular for best investment choice of 2022.
The third most popular asset class, particular with younger Canadians, is digital assets, with 15.2% of Canadians thinking crypto will preform the best in 2022.
How are the genders investing?
While holding cash is the most popular choice for people in Canada this year, the genders are split on how they’ll be investing in 2022, with 34.2% of men saying they think cash is best compared to 31.8% of women who think investing in real estate is the best choice.
How investing preferences differ by age
While holding cash is the asset class that people across the various age categories think will be the best choice they could make in 2022, it’s not the top choice for everyone.
Cash is king around the globe: 24.5% think cash will reign supreme in 2022
As far as the most popular investment option globally goes cash is king, with 24.5% of those surveyed around the globe saying it's the safest investment option in 2022. Nowhere was cash a more popular investment choice than in the US, where 33.7% of Internet users surveyed said thought cash is a solid investment this year.
Respondents were also bullish on property, with roughly 22.6% saying it's best to put your money into bricks and mortar this year. Those most likely to be investing in property are in France, where 43.5% of those users surveyed believe property is a decent bet for 2022.
Rounding out the top three most popular investment options are stocks, shares or ETFs with 17.2% thinking they will see the greatest returns in the coming 12 months. The country most likely to be throwing its money into the stock market is Japan (44.3%).
The least popular investment option in 2022 are NFTs, with just 5.9% globally thinking they're a safe bet. However, at least 14.2% in Hong Kong think NFTs are worth the risk.
Methodology
Finder used Google Survey to poll 39,573 Internet users across 26 countries. Due to the varying Google infrastructure in each territory, not all surveys were nationally representative. Where a nationally representative sample was unavailable, a natural fall/convenience sample was used. For these, Google didn't use stratified sampling but did apply weights to the survey results if the demographics of the survey respondents didn't vary too far from demographics data. The details of Google's survey methodology can be found here.
Richard Laycock is Finder’s NYC-based senior content marketing manager & insights editor, spending the last decade data diving, writing and editing articles about all things personal finance. His musings can be found across the web including on NASDAQ, MoneyMag, Yahoo Finance and Travel Weekly. Richard studied Media at Macquarie University, including a semester abroad at The Missouri School of Journalism (MIZZOU).
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