Investment tracker: which popular investment method is winning so far in 2021?

• 2021 Investment tracker
• 2020 Investment tracker

The rise of cheap investing apps has opened up a world of possibilities for people who are looking for different ways to save their money. Traditionally the most popular method of saving for Brits has been to keep their money safe in a savings account, but increasing numbers are looking to the higher risk, and potentially higher reward options of stocks, funds and trackers and often use stock trading apps to do so.

But what could be the best investment in 2021? We decided to start the year with £1,000* placed in some of the most popular investments from last year and the best savings account available on the site. Follow the live tracker below to see what method is currently winning, what has affected prices so far this year and to learn more about each option. As always with investing, it’s worth remembering that past performance doesn’t guarantee you future success, and unexpected factors can affect share prices.

How much could you have earned in 2020?

Our interactive investment tracker revealed how 9 popular types of investments fared after £1,000 was invested in them at the beginning of 2020, and now we’ve been able to give an estimate of how much you would have earned at the end of the year if you’d invested in January 2020. If you’d like to find out how much you would have earned, based on any investment amount, just use our investment calculator below.

Investment Calculator

Find out how much you would have earned in 2020

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If you had invested the amount you typed in above at the beginning of January 2020, you would have made or lost the following amounts by the end of 2020:

Find out more about each investment method

• Mattress

  • What do we mean by mattress? As a baseline, the mattress figure simply refers to the amount of money you would have if you stuffed it under your mattress instead of investing it. Which would leave you better off?
  • Is there a downside? The benefit of leaving your money in a current account or similar is that you won’t lose any of it, but as you can see on the graph above, inflation rates mean that your money will effectively have decreased in value.

• Inflation

  • What is the inflation rate? Inflation refers to the general increase in prices, meaning that money has less purchasing value over time.
  • How much has inflation risen over the last five years? Inflation over the last 5 years has averaged at 2.4%, meaning a good costing £1,000 in 2015 would cost £1,128 in 2019.

• Savings account

  • What is a savings account? A savings account is a place where you can hold your money in exchange for a monetary return and the amount you earn depends on the interest rate.
  • What is the average interest rate in 2019? The average interest rate on a savings account in the UK in 2019 was 1.39%. Meaning an investment of £1,000 would return £13.99 in interest by the end of the year.
  • Is it considered to be a safe investment? A savings account is considered a very safe investment, with up to £85,000 in savings protected by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) should anything happen to your bank.
  • How many people in Britain use these? The majority of Brits within the UK have some money in savings, with just 15% of us without any money in savings at all.

• Fund

  • What is a fund? An investment fund is a way of investing money in a range of shares alongside other investors in order to benefit from the inherent advantages of working as part of a group. Often these are presented with risk profiles to match your investment tactic.
  • How has this performed over the last five years? We included the UK’s most popular investment fund in this challenge, which is Fundsmith Equity. Between 2015 and 2020, the price has risen from £2.00 to £4.65 – a rise of over 130%.
  • Is it considered to be a safe investment? An investment fund can be risky, as your money can go up as well as down but you can choose a lower risk profile fund if you want a safer investment.
  • How many people in Britain use these? Investment funds are a relatively popular choice as these are typically managed by fund managers who will take care of the buying and selling of stocks and shares on your behalf. You can also choose the level of risk profile you desire to match your investment goals and strategy.

• FTSE

  • What is the FTSE? The FTSE is the top 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange by market capitalisation.
  • How has this performed over the last five years? Over the last 5 years, the FTSE has trended both upwards and downwards, experiencing highs of 7,778 in May 2018 and lows of 5,707 in February 2015.
  • Is it considered to be a safe investment? When investing in the stock market there is always a risk your money can go down as well as up.
  • How popular is investing in the FTSE 100? Investing in the FTSE 100 is often a popular choice for investors as it gives them wider coverage of the UK stock market and is considered to be a safer investment than individual shares. Historically it has performed relatively well, but investing in the FTSE 100 has the potential to go up or down.

• Individual stock

  • What is a stock? A stock is a fractional ownership of a company listed on the stock exchange that can be bought and sold. We picked Tesla, as it was the most traded share in the UK in 2020.
  • How has this performed over the last five years? Between the beginning of 2015 and 2020, the share value of Tesla rose an astonishing 1,509%.
  • Is it considered to be a safe investment? Stocks are considered one of the most risky investments you can make as there are so many variables that can effect the price.
  • How many people in Britain use these? Research shows that 2.2 million Brits are subscribed to stocks and shares ISAs in 2019.

• Dollar

  • What do we mean by dollar? For this investment challenge, we took the value of £1,000 if you converted it into US dollars on 1 January and compared how much this would then be worth if you converted it back.
  • How has this performed over the last five years? Over the last 5 years, the value of the pound against the US dollar has fluctuated, with the value of the dollar generally increasing. £1 at the start of 2015 bought you $1.53.
  • Is it considered to be a safe investment? Investing in dollars essentially means you are putting both the US dollar and the British pound against each other, so it would be considered a more risky investment strategy.
  • How popular is this method of investing? Foreign exchange trading is a popular method of trading, but it often requires significant funds to capitalise on the shifts in exchange rates.

• Gold

  • What is gold? Gold is a precious metal with a longstanding history of holding high value.
  • How has this performed over the last five years? Over the last 5 years, gold has increased in value by 66%. At its lowest point, it was worth £22,300 per kg and at its highest £41,900. As of 1 January 2020, gold was worth £37,000 per kg.
  • Is it considered to be a safe investment? Gold is considered by investors as one of the safest investments as it tends to hold its value even through inflation. However gold, like any investment, can go up or down in value.
  • How popular is investing in gold? Due to its perception as a relatively safe investment, investing in gold is often a relatively popular choice.

• Bitcoin

  • What is Bitcoin? Bitcoin is a digital currency, known as a cryptocurrency.
  • How has this performed over the last five years? Bitcoin in November 2015 was worth just over £200 and has since then experienced massive gains and losses, sometimes even just over a 24-hour period. At the end of 2020 Bitcoin was worth over $29,000 and has since surpassed $60,000 in 2021.
  • Is it considered to be a safe investment? Due to the turbulent growth since its inception in 2009, experiencing both massive gains and losses, most people would describe Bitcoin as a more risky investment
  • How many people in Britain use these? Our research found that over 1 million Brits have invested in cryptocurrencies, with over 79% of those buying Bitcoin.

• Investment Tracker 2020: What was the best investment?

  How did popular investments do in 2020?

  With 2020 behind us, our interactive investment tracker revealed how 9 popular types of investments fared after £1,000 was invested in them at the beginning of the year*.

  Bitcoin

  Other than a slight dip in March, Bitcoin has led the way impressively for most of the year, pulling away from the other investments from October onwards. As of 31 December, Bitcoin was up 292%, meaning a £1,000 stake at the beginning of January would be worth a massive £3,919 at the end of 2020. This is a significant £2,953 higher than the average return of all the other 8 investments.

  Gold

  The uncertainty in the markets has helped propel the price of gold higher by 21% in 2020, with a £1,000 investment at the start of the year being worth £1,210. This makes gold the second best tracked investment in 2020. It was also one of the few investments whose value never fell below its price at the beginning of 2020.

  Fundsmith Equity

  The UK’s most popular fund in 2019, Fundsmith Equity, hit lows in March and April where it was around 10% down and sat in 6th place in the challenge. However, the fund bounced back impressively with an 18% increase in the initial investment by the end of 2020. This makes the fund the 3rd best tracked investment and one of only three investments that made a profit over the year.

  Savings account

  The savings account gave consistent, albeit small, returns and despite briefly giving the 3rd best returns during the initial market crash in March, it ended the year in 4th place. While money is protected with this option, the modest return of £17 in 2020 has started to be overtaken by some of the other investment options. Also, the market-leading 1.6% interest rate available at the beginning of January is not available anymore, having been slashed throughout 2020. This means the returns are likely to be even lower in 2021.

  Lloyd’s Bank

  Lloyd’s Bank was the UK’s most bought stock of 2019 but gave the worst returns of all the options at the end of 2020. The bank’s share price has fallen by a huge 42% since the beginning of the year. This means that had you invested £1,000 in Lloyds shares at the start of 2020, you’d be left with just £583 at the end of the year.

  FTSE 100

  Putting money into a FTSE 100 tracker (or index fund) is generally considered to be a sound long-term investment, but even this hasn’t been immune to the 2020 COVID downturn with it sitting second bottom in the list. It was down 14% at the end of 2020, with the initial £1,000 worth only £857.

  This means that – while it isn’t considered to be a serious investment option – putting the £1,000 under your mattress would have left you with significantly more cash than if you had put your money into some of these traditional investments in 2020.

  “If history is anything to go by, Bitcoin could be set for a big year in 2021. After vastly outperforming traditional markets in 2020, Bitcoin has now arguably cemented its place as a worthwhile investment thanks to a number of high-profile funds like Grayscale and MicroStrategy investing billions in the cryptocurrency.

  After smashing through its previous all-time-high in December, Bitcoin is likely to be on the radar of many investors in 2021, especially now that it is being offered through platforms like PayPal and Robinhood.”

  Rank	Investment method			Percentage change since 1 January (at 31 December)
  #1		Bitcoin		+291.94%
  #2		Gold		+20.99%
  #3		Fund – Fundsmith Equity		+18.30%
  #4		Savings Account – Atom Bank		+1.67%
  #5		Mattress		0%
  #6		Dollar		-3.00%
  #7		Lottery		-10.60%
  #8		FTSE		-14.34%
  #9		Stock – Lloyds Bank		-41.70%

  The market trends we have seen in 2020 show you exactly why all investments come with that cheery little tagline “Your capital is at risk”. Over time, of course, major indexes like the FTSE and a number of funds or ETFs tend to outperform savings accounts, but they come with a risk. Before you wade into investing, you need your own insurance policy, such as an emergency fund of 3 to 6 months worth of expenses.

  “If you are likely to need money in these difficult times, it is a better option to put it in a savings account or a current account. While we are seeing extreme disruption to markets,it may be wise to hold any current investments and avoid turning a paper loss into a real one. The market is likely to bounce back, but we do not know how long it will take to recover.

  “For those with disposable cash, the markets currently offer a great opportunity to buy stocks and funds at discounted rates. However, be wary. The period of economic uncertainty could rumble on for a long time and many firms may struggle to stay afloat as a result.. As always, your capital is at risk.”

  Methodology

  For the individual company share and fund, we selected the most popular choices in 2019 according to IG and Hargreaves Lansdown. For the savings account, we picked the most competitive rate available on our site as of March 2020. To replicate playing the lottery every week, we are randomising the numbers before each weekly draw.

  All data is taken from the markets at the close of markets on a Friday.

  *The £1,000 hasn’t actually been saved or invested in these methods, it is just being used as a way to illustrate the performance of each method.

Click here for more research. For all media enquiries, please contact

Matt Mckenna
Head of UK communications
T: +44 20 8191 8806

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