One of the most enduring myths in finance is that the Germans are especially frugal and risk-averse with their money, says Karl Whelan on medium.com/bull-market. A close look at the figures shows that the “special conservative German saver” isn’t particularly special at all.
This 2013 chart shows that Germans hold 40% of their financial assets in bank deposits, which makes them more cautious than the Italians or Portuguese, but less so than the Greeks or Spanish.
A survey in 2010, meanwhile, found that bank deposits comprise 43% of the financial assets of eurozone households on average, while riskier investments, such as funds and shares, account for a joint 16.6%.
In Germany the respective figures were 44% and 16.9%. So when it comes to how people allocate their assets, the Germans are again average rather than especially cautious. Indeed, their holdings of funds and shares are a tad higher than in Greece, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands.