Americans seem to want more liquidity and less money tied up in unreachable funds, said Hearts & Wallets in the study, "Income & Net Worth: Thirst for Liquidity and Other Actionable Surprises in Human Capital and Household Finance" released Wednesday. The report was derived from an analysis of data from 40,000 households.
The percentage of people who now own taxable brokerage accounts is up more than 30 percent, up 10 points to 41 percent compared with 31 percent five years ago, the study says.
Consumers holding money in bank checking, savings and CD accounts also grew by are 9 percentage points to 76 percent of households today.
It is still a small percentage, but 7 percent of people, mostly millennials, now have investment property or vacation homes but do not own a primary residence. Five years ago that percentage was less than 1 percent.
At the same time, consumers are devoting a smaller percentage of their money to employer-sponsored retirement plans, according to Hearts & Wallets. Consumers who put money in these retirement plans five years ago allocated 51 percent of their investable assets to these plans, compared with 46 percent today.
The changes indicate a desire by consumers to have access to their money and have it available in an emergency, the organization said. Building an emergency fund was the top goal for 48 percent of the households.
“Many Americans have significant assets tied up in their home or retirement accounts,” said Laura Varas, CEO and founder of Hearts & Wallets. “Those types of piggybanks aren’t easy to crack open if money is needed quickly or without strings. On top of that, advice and guidance experiences often recommend that consumers put most of their savings into retirement accounts at the expense of other life goals. More consumers are recognizing the tension between tax deferral and accessibility, and they are balancing liquidity choices on a spectrum of checking/savings, taxable brokerage and goal-specific savings accounts, of which retirement is only one.”