And you ? What is your relationship with money? Does it make you happy or is it more of a source of stress? The Cash sur Table collective brings together investment startups, Gedeon, La Première Brique and Mon Petit Placement, and highlights the ambivalent relationship of the French with money in a study, carried out online from February 16 to March 1 with 1,300 adult members of their communities.
The first teaching puts the finger on thefinancial education of the French. Among those surveyed, 70% think that their financial situation depends on their income and 62% on their decisions. Above all, 46% think that a good education in finance is a lever for prosperous financial situation. But there is an interesting gap since 40% of respondents who say they are stressed about money associate this anxiety with a problem of understanding, alone or combined with a lack of means. “We can know that financial education is useful and not yet have found the format or space to really make it our own,” explains Valentine Demaison, CEO of Mon Petit Placement.
A lack of support
In a particular financial context, the need for support is felt and yet, 77% of people interviewed do not feel supported by their banker. “Traditional banking has long operated on a model of annual meetings, impenetrable jargon and standardized products, but this is no longer sufficient for a generation that wants to understand, not just sign,” analyzes Valentine Demaison. People need a accompaniement which adapts to their real life, their level of knowledge, their fears and concrete objectives”. It is often during poor support that a certain number of people make bad decisions, hesitate or worse, put too much money aside. Which could explain this figure of 45% of respondents who increased their precautionary savings over the last two years and 20% who have chosen more secure investments: “A reassuring, tangible, available and known investment,” she reveals. If investing involves understanding, trusting and accepting a part of the unknown, it is true that financial anxiety does not push you to optimize but rather to take shelter.
An ambiguous relationship with money
The study reveals that money is desired as a freedom but experienced as a pressure. “The word that comes up most spontaneously when we ask people what money inspires them to do is “freedom“, the freedom to choose, to protect those close to you, to not suffer” declares Valentine Demaison. But in the reality of everyday life, the survey says that one in two people feel a high level of anxiety when it comes to money. “Financial freedom remains abstract and conditional, she says. We say to ourselves if I would have been more able if I did like that but the pressure is rather immediate with unforeseen events, inflation and retirement which is moving away.” This same ambiguous relationship is found in the way in which the French in rarely talk with family: one in two people do not talk about money easily with family “Money is. emotionally chargedsince childhood, she assures. We don’t learn to talk about it, neither at school nor at home. Unfortunately, the less we talk about it, the lonelier anxiety remains.”
A subject to avoid
After having been ambiguous, money becomes downright taboo since one person in three has already avoided a discussion about money, or worse, almost one person in two explains having already postponed a decision (purchase, marriage, children, etc.) by financial fear. “What our barometer shows is that this reflex is massive and that it directly fuels financial anxiety, since we never obtain the benchmarks we need,” concludes Valentine Demaison. We prefer to dodge rather than confront. Money affects our perceived value, our life choices and our failures too.”
