Risk is not for Poles. Nearly half of us prefer smaller, but certain, returns.

Almost half of surveyed Poles choose investments that offer smaller but relatively certain returns, instead of riskier and potentially more profitable solutions - according to the study "Poles' Attitudes Towards Finance" presented during the Financial Education Day.

"Nearly half of respondents choose investments that offer lower but relatively certain returns over riskier and potentially more profitable solutions. Furthermore, 61% of Poles prefer to invest in instruments with a capital protection component, while 21% choose riskier but potentially more profitable options, and 15% invest without capital protection. Over the past year, the percentage of people who prefer capital-protected investments over those in which all funds are allocated to investments has increased by 10 percentage points," the study indicates.

According to the report, since 2008 there has been a systematic decline in the percentage of people who believe that saving makes no sense.

The only exception was 2023, when this trend reversed – likely in response to high inflation. However, the current result is a record low and consistent with the long-term trend, suggesting that last year's increase in pessimism towards saving was temporary and resulted from the economic context, rather than from a change in Poles' beliefs.

The survey also shows that the most important savings goal of Poles is to secure money for a rainy day (59%), and this result has remained more than twice as high over the last four years as in previous years.

The report's authors indicated that interest in keeping savings in a personal account has remained at a similar level since at least 2022 and currently stands at 42%. This is three to four times higher than in the years 2008–2016.

At the same time, 49% of respondents indicated keeping money in safe financial instruments, which is 5–6 percentage points more than in the previous two years.

It was added that after a significant doubling of the percentage of people keeping their savings in cash at home during and immediately after the pandemic, a decline to 14% was recorded in 2024 (7 percentage points less than in 2023), while in 2025 this figure rose to 18%.

The "Poles' Attitudes Toward Finance" study aimed to understand Poles' attitudes and behaviors toward finances and was conducted from September 25 to October 5, 2025, on a sample of 1,037 people aged 18-74. The study is part of the Entrepreneurship Development Program implemented by the THINK! Foundation in partnership with the Citi Handlowy Leonid Kronenberg Foundation and was carried out in cooperation with the Department of Business Psychology and Social Innovation at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw. (PAP Biznes)

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