Money matters

If you need to cash in a stock market investment suddenly you could find it is worth a lot less than you have paid in. That said, over the long term (five years or more) equity savings typically generate far higher returns than building society accounts, although in the short term returns are far more volatile. So for long-term goals, such as retirement, they are ideal. This is true whether stock markets are rising or falling; indeed many advisers would argue that it is far better to buy after a period of substantial share price falls, than when they have been booming for several years.