3

Structuring the revolution

Not long ago I spent an entertaining afternoon talking to a focus group on investing. It was one of those amusing sessions organised by publishing companies to find out why so few people in the UK invest in shares.

The publishing director was concerned that the ‘pool’ of relatively active investors in the UK probably numbered only 500,000 and that that figure had not changed much in a decade. The publisher wanted to know why so many people think that houses are such a good investment compared with shares.

Shares do indeed provide greater returns over the very long term, but they do so with great volatility. In addition, most people do not actually pay themselves for the housing assets they buy – they have a mortgage, ...

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