Livret A, PEL, life insurance… With 1,000 euros, which investment is most profitable for you in 2022?

As 2022 draws to a close, the MoneyVox editorial team looks back on the performance of your favorite investments. If you had invested 1,000 euros on January 1 in Livret A savings accounts, SCPIs or the CAC 40, how much would you have earned this year?

The years follow. But they don’t look alike. In 2021, speculators rubbed their hands, with a CAC 40 of over 7200 dots and a bitcoin above $67,000. Undermined by low interest rates, regulated savings had, on the other hand, lost some of their appeal in the eyes of the French.

Twelve months later, the opposite scenario is taking shape. Spurred on by inflation, central banks have started to raise their key rates. Blessed bread for rate products like the Livret A, whose remuneration has more than doubled since the beginning of the year. Financial markets and cryptocurrencies, by contrast, are worth it.

As the year draws to a close, it’s time to take stock: have you made the right choices for your savings in 2022? How much money would all these investments have brought you in the year 2022 if you had deposited 1000 euros on January 1?

1. LEP: 31 euros

The law provides that the rate of the People’s Savings Account (LEP) cannot be lower than the 6-month average of annual inflation excluding tobacco, in order to protect people’s savings against rising prices. Result? In the face of galloping inflation, the yield, net of taxes, of the LEP rose from 1% at the beginning of the year 2.2% on February 1, then 4.6% on August 1st.

A boon for 7million French people who hold an LEP. Concretely? If you had placed 1,000 euros in your savings account on January 1 and you do not touch it until December 31, you should receive 31 euros early next year, which puts LEP at the top of this ranking of the most profitable investments of 2022.

Livret A, LEP… The new rates come with the soaring inflation of 6.2%

2. SCPIs: 23.76 euros

Another fine year for stone-paper. Over the first 9 months of 2022, the average annualized distribution rate (DR) of real estate investment companies (SCPI) reached 4.26%, according to figures from France SCPI. This is a slight increase compared to the same period in 2021 (4.2%).

The average yield of SCPIs could even exceed 4.5% in 2022. Because SCPI managers have (…) made a habit of serving a modest dividend each quarter and adjusting the increase on the last payment when the year has gone well, explains France SCPI.

For 1000euros placed on an SCPI, your gross tax gains would reach 45 euros on average. However, SCPIs are subject to the progressive scale of income tax (30% in this example) and social contributions (17.2%). That is 23.76 euros gains after taking tax into account.

SCPI: What yield? How to invest? Our advices

3. Booklet A: 13.75 euros

At the beginning of 2022, the Livret A account was at its lowest. The preferred savings product of the French was remunerated 0.5%, i.e. the floor rate provided for by the official texts. But since then, inflation and rate hikes by the European Central Bank (ECB) have led the government to revalue the Livret A rate.

The interest served doubled for the first time last February, to pass 1%then again in August, to increase 2%. As a reminder, this remuneration is not taxable. The yield of the Livret A, net of tax, for 1000 euros placed over the whole year 2022 therefore reaches 13.75 euros. It’s not much, but it’s still more than in 2021, where the same amount invested for 12 months would have brought you… 5 euros.

Savings: should we now prefer the Livret A to life insurance?

4. Life insurance euro funds: 10.60 euros

The average yield of euro life insurance funds is not yet known in 2022. That said, it should be in a range close to the 1.28% of average yield served in 2021.

For several years, the performance of euro funds has been on the rise. The trend could however be reversed in 2023. Most often, the sums placed on this guaranteed capital support are in fact invested in bonds, that is to say debt securities issued by States, companies or territorial communities.

However, after several years of low rates, bond yields are also rising to align with the new key rates of central banks. These revaluations should ultimately benefit euro funds. But as this investment is subject to strong inertia, there is no guarantee that the increase will be visible from January 2023.

If yields remain at the current level, for 1000 euros placed in 2022 you should receive 12.80 euros before taking into account social contributions (17.2%), or even tax (12.8%) if you redeem a contract opened less than 8 years ago. That is 10.60 euros for a contract of more than 8 years and 8.96 euros in the event of redemption on a contract of less than 8 years.

Life insurance: 2 alternatives to the euro fund that seduce the French

5. The Housing Savings Plan: 7euros

It had been neglected by savers for several years. And it can be understood: with a yield 1% gross of tax, the home savings plan (PEL) would have brought you 7euros net of taxes for 1000 euros placed in 2022.

Not to mention that PELs opened since August 1, 2016 make it possible to obtain credit at a rate of 2.20%, which was not so advantageous… At least until recently. Because the wheel turns for the ELP. The credit to which this investment entitles you becomes attractive again as the banks increase the rates at which they agree to lend you money. And the remuneration of this investment should increase from January 1, 2023.

The new PEL rate will be communicated by the Banque de France no later than 5 December. If the revaluation took place today, the new rate would be 2%before flat tax, i.e. 1.40% net after tax.

Housing savings plan: how the PEL works

6. Life insurance pilot management: -65.50 euros

For the sake of simplicity, or in the hope of better performance, some savers decide to entrust the management of their savings to a professional. A profitable bet in some years, but not in 2022. After a very good year in 2021, life insurance contracts under pilot management are posting performances in the red, weighed down by the fall in the financial markets.

Only a handful of insurers are transparent about the performance of their profiles over the current year. Among them: Yomoni and MASCF. From December 31, 2021 to November 18, 2022, the first displays performances ranging from -4.7% for a defensive profile -15.2% on an intermediate profile.

MASCF is doing a little better, with performance of -0.53% on its security profile, -6.55% on the balance profile and -11.02% on its dynamic profile. If you had invested 1000 euros, with an intermediate level of risk, you would therefore have lost 65.50 euros at MASCF and 152 euros at Yomoni, before tax and management fees.

Life insurance: comparison of offers

7. The CAC40: -85 euros

In the third quarter of 2022, approximately 485,000 investors individuals bought shares, against 599000 in the second trimester and 526000 a year ago. This is the lowest level for 2 years, in a context of falling markets, notes the Financial Markets Authority (AMF).

And for good reason: since the beginning of the year, the markets have been plagued by high volatility, against a backdrop of war in Ukraine, the energy crisis and rising inflation. In detail, the CAC 40 has abandoned 530 dots since January 1, down by 7%. Same story across the Atlantic, where the S&P 500 index displays 16% losses.

If you had invested 1000 euros via a securities account or an equity savings plan (PEA) in a tracker (ETF) which reproduces the performance of the CAC40, you would therefore have lost 80 eurosto which are added 0.5% brokerage fees, or 5 euros additional losses.

Stock market: 3 tools to make money when the CAC40 drops

8. Cryptocurrencies: -635euros

The red lantern of this ranking, cryptocurrencies are definitely not the party in 2022. The market for digital assets has been shaken by several scandals, such as the collapse of the LUNA ecosystem, the bankruptcy of the Three Arrows Capital fund or, more recently , the demise of FTX, the world’s second largest crypto exchange.

The rise in key central bank rates is also not conducive to the rise of risky assets. Result: bitcoin, the queen of cryptocurrencies, is currently trading around 15500 eurosversus 41976 euros on January 1, i.e. 63% of decline.

Same story on the side of ethereum, the second most important cryptocurrency in terms of valuation. The price of its token, ETH, started the year 3313 euros and now oscillates around 1130 eurosthat is 65% of decline.

If you had invested 1000euros in cryptos on January 1, distributed 50% between bitcoin and ethereum, you would therefore have realized a capital loss of 635 euros on this asset class in 2022.

Not enough to frighten crypto-enthusiasts, accustomed to the high volatility of digital tokens. Bitcoin has already lost 85% its value in the past, before soaring to new valuation records a few months later.

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