How high a mattress?

In one of the research papers there’s a gem of a chart. It shows the “savings and investments products held by consumers” from a survey of more than 5000 UK citizens. And 34 per cent say they are storing cash at home.

There are lots of genuine investment questions raised – big important topics which will affect all of us …we thought we’d focus on a completely different question.

If one third of people are storing cash at home, what might that mean for mattress height?

If you were to have £1 million in cash, and a double bed, there are princess-and-the-pea style implications for keeping money under the mattress (the old classic).

The new £50 notes (with King Charles on) are just 0.12mm thick.

But you need 20,000 of them to make a million – and a double bed only fits 221 notes in a layer. So the 90 layers you’d need and up raising the bed height by 1cm.

Of course, £50 notes are quite rare. Might be easier to use other denominations, but your bed’s getting nearer and nearer the ceiling.

Use £1 coins, and you’re half a metre up (and probably quite uncomfortable and noisy!).

How realistic a problem is this?

Maybe £1 million isn’t reality – but people hoarding cash under the mattress certainly is.

Is it any wonder, when the top three sources of finance information are Martin Lewis (cashback, household bills, car finance mis-selling), the bank (fancy a current account?) and friends (no comment)?

Advice has never been more important.