In an Ipsos survey for the direct bank ING, 27 percent of the 1,007 respondents said they had no money in the bank.

In the survey a year earlier, the proportion was slightly lower at 23.5 percent. At the same time, the proportion of savers fell from 70.7 percent in the 2024 survey to 63.7 percent in the survey in December 2025.

Too little income and too high costs

Almost half (46.7 percent) of those surveyed without savings say they do not earn enough to save anything. A good one in five (22 percent) say that increased prices for living expenses have used up reserves.

Almost one in five (17.9 percent) of all respondents ponder financial questions at night. More than a third (36.5 percent) agree with the following statement: “Because of my financial situation, I feel like I will never have the things I want in life.”

Overall, households are richer than ever

According to figures from the Bundesbank, the financial assets of private households in Germany totaled a record value of 9,389 billion euros at the end of the third quarter of 2025. DZ Bank had projected a value of just over 10 trillion euros for the whole of 2025 and forecast an increase to 10.5 trillion euros for the current year.

Both the Bundesbank and the DZ Bank take into account cash and bank deposits, securities such as stocks and funds as well as claims against insurance companies in their evaluations, but not real estate.

According to previous information from the Bundesbank, the enormous financial assets in Germany are unevenly distributed. About half is accounted for by the wealthiest ten percent: around four million households. There, their wealth increases more rapidly because on average they invest more in stocks and funds than poorer households. According to the Bundesbank, there are around 20 million households at the lower end of the scale, which only account for eight percent of financial assets.