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If it’s a choice between prioritising investing in a Cash ISA or in FTSE 100 stocks, the decision is a no-brainer for me. I’ll go for UK blue-chip shares every time.
That’s not to say there isn’t a place for holding money in savings. I hold cash in one of these tax-efficient products and in other similar accounts, to manage risk in my portfolio and for holding emergency funds.
But when it comes to building wealth for retirement, the difference between saving and share investing is considerable.
Night and day
Investing platform IG is the latest organisation to lay bare the facts. It estimates that “cash ISA savers would have lost out on more than £134k in real wealth creation versus those investing in UK shares [since 1999] when adjusting for inflation“.
Someone who maxed out their Stocks and Shares ISA allowance every year for the past 26 years would — if they invested just in FTSE 100 stocks — have made a profit of £157,591 over the period. That’s based on total contributions of £252,460.
By comparison, a saver using a Cash ISA would have made just £23,199.
Current holdings
It’s not just the Footsie that’s outperformed cash returns either. The UK’s FTSE 250 has also delivered a superior performance, as has the S&P 500 in the US, Germany’s DAX and Japan’s Nikkei in overseas markets.
This is why I invest most of my spare cash each month in a diversified collection of global shares, investment trusts and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). This allows me to target robust long-term wealth creation while also effectively managing risk.
Right now, I directly hold shares in 13 different FTSE 100 companies. These are:
- Legal & General
- Games Workshop (LSE:GAW)
- HSBC
- Aviva
- Diageo
- Taylor Wimpey
- Prudential
- Rio Tinto
- Coca-Cola HBC
- Persimmon
- CRH
- Barratt Redrow
- Ashtead
As you can see, these heavyweight businesses span a variety of different sectors, from mining companies and soft drinks manufacturers to housebuilders and insurers. Their operations also stretch across multiple regions — these include HSBC’s extensive Asian footprint, Ashtead’s core US marketplace, and Persimmon’s exclusive UK presence.
And I’m considering putting more money into this mini portfolio of blue-chips.
Playing the game
And one target would be Games Workshop. Its profits outlook has weakened a little in 2025, reflecting the threat that US tariffs pose to costs and consumer demand in a key market.
But overall, I’m optimistic the company — which manufactures and sells tabletop gaming systems and related products — can continue delivering explosive growth. Profits here have rocketed roughly 185% since 2020 alone, as the company’s expanded rapidly to capitalise on the booming fantasy gaming market.
Global store numbers continue to increase, and Games Workshop’s getting increasingly active in licensing its intellectual property (IP), a potential goldmine in its own right. This includes making film and TV content based on its Warhammer 40,000 universe with Amazon.
Since 2015, the company’s delivered an average annual return of around 44%. It’s just one FTSE share that I think will keep trouncing the returns on cash savings.
