Some 42% of people aged 18 and 30 invest in stocks, shares and cryptocurrencies,  mainly in order to build up capital, according to research by family spending institute Nibud and Rabobank.

Just over a quarter of them (27%) have invested in crypto currencies, where the risks of losing your money are high, the researchers found.

Half of the 1,569 young adults in the survey also failed to answer questions about the risks associated with investing correctly, indicating that they were not sufficiently expert to know what they were doing, Nibud said.

‘Youngsters have the right intentions and we understand that they are looking for another way to build up capital now interest rates are so low,’ said Nibud director Arjan Vliegenthart.

‘Investing can be an option, but not if you don’t have a buffer. In the main, only invest with money that you have left, which you can take a risk with.’

Nibud is calling for better information about investing in general so that youngsters make the right choices. ‘There is a massive amount of advertising for investments and crypto currencies at the moment,’ the agency said.