Thursday 28 Mar 2024
By
main news image

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on October 9, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: An independent study by Standard Chartered Malaysia (StanChart) has revealed 78% of affluent Malaysians view travel as an ideal retirement lifestyle.

However, only slightly more than half of those surveyed felt that they were financially on track to achieve the retirement lifestyle they desire.

“When it comes to retirement planning, affluent consumers across Malaysia (55%), China (60%), Taiwan (55%) and Singapore (53%), flagged insufficient awareness of the investment opportunities that generate adequate returns; while the unfavourable global financial climate was top of the mind for those in Hong Kong (50%),” it said.

Other factors cited by the affluent Malaysians were unfavourable global financial climate (46%) and lack of trusted financial advisors (34%).

The study, which surveyed 1,000 economically-active affluent individuals aged 35 to 59, across five markets — Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan — offers new insights into retirement aspirations, StanChart said in a statement yesterday.

Interestingly, 61% of the Malaysians surveyed also said their retirement plans included “giving back to society” — a much higher percentage compared to the more than 30% in the other markets.

According to the survey, 82% of those who have started planning and feel on track typically invest in stocks, bonds and unit trusts.

About 53% of affluent Malaysians who started planning and feel on track took opportunities to invest in property for rental yield, which is 11% more than the average of 42% for the other markets.

The study showed that apart from Malaysia, the other four markets would also prefer travelling as the ideal retirement lifestyle.

StanChart country head of retail banking Lai Pei Si said: “While people in Malaysia are accumulating more wealth they are also living longer. When you combine this with increased cost of housing and education, and a greater appetite for leisure and travel, it is clear that retirement savings need to increase.”

      Print
      Text Size
      Share