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Many Singaporeans believe they do not have enough money for retirement or to cope with the unexpected, results of the latest Consumer Attitudes to Savings study show.Half of 1,000 respondents to a survey commissioned by insurance firm Aviva for the study said they are worried they will not have enough money for an adequate standard of living when they retire.
Also, 44 percent of the respondents think they will have to work beyond the normal retirement date to fund their retirement, Aviva said in a press statement on Thursday about the survey results.
Moreover, only 32 percent feel they have enough savings to cope with emergencies or other unexpected events.
"What we continue to see are concerns about long-term (financial) positions," Simon Newman, chief executive officer of Aviva Singapore, said in an interview on Thursday, adding that such concerns stemmed from greater longevity and an increasingly consumerist attitude of Singaporeans.
Nevertheless, while people were just as worried about their financial future last year, more of them were taking steps to address their problems this year, he noted.
"We know that about 40 percent of people are starting to take greater planning on their finances, and that's up 8 percentage points from the previous year," he said. "We've got about two-thirds people saying they are looking to invest the same or slightly more that's up 5 percentage points from the previous year."
In the short-term, Singaporeans seem quite optimistic about their financial future.
"Close to 90 percent of Singaporeans are saying in the short-term they feel that their financial position is going to improve or stay as is," Newman said.
The study, which spanned surveys in Aviva's 10 core markets in Europe (UK, France, Italy, Spain, Poland and Ireland), the U.S. and Asia (China, India and Singapore), showed that, relative to the global picture, respondents in the three Asian countries feel significantly more confident about the next twelve months than countries in the West.
Meanwhile, the results of the survey in Singapore also indicated that investments are the preferred form of financial products for Singaporeans in the next twelve months with 39 percent of respondents finding favour with them followed by savings, which were chosen by 27 percent of respondents.
Newman said there was also fast-growing interest in mortgage-protection products and financial products that help people cope with inflation.
