Survey: Most Malaysians ill prepared for retirement

Another timely (maybe a little late for some!) article I found published in the papers regarding retirement preparation or rather the lack of it, among Malaysians.

By HARIATI AZIZAN

KUALA LUMPUR: The majority of Malaysians are not only ill prepared for retirement, but are also unconcerned about financial security in their twilight years, according to an independent survey commissioned by Prudential Assurance Malaysia Bhd.

The Prudential Retire-Meter 2007 survey revealed that as much as over 80% of its 1,038 respondents were indifferent about having an ample coffer to lead a reasonably comfortable life after retirement.

Only 34% were saving regularly for retirement,” said Prudential chief executive officer Tan Kar Hor.

“The survey shows that Malaysians clearly know what they want to do when they retire, but the majority are not actively planning for their retirement.

“When Malaysians stop working, they want to travel, spend time with the family and be more involved with the community. Financial security is crucial to fulfil these dreams.

“However, it is startling to learn from our survey that only 34% of Malaysians are putting money aside regularly for their retirement funds,” Tan told reporters after launching the survey’s findings on Wednesday.

He added that an alarming 60% of the people interviewed were found to be ignorant of how much they would need to save for their retirement.

“They believe that they just save as much as they can now and hope that they would have enough to cover their retirement needs,” he said.

Tan noted that only 42% of the retirees surveyed said they were confident that they had enough to cover all their retirement needs, while 37% planned to return to the workforce.

source: The Star,Wednesday August 8, 2007