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Singapore retirement-saving gap increases by nine years

Working age Singaporeans expect to save for retirement for nine years longer than current retirees did.

This is an issue that is particularly relevant at the moment, with Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam's latest comment at the World Cities Summit earlier this week.

"At some point, this [retirement age] has to go," he said, in reference to the value of the elder generation as assets and not add-ons for the Singapore economy, as reported by The Straits Times

This sentiment was echoed by the results of HSBC's latest 'Future of Retirement: Generations and Journeys' report, which highlighted that retirement trends are changing.

The report surveyed 18,207 people in 17 different countries, including 1,008 Singaporeans.

The current local workforce is saving for 29 years, compared to the current retired population who saved for only 20.

The current bunch of professionals also start saving up at an average age of 32, rather than their older, retired counterparts, who started saving at 39.

ALSO READ: 78% of Malaysians have insufficient funds for retirement Best retirement benefits investments revealed

Interestingly, despite all of this, 41% of the current working age say they would have started saving at an even earlier age, if given the choice to do things differently.

Other key findings include:

  • Although 73% of working age people have started saving for retirement, 38% of them have had to stop or faced difficulties saving.
  • Working age Singaporeans are among the most likely (21%) globally to think downsizing or selling property will help fund their retirement, compared to the global average of 12%.
  • Only 11% of Singaporeans use state retirement funding, much lower than the global average of 45%.

Image: 123rf

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