A recent survey revealed that the average retirement savings of Filipinos is the lowest among other Asian countries.
According to the results of the 2018 Manulife Investor Sentiment Index (MISI), most Filipino investors are not prepared for their retirement as respondents revealed that their average retirement savings will only last for 3.6 months.
It is lower than the average 2.9 years for other Asian investors.
“The Philippines is the lowest in Asia. We are falling a little bit behind our peers in terms of the amount of money that we currently save for retirement,” Manulife Philippines Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Melissa Henson said on Friday.
Taiwanese investors topped the list saying that they have savings that will last for 4.9 years.
Henson said that the main cause of the low retirement savings among Filipinos is the belief that their family members will be the ones who will financially provide for them when they reach the retirement age.
“I think at the heart of this is really, as a culture, we’re very family-oriented, which is a good thing and our strength as a Filipino. But what we found in our survey called ‘Aging Asia’ that we did three years ago, was that the Philippines actually ranked the highest in terms of expectation that a family member will help support a family member during his or her retirement,” Henson said.
According to Henson, most Filipinos also believe that 2.1 years’ worth of personal income would be enough for their retirement. However, this is the lowest expectation in the region and way below the ideal savings level.
“Assuming you will retire at 60, the average life expectancy in the Philippines is close to 70 years old. So that’s at least 10 years of life expectancy beyond retirement. That’s the minimum that we should save for,” she said.
However, Henson also noted that a 84% of Filipinos said that they are still willing to work even after retirement.
Nevertheless, Henson urged Filipinos to be mindful of their future and learn how to save and invest.
The survey is based on 4,011 online interviews in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
Respondents are middle class to affluent investors aged 25 years and above who are the primary decision maker of financial matters in the household, and currently have investment products.
