Retirement Woes

According to a recent survey by Aviva, the Consumer Attitudes to Savings (CAS) study, it showed an increasing concern over prospects for retirement.

About half felt that they will not have enough money when they retire to provide for an adequate standard of living and will have to work beyond the normal retirement age to fund their retirement.

I believe this is mainly due to an awareness of the importance of planning for retirement.

Previously, many would think that retirement is taken care of by having children and their CPF. However, now, the cost of living has been increasing exponentially with inflation stubbornly high. They are starting to fear that in addition to trying to provide for themselves, they may even need to provide for their children to give them some head start in life. This has been termed, the sandwich generation. They are worried and rightly so. To make matters worse, the expectations for the standard of living has also gradually went up over the years. Retirement brings vision of traveling, having your own transport, a maid perhaps and many more things that used to be considered “luxurious”.

The next question is really to ask, what action has the individual taken to address those worries? Call up an insurance agent to plan for them?

Well, there are very little avenues to learn how to address the retirement concern and that adds on to the stress.

A lot of uncertainty is in the investment markets and "safe" investments are giving near zero yields (nothing near inflation levels). It seems like the people taking advantage of the situation now are the gurus promising passive income, low risk high returns and retire rich.

It is nearing the New Year. It is time to set resolutions to plan for retirement so as not to worry about it.

Wishing all a happy festive year end and an even better year 2012!