Mums in Singapore are so focussed on their kids and the here and now that they don’t always plan for their own retirement future.
Are you, like other mums around you, so caught up in the here and now of bringing up kids and planning their futures, that you have neglected your own needs and planning for your future – including your retirement planning?
According to the Singaporean Mums Retirement Aspirations Survey 2015 conducted by theAsianparent.com’s Insights team in collaboration with AIA, Singapore, majority of the mums in the country have an unrealistic expectation of their life post retirement and have not planned and prepared for it adequately.
While mums make monthly provisions in their budgets for expenses such as dining out, family vacations and enrichment classes for their kids, they are not setting aside funds for their own retirement.
Out of the 600 Singaporean mums surveyed, 75% have not yet started planning for it; 44% plan to rely on their children post retirement; only 25% think that they will have enough funds for their ideal retirement lifestyle.
All of the mums surveyed are in their 30s, and includes both stay-at-home as well as full-time working mums.
According to Ameetess Dira, theAsianparent.com’s Regional VP of Strategy & Client Services, “The usually savvy Singapore mum who is making the right choices for her children, and seems to be in control of situations, appears not to plan for her own retirement. From this study, it’s clear that there should be more public awareness about the importance of retirement planning.”
Here are Singaporean mothers’ expectations of their retirement, in numbers.
Head on over to the next page to find out how you can start saving for your retirement.
Start saving now to enjoy your retirement.
Do you have unrealistic ideas about retirement
The first step towards planning for retirement is to have a realistic assessment of a post retirement lifestyle and know how much it is going to cost you.
According to the survey findings, most mums have very unrealistic expectations of their post retirement lifestyle. A surprising 69% of mums believe they will need less than $3,000 and 38% of them believe that they will need less than $2,000 to run their monthly expenses after they retire.
While 51% of mums expect to downgrade their lifestyle post retirement, 25% believe that they will retain the status quo.
What you can do to plan your retirement
According to AIA Singapore:
- Start a retirement plan as early as possible (as women have a higher life expectancy, but shorter income earning years)
- Put aside monthly savings so you can enjoy a comfortable retirement independently
Who will take care of you?
Taking the findings of this survey into consideration, Singaporeans mums should prepare themselves to retire independently. With a substantial pool of savings, mums do not have to rely on their children(or anyone else) for financial support.
How will you save?
Looking at the five most common spending habits by mums, dining out has taken the top spot.
Being Singaporean, we understand (and totally accept) that food is important to us. Control your dining expenditure by allowing yourself to splurge on expensive meals only on special occasions and during the weekends. Eating at home not only allows us to save money, but also encourages family time.
Cutting down on unnecessary expenses will also benefit us in the long run. This could span from taking lavish vacations, paying through your nose for beauty or hair treatments, and over-spending on entertainment.
There is never a “good” time to start planning for our retirement. But starting early means that we have a longer time to grow our savings.
For more information about Singaporean Mums Retirement Aspirations Survey 2015 please contact Ruoshan Tao at [email protected]
