Almost Three in Ten Lack Confidence in Affording Quality Life During Retirement

PR61601

NUREMBERG, Germany, Sept. 23, 2015 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

- 28 percent internationally are not confident in having enough money to live

the "life they want" when they retire  

- While, 42 percent are confident that they will have enough money  

Internationally, close to three in ten (28 percent) lack confidence that they

will be able to afford the life they want during retirement, including one in

ten (11 percent) who have no confidence in this at all. On the other hand, 42

percent believe they will have enough money for the life they want, including

18 percent who are completely confident.  

These are findings from a GfK survey, conducted online this summer, that asked

over 23,000 people in 19 countries how strongly they agree or disagree with the

statement "I am confident that I will have enough money to live the life I want

when I retire."

The results show that men and women hold very similar levels of confidence. But

when one looks at the separate age groups, it's a different story. The older

age groups show the highest percentages who say they have little or no

confidence in being able to afford the life they want in retirement. The 50-59

and 40-49 age groups both have over a third (35 percent) in this category,

followed by the 30-39 year olds with 29 percent. Even among the 20-29 year olds

- an age group where retirement is a long way off and with plenty of time to

prepare for it - nearly a quarter (23 percent) lack confidence in being able to

afford the life they want upon retirement.

Looking at those people who claim confidence in their ability to afford a good

life come retirement, the highest levels are found among the 20-29 year olds,

where nearly a half (48 percent) agree either somewhat or completely. This

drops slightly to 45 percent for those aged 30-39 - and then drops considerably

to just over a third (36 percent) among 40-49 and 50-59 year-olds.

Alexander Zeh, GfK's global lead for financial services research, comments,

"These findings present financial organizations - and others -with valuable

insight on the size and type of opportunity within each age group. For example,

the quarter of 20-29 year olds who show early concern about their financial

comfort in old age are an ideal audience for pension plan marketing that

focuses on the benefits of starting contributions at an early age. And the 15

percent of over 60s who say they are completely confident in their retirement

finances are likely to be receptive to products and services aimed at making

retirement fun - be it holiday and travel, dining out, in-home comforts or that

special car they'd always wanted."

Americans and Chinese lead for complete confidence in affording a good

retirement

Looking at individual countries, USA, China, Russia and Spain are the most

confident in having enough money to live the life they want, when they retire.

This is led by the USA at 22 percent, followed by China at 21 percent and then

Russia and Spain level at 17 percent.

Sweden, Poland and France, by contrast, mark themselves the most as completely

lacking confidence. Sweden and Poland both have 21 percent disagreeing

completely with the statement of confidence, followed by France at 20 percent.

Interestingly, Russia - who is in the top three people in complete agreement -

also comes fourth for people saying they disagree completely (19 percent),

pointing to strong polarization in this market.

Alexander Zeh concludes: "Countries that provide government-funded pensions -

as many of the European countries do - actually have lower levels of confidence

than countries such as the USA, where there has been no government-funded

pension plan. This suggests that people in Europe have finally become aware

that the aging population means that public pensions can no longer be relied

upon to support them comfortably in retirement. Conversely, people in the likes

of America have grown up knowing that they have to fund their own retirement

from the start, and so are in a better mind-set than their newly awakened

European counterparts."

View the infographics

- International summary:

http://www.gfk.com/PublishingImages/Press/GfK-Infographic-Financials-Retirement-Total-Web.jpg

- Country comparison:

http://www.gfk.com/PublishingImages/Press/GfK-Infographic-Financials-Retirement-Countries-Web.jpg

About the study

GfK conducted an online survey with over 23,000 consumers aged 15 or older in

19 countries. Fieldwork was carried out over the summer in 2015 and the data

have been weighted to reflect the demographic composition of the online

population age 15+ in each market. The countries included in this press release

are Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong

Kong, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden,

Turkey, UK and USA.

For more information, please visit http://www.gfk.com or follow GfK on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/GfK

Press contact = Amanda Martin, Global PR, +44(0)7919-624-688, press@gfk.com

Press contact = Stefan Gerhardt, Global PR, +49-911-395-4440, press@gfk.com

Source: GfK