Two in five UAE residents do not have a retirement plan in place

Nearly 43 per cent of UAE residents don’t have a financial plan in place for retirement and are least reliant on state pension.

Only two per cent of the UAE residents rely on the state pension which is lowest in the world, according to a survey conducted in 17 countries by global bank HSBC. On average, 16 per cent of population is dependent on state pensions globally.

Asian citizens fare better than those in the West who are “sleep-walking” into the future. HSBC survey chart revealed that 64 per cent of US citizens have not put financial plans in place. While 60%, 70% and 65% citizens of UK, France and Canada – respectively – don’t have sound financial plans for the retirement. While 84 per cent of Malaysians, 76 per cent Chinese and Indians and 60 per cent Taiwanese claim to have financial retirement in place.

Nearly 57 per cent of the UAE residents take advice from families and friends while 47 per cent – the highest in the world - consider Internet as a financial tool when deciding about financial products like savings, investments and insurance.

The results revealed that the UAE residents intend to retire five years earlier than the government’s retirement age of 65.

Interestingly, the UAE also topped with 47 per cent when residents were asked whether “having work they enjoy.”

When compared to their parents, 34 per cent of people in the UAE believe to be better off when they retire. This is much higher percentage than most of the developed countries like France, US, UK and Canada.

In France, 56 per cent of French believe to be worse off than their parents, followed by US (37%), UK (22%) and Canada (20%). But Asian countries fare well than the emirate. Over 60 per cent of Indians and Chinese claim to be better off than their parents.

Around one-third of people in the emirate and worldwide claim that company and state pensions are becoming less generous; while half of people believe “retirement means freedom”, the results showed.

The survey was conducted in 17 countries namely Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, UAE, UK and US.

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