Most Indian Working Women Concerned Over Retirement Funds: Survey

Most Indian Working Women Concerned Over Retirement Funds: Survey

Mumbai: Working women in India are more concerned over having enough money for retirement compared to their male counterparts, according to a recent survey.

“About 75 per cent of women respondents in India said, they were concerned about having enough money for daily expenses during retirement period, compared to 67 per cent men participants. In comparison, the proportion is 71 per cent globally for women compared to 61 per cent for men,” according to the HSBC’s survey, ‘Future of Retirement A Balancing Act’.
The survey covered 16,000 people in 15 regions or countries globally, with 1,000 respondents from India.

The findings are based on an online poll commissioned by HSBC and conducted by Ipsos MORI in August and September 2014.

Further the report revealed that despite the fact that majority of Indian women think, they knew how much money is to be saved to build the retirement corpus.

Only 22 per cent women said, they were not aware how much money they needed to save for retirement, compared to 32 per cent of Indian men, the report showed.

In Asia, more women than men (42 per cent versus 36 per cent) say their cost of living is increasing faster than their income, compared with a year ago.

The numbers peak to 64 per cent in Singapore, followed by 57 per cent in Australia and 49 per cent in Malaysia.

However, the proportion is comparatively lower in India where 30 per cent working women said their cost of living was increasing faster than their income while the percentage was 27 for men.

“Retirement planning is a crucial element of financial preparedness, especially for women, who play the lead role in managing the house on a day to day basis. Our survey shows that women understand the financial requirements of a family more than the men do, and hence, they are more concerned about it,” HSBC India Head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management Sanjiv Sud said.

The survey also found that Asian women have higher confidence in cash deposits.

More women compared to men (74 per cent versus 72 per cent) said, cash deposits were good way to generate income for retirement.

In comparison, more Asian men than women (63 per cent versus 60 per cent) saw investments are good ways to generate income for later life, it revealed.

“Women tend to have a strong preference for holding cash. However, the purchasing power of cash is likely to be eroded by inflation over the long term. Therefore, it is important to ensure that there is appropriate mix of growth and income assets to build a substantial retirement corpus,” Sud added.
PTI