S’pore youth feel financially unprepared for future: Survey

SINGAPORE — Many young Singaporeans feel they are not financially ready for the future and their projected amount of savings falls far short of the amount they believe is necessary to fund their retirement, a recent survey commissioned by NTUC Income showed.

The Nielsen survey — which polled more than 1,000 final-year polytechnic students, university undergraduates and young workers aged between 18 and 29 — also found that the majority of young Singaporeans had prudent attitudes towards financial planning. Most respondents agreed that saving was a priority and expressed the need to be in control of their financial matters.

However, despite knowing the importance of financial planning, only 18 per cent of respondents had created a financial plan for themselves, while only 7 per cent had reviewed their financial situation.

The survey, conducted in July, found that nearly nine in 10 respondents felt financially unprepared. Eight in 10 said they were not confident about their current financial situation.

Many of those polled also did not have a strong knowledge about financial planning. For example, while respondents cited about S$1 million as the perceived amount needed for retirement, their projected mean savings by retirement — at the average age of 57 — were only S$382,872.

About half of the respondents also said they had poor knowledge of insurance.

Mr Marcus Chew, vice-president for strategic marketing at NTUC Income, said the survey was aimed at identifying the gaps in financial planning knowledge among Singapore’s youth. “We would like to get them thinking about financial planning early and to help them understand that the decisions they make today will have an impact on their financial well-being later in life,” he said.