Chennai: With most young professionals opting for early retirement, savings for old age is the top financial priority across all age groups. Though Indians comparatively manage to stash off a good amount as retirement savings compared to their global peers, with increased life expectancy, this just doesn’t seem enough.
About 71 per cent of Indian employees recognize the need to save more for retirement and feel that they are under-saving relative to what they ideally should have, revealed Tower Watson’s Global Benefits Attitudes Survey.
Almost all Indian employees are hoping to retire around the age of 60. While housing and saving for retirement are the top two priorities among most Indians below-40 age group, saving for old age is the top focus of those above 40, said the survey conducted across 12 countries, covering 22,347 employees working for large, non-government employers.
“In the face of a high inflationary environment and the advent of nuclear families, retirement adequacy is fast emerging as a national challenge with serious economic and social ramifications,” said Ms Anuradha Sriram, benefits director, Towers Watson India.
Indian employees have the second highest savings rate at 16 per cent, second only to China, yet a large number are not confident of affording a long spell of retirement with an overwhelming 78 per cent feeling the need to save more. This is especially noticeable among those above 50, where 86 per cent opine they will have sufficient financial resources for 15 years into retirement but this figure drops significantly to 63 per cent for a 25-year retirement period.
To overcome a possible insufficiency of retirement income, Indian employees would rather save more than extend their retirement age. 56 per cent of Indian employees would rather save more as compared to 29 per cent who would prefer to work a few years longer.
