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Australians remain extremely concerned about saving for their retirement, especially women, according to the inaugural MLC Australian Wealth Sentiment Survey.
The study found Australians remain very cautious on the outlook for the economic environment and are focused on deposits and paying off debt. Furthermore, consumer appetite for risk appears likely to increase marginally over the coming months, with a growing desire to put more into property and shares.
“With people living longer, having extended retirements and being much more active in their retirement, the harsh reality is most people won’t have enough savings to fund their retirement,” NAB Wealth Group executive and MLC CEO Andrew Hagger says.
“For women this especially rings true, as women retire with 40% less super than men because they take time out for children, are more likely to work part time and typically earn less than men. While it’s not surprising to us that women are worried about funding their retirement, the survey is a timely reminder to women about how they can start to bridge the gap by adopting some key savings strategies.”
Key findings from the survey include:
• When asked to rate their current concerns about risks in super and investments on a scale of one to 10 (low to high concern), at an average 7.02, women are the most concerned about inadequate savings in retirement (compared to males at 6.74).
• Looking more closely by age, females aged 50+ were the most concerned (at 7.21), compared to their male counterparts of the same age (6.22).
• Males are typically more concerned about missing investment opportunities.
• Those within five years of retirement tend to invest more conservatively for income than growth. However, females aged over 50 are more than 60% more likely to nominate this strategy than their male counterparts (9.92% to 6.06%).
