Malaysians advised to start saving voluntarily for retirement early

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians need to learn from the developed market, the need to start saving voluntarily for retirement early on in their careers and channel it productively, said AIA Group chief investment officer, Dr Mark Konyn.

He said Asian economies faced common challenges when considering how best to encourage long term financial planning, and to mobilise domestic savings to productive investments.

The World Bank, he added, believed that retirement needs and structure should come from three pillars, namely mandatory publicly managed, mandatory privately managed and voluntary.

“When it comes to retirement savings, you cannot rely on your employer and government on the matter and this is proven globally. You need to take responsibility for it.

“In a developing economy, you tend to depend on your employer and particularly the government.

“Hence, the need to give people the confidence and information, as well as the means to make their decisions on financial needs during retirement,” he told a media briefing on investment, retirement trends and outlook in Asia and Malaysia.

In developed countries like Japan and Europe there has been the trend of people going into retirement and rejoining the workforce to supplement their income.

In Japan, where the provision for retirement is relatively low, people are also forced to rejoin the workforce at an advanced age by doing jobs like collecting garbage, late at night.

In Malaysia, the awareness on the need to save more for retirement is present, said Konyn.

According to a global survey, Malaysia finished tops at 88 per cent in respect of workers being concerned about their day-to- day retirement funding, with 81 per cent anxious over running out of money. — Bernama