Elderly people gathering at Tapgol Park in central Seoul to spend their free time. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 13 (Korea Bizwire) — The average South Korean employee says that they need to save at least 700 million won (US$572,640) to prepare for retirement.
This result is based on a survey conducted by Saramin, an online job portal, targeting 1538 workers.
However, only 35.6 percent of the office workers thought they would be able to save this much.
Some 6 out of 10 workers thought they would not be able to raise enough money for retirement.
Anxiety about old age was as great as uncertainty about savings for retirement. Some 78.9 percent of all respondents said they felt insecure about their old age.
How many workers were actively preparing for retirement? More than half of all respondents, or 54 percent, said they were “not preparing for old age.”
The main reason for not preparing for retirement was because of “lack of economic leeway,” accounting for 68 percent.
This was followed by 22.2 percent citing “lack of knowledge on how to prepare,” 21 percent thinking “it is too early to prepare,” and 19.3 percent citing “outstanding debt.”
On the other hand, 708 respondents said they were currently preparing for retirement, investing an average of 29 percent of their income for retirement.
Meanwhile, respondents chose “savings” as the main source for retirement, accounting for 71.3 percent.
This was followed by “national pension,” accounting for 43.5 percent, “personal pension,” accounting for 20.1 percent, “investment in stock and fund,” accounting for 11.3 percent and “preparing to purchase real estate,” accounting for 9.6 percent.
Nevertheless, 81.2 percent of respondents thought their retirement preparations were insufficient at present, indicating that they remain anxious even though they are preparing for retirement.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
