The Sampo Generation represents millennials, those born between the early 1980s and early 2000s. Sampo babies were born in a period of growth, but have faced unemployment and economic difficulties due to different global financial crises. (image: Kobiz Media / Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Korea Bizwire) – The ‘Sampo Generation’ which is the Korean version of ‘millennials’, who gave up employment, marriage and child birth, have turned out to be more conservative than the Generation X or Baby Boomers when it comes to asset management.
Those in the Sampo Generation prefer to invest in deposit and installment savings and own a house, rather than investing in stocks or mutual funds.
The Sampo Generation represents millennials, those born between the early 1980s and early 2000s. Sampo babies were born in a period of growth, but have faced unemployment and economic difficulties due to different global financial crises.
Generation X is those in their 40s who spent their 20s before the foreign exchange crisis, and the Baby Boomers are those in their 50s who were born after the Korean War (1955-1963), when the birthrate went up.
According to a survey of 1,500 male and female adults between the ages of 20 and 60 conducted by the Hana Financial Research Center, the Sampo Generation had a higher tendency to avoid risks than Gen X.
The portion of those who owned a subscription deposit account was the highest in the Sampo Generation (59.5 percent), topping the Gen Xers (53.5 percent) and Baby Boomers (46.5 percent).
However, the portion of the Sampo Generation that invested in stocks or funds was comparably low, at 18 percent, compared to 25 percent for Gen X and 21.5 percent for Baby Boomers. The portion of those who invested in equity linked securities was only 4.8 percent, which was less than half the rate of Gen X (10 percent).
Instead, the Sampo Generation had a strong obsession with having their own house. More than 50 percent of the millennials answered that one must have a house of their own, while 46.7 percent of the Baby Boomers and 41.7 percent of Gen X answered the same way.
In addition, the Sampo Generation started to prepare for retirement at the earliest age. While Baby Boomers started preparing from their late 40s, and Gen Xers started in their late 30s, more than half of the Sampo Generation started to prepare for retirement from their late 20s to early 30s.
Officials at the Hana Financial Research Center analyzed the results. “Since members of the Sampo Generation are experiencing unemployment and economic difficulties, they tend to manage their finances in a conservative way. Because of the learning effects, they show a tendency to safely accumulate their assets.”
By Francine Jung (francine.jung@kobizmedia.co.kr)
