More than half of Malaysians are not saving enough for retirement

More than 55% of Malaysians believe they will not be financially ready for retirement, according to a recent joint study by the Visa and Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency (AKPK).

Conducted last August with 1,000 Malaysians, aged 18 to 55 years old, the survey helped create their newly launched app called Financial Insight, the two corporations stated in a joint press release to Human Resources.

While the study found that while most respondents set aside their monthly income for savings, one in five of them save less than 10% of their monthly salaries.

Visa Malaysia country manager Ng Kong Boon commented: "We hope that the introduction of the Financial Insight mobile app will enable Malaysians to understand the importance of saving regularly and be aware of how much they should set aside each month so that they will be financially sufficient by the time they retire."

The Financial Insight app requires users to take a photo of themselves and answer questions about to their finances, such as how much they are saving, and how much they hope to save when they retire, and what age they hope to retire.

Users will then be told whether they are saving sufficiently for their retirement, based on their inputs, through a generated image of themselves upon retirement.

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The Sun Daily quoted Encik Azaddin Ngah Tasir, chief executive officer for AKPK as saying: “People are saving, but not enough. This is because a lot of people, especially the young adults, do not think about retirement. And based on the (monthly) income that they have, there is only certain amount that they can save.”

Pointing out that financial literacy should be taught from a young age, Azaddin added: "We want them to be in the workforce with the confidence of handling finances on their own and achieving financial independence."

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