41% of Singapore's richest need to save $1.6m for retirement: survey

Others still have no clue for their retirement.

According to Friends Provident International's investor attitudes survey, Singaporeans have altered their savings priorities from six months ago.

In view of the demographic challenges in Singapore, the government has placed increasing emphasis on attending to the needs of a rapidly ageing population, such as healthcare and housing. Singaporeans, too, appear to have aligned their savings priorities to adapt to macro changes.

Retirement tops the savings priority list amongst affluent investors surveyed, with ‘rainy day’/emergency needs second and education for children third.

These three categories remained the top three priorities for male investors but female investors have switched their top priority from saving for ‘rainy day’/emergency to retirement in this survey.

Chris Gill, Principal Officer and General Manager, Southeast Asia, Friends Provident International said “We noted last year that female investors were more concerned about shorter term issues and would save for emergency needs. However, this survey highlighted that the proportion of female investors saving for retirement has increased from 47% to 69% over this six month period."

In addition, the survey also highlighted that 57% of affluent Singaporeans feel that the total of their CPF savings, other savings and investments would be sufficient to reach their retirement goals. Of those not saving enough, a shortfall of between 30% and 40% is the most popular estimate of their ‘savings gap’.

41% of affluent Singaporeans surveyed believe they need to save a capital sum of about S$800,000 to S$1.6 million to retire at age 65. Another 24% think they need S$1.7 million to S$2.4 million for retirement. 45% of the respondents determined the amount of money they needed for retirement themselves while about a quarter of respondents relied mainly on guesswork and appear to have no real idea how much they need for retirement.