Affluent Singaporeans' savings and retirement aspirations leave much to be desired

According to the Wealth Expectancy Report 2019 by Standard Chartered, almost half of the wealth creators in Singapore may still be far off from their desired lifestyle and living standards that they can afford during retirement.
This projection is based on their investment habits and existing savings which is expected to peak once they reach 60 years of age.
The study categorizes wealth creators into emerging affluent, affluent and HNWIs (high net-worth individuals). The emerging affluent tend to use simple savings products (73%) as their preferred means of saving up for retirement. They also utilise less digital wealth management tools such as robo-advisors and online investment portfolio.
On the other hand, the affluent (40%) and HNWIs (38%) tend to use these digital wealth management tools alongside more advanced investment products such as real estate investment trusts and equities. This has allowed them better to accumulate wealth and manage finances.
The difference in investment habits also means that investment diversification is still not a priority for the emerging affluent. Despite this, although the average shows that overall monthly consumable (USD 6,666) is almost half that of wealth aspiration and current income, the gap is in fact the smallest for the emerging affluent than it is for the affluent and HNWIs.
The combined investment preferences of the three groups are saving account (67%), property investment (41%) and time/fixed deposits (41%). Saving account, whose real returns can vary due to inflation rates, does afford liquidity and capital protection. Also, diversifying investment portfolios can be vital for smoothing out risks and returns across different market cycles.

In light of this, the top financial goals of the wealth creators in Singapore include their children’s education (30%), retirement (27%) and investment property (25%) respectively. With regards to the children’s education, 47% of the wealth creators are not certain about the best means to transfer wealth to their children. In this sense, external support from entities such as banks can be helpful given that 55% of them do hope for assistance from their banks in this regard.
The Wealth Expectancy Report 2019 by Standard Chartered presents studies on 10,000 savers across 10 countries, Singapore being one of them.