Tokyo - May 16, 2007 - Hakuhodo's Elder Business Development Division (http://www.h-hope.net/english/) constantly monitors elder sei-katsu-sha (people aged 50 and over) through a variety of surveys and research. With Japan's baby-boomers beginning to head into retirement from this year, we conducted a lightning survey of 428 Japanese baby-boomers aged 58-60 to find out how they plan to spend their retirement benefits. Results of our analysis appear below.
Our survey results indicate that retirees will put around 50% of their benefits straight into savings, and another 15-16% each into investments, spending and paying back mortgages, indicating that most intend to invest at least part of their benefits from the very beginning. When we asked about how they would use the funds over the course of their retired lives, savings dropped to around 40%, while spending jumped to close to 35%. The proportion to be directed into investments rose slightly compared with immediately on receiving the benefits, while the proportion to be set aside for paying off the mortgage dropped. There was little difference in the responses of those who have already received their benefits and those yet to do so.
By gender, the top investment vehicles of those who said they would invest their benefits were stocks (70.4%), investment trusts (57.0%) and term deposits (45.9%) for men, and term deposits (58.4%), stocks (50.6%) and investment trusts (48.3%) for women. Although women seem to have a more cautious approach to their money, with stocks coming in as the second top scorer for women at over 50%, it is clear that baby-boomers are generally interested in stocks.
The top 3 future uses for their money were domestic travel (63.3%), interests (63.1%) and international travel (57.5%). Interest was also high in general in flat-screen TVs and other consumer electronics (49.8%) and renovating (46.0%), while cars (43.5%) and entertainment (40.7%) gained good scores from men and women, respectively.
Domestic and international travel both scored well with men and women, with Hokkaido (79.7%) and Okinawa (67.5%) coming out as the top domestic travel destinations, and Europe(84.6%)by far the most popular choice for international travel. It seems that now that they have the time and the money, many soon-to-be retirees are looking forward to relaxed trips to Japanese resorts and to Europe - which they have always had a soft spot for from the music and films they have enjoyed since their youth.
