[Rich Report] Want to Live in Current Residence After Retirement... "Unfavorable to Returning to Farming or Living Abroad"

Retirement Living Expenses Source: Savings and Insurance 35.3%
Real Estate 27.3%, Financial Assets 19.3%
Personal Pension 10.3%, Severance Pay and Retirement Pension 4.9%

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] It has been found that wealthy individuals prefer to continue living in their current residence even after retirement. Their primary sources of retirement living expenses were savings deposits and insurance.

This result was revealed in the "Korea Wealth Report" released on the 2nd by Hana Financial Management Research Institute under Hana Bank. The report analyzed survey data from 393 Hana Bank private banking (PB) clients holding financial assets of 1 billion KRW or more. Their total assets averaged 16 billion KRW, and their annual income averaged 477 million KRW. However, this survey was conducted over about one month starting from mid-December last year, before the outbreak of COVID-19 in Korea.

The most preferred place of residence after retirement among the wealthy was their current living location. 62.7% of the wealthy chose this, and when including those who preferred places close to their current residence (17.9%), it shows that they have little intention to move far from their current living area after retirement. Following this were the outskirts of Seoul (10.6%), overseas (3.9%), rural, mountainous, or fishing villages (1.6%), and Jeju Island (1.6%), indicating that foreign or peripheral areas are not preferred.

Regarding the reasons for this choice, 67.6% of the wealthy responded that it would be difficult to deviate from their current lifestyle, which was overwhelmingly high. Next were reasons such as a comfortable life (13.2%) and convenience facilities like medical institutions (12.4%). This suggests that the wealthy are either living comfortably in their current location or are satisfied with the enjoyment of various convenience facilities. Ultimately, it is expected that the wealthy will maintain their current lifestyle based on already prepared retirement funds, rather than moving to rural areas or overseas.

The sources of retirement living expenses were ranked as follows: savings deposits and insurance at 35.3%, real estate at 27.3%, financial assets at 19.3%, personal pensions at 10.3%, and severance pay and retirement pensions at 4.9%.

The wealthy responded that they need an average of 8.44 million KRW per month after retirement. This shows a significant gap compared to the appropriate retirement living expenses of 2.19 million KRW per month for couples, according to the 2018 report on the economic life and retirement preparation status of middle-aged and elderly people by the National Pension Research Institute.

On the other hand, the expected pension amount that the wealthy anticipate receiving is 3.7 million KRW per month, which is 4.74 million KRW less than the required retirement living funds.

The research institute stated, "It appears that the wealthy plan to appropriately utilize their financial assets and real estate, in addition to their current savings deposits and insurance, to cover the gap between their expected retirement living expenses and anticipated pension income."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.