Tiger Parents should also plan for retirement

Caring for children leave parents little time to manage their personal finances and for retirement planning. Parents who are too busy should seek professional help for the basic retirement knowledge and retirement tips. Read below to get more insight on Tiger parent's retirement planning.

 

Our study also found that 76% of interviewed parents agreed that caring for children left them little time to manage their personal finances. 90% said that they spent more on their children's studies and interests than on their own retirement savings. For some, even taking out loans would be preferable to cutting down on their children's extracurricular expenses.Talk about dedicated parents!

Giving your children all the time and money you can spare is an understandable act of love. Nevertheless, if you don't save up enough, you may become a burden to your children after retirement!

 

Planning your retirement is simple. First, review your children's extracurricular activities, and consider reallocating some of those expenses to your own savings to bolster your retirement fund. Before enrolling in interest classes, parents should ask themselves: Does more equal better? Would your children be overtaxed? If you could take the HK$1,500 spent on interest classes but instead putting it into a retirement fund, assuming 4% p.a. return, in 30 years you would have saved up over HK$1 million – a decent sum for retirement!

We should also adjust our money-saving mindset, for example by treating the monthly retirement savings as a means to securing your children's future. For example one can set aside retirement savings as the first expense of each month, arranging for a sum to be automatically transferred to a MPF voluntary contribution account upon salary payment. Such habit will surely help bolster your retirement savings.

 

Alternatively, borrow from the rule of envelope budgeting and divide your monthly expenses into different envelopes so that you have a clear idea of your budget and your expenses.

 

If you are too busy to plan for retirement, you might consider seeking professional help. According to our survey, nearly 60% of those with higher RQ (meaning better prepared for retirement) have sought help from professional financial planners, nearly two fold that of those with lower RQ. These people are more likely to save up enough to live out their ideal retirement life.