What the future holds for us after retirement? According to Poles – nothing good.
Aegon Poland has conducted the study in a total of 12 countries and Poland came up last. Although about a half of the respondents think about their retirement in terms of their free time, almost the same amount of people associate it with poor health, feeling unfulfilled and unhappy. Every third citizen of Poland thinks that on retirement he’ll be poor – says Marcin Hadyś, member of the Board of Aegon Poland.
The results show that over two – thirds of Poles have no alternative retirement plan, even though almost a half of the respondents retire earlier than they planned. As much as 70 percent have no alternative plan of financial backup for such instances. The study indicates that in Poland the general system of retirement is getting worse. The retirement preparation index has just been lowered from 4,96 to 4,63 in a 10 point scale.
Our preparation for the retirement is worse in comparison with the previous year’s report. When it comes to retirement, the most optimistic are Germans, Chinese and Americans – claims Marcin Hadyś.
From among 12 other nations Poles were the most pessimistic when asked about the probability of keeping their present lifestyle after retirement. 81 percent of respondents claim that they won’t be able to maintain a satisfactory standard of living, while contrary to this belief is only 1 percent of Polish citizens. Nevertheless, Poles have no financial plans for that time.
Two – thirds of the respondents have no idea how much money per month will they have on their retirement because they don’t plan it. The number of places for them to keep their savings is decreasing. Around fifty 50 percent of the respondents think they’ll still have to take care of somebody and one – third of them expects that they’ll need to be taken care of during their retirement period – says Marcin Hadyś.
68 percent of Poles claim that they’d start making savings for their retirement after receiving a raise, while 43 percent would do so after an increase in tax allowances in the area of commercial retirement.
The study was conducted online and via a live poll in January and February 2013.