“I wanted to persuade a friend to save for the future but she kept saying she had no money but then later I saw she could sign up RM3,000 and RM5,000 for some slimming packages!”
Reality hits when people find that they cannot afford to retire because they had not seriously put aside the money early on in life.
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Ng: ‘Less than 5% are prepared for retirement’ |
He says those in their 20s think they are too young to think about retirement, while those in their 30s and 40s tend to believe they are doing enough because they have their EPF savings, and those who are 55 feel it is just too late for them.
And the truth is at 55, most people cannot afford to retire.
“People are living longer, life expectancy for women is 76 years. For men it's 72. With this kind of longevity, people have got more than 20 years after retirement. 60 would be a more ideal retirement age,” he says.
People are marrying later too, points out Ong.
Which means they are having children later in life. If a person has a kid at the age of 35 and retires at 55, the odds are that his child at 20 would probably still be at university or college and his education require financing.
On average, the Malaysian household spent 5.7% on education last year. With the cost of education rising by 6% each year, this is expected to climb steadily.
While parents might buy an education insurance plan for their children, Ong has found that 90% of the time the amount is insufficient. More often than not, parents are willing to give up “everything”, including their own retirement fund for the kids. Which leaves them in a vulnerable position in their old age, unless of course their children provide for them.
As for life insurance, only 40% of Malaysians are covered. Ng says this is a small number compared to 100% in Singapore, 80% in the United States and 400% in Japan (where one person has four policies on average).
i believe this article was published somewhere in 2007 but sadly till t0date a l0t of 'among' us still cant aff0rd(?) t0 save as little as RM100 per month f0r their retirement or emergency purposes.
First of all he should not be complaining when he is unable to find a way to sell insurance to his friend. Maybe he was not convincing enough. People nowadays are a well informed bastard making it hard for agents to sell.
ReplyDeleteMalaysians are spoon fed by the government with almost zero medical and education cost at government hospital and public universities unlike Singapore, US and Japan. He should not be comparing apple to an orange.
Listen to the need of your customer and they will give more then a hundred a month rather then try to sell. Be different.
The 'failure' of a customer to purchase is the 'failure' of a salesman to convince.
gouk.. indeed. cant agreed more.
ReplyDelete