June 8, 2011

The Ostrich Surveys

Filed under: Blog — Grove @ 3:07 pm

Surveys seem to be like buses you know. You don’t see one for a few months and then two come along at once. In the last week, the bus depots of HSBC and Scottish Widows have both released surveys of public preparedness for retirement. Well, with auto-enrolment just around the corner now, it’s a topical subject.

I don’t know about you but my head spins when I really get into the guts of these things. The sheer volume of numbers presented is a lot to take in and conclusions are often open to interpretation. Consider this famous Graig Kilborn quote for example;

“A telephone survey says that 51 percent of college students drink until they pass out at least once a month. The other 49 percent didn’t answer the phone.”

Or this one;

“According to a recent survey, men say the first thing they notice about a woman is their eyes, and women say the first thing they notice about men is they’re a bunch of liars”

Seriously though, when two serious and independently produced survey reports are mutually supportive, you really do have to take notice.

HSBC’s survey is called The Future of Retirement: The power of planning offers a worldwide view

Meanwhile Scottish Widows focuses its 2011 UK Pensions Report on just the UK.

The broad conclusions of the reports are complimentary. For example;

HSBC: HSBC questioned 1000 working age Britons and found that half (49%) expect to be worse off in retirement than their parents

Scottish Widows: Half of workers over 30 are failing to save adequately for retirement, with a fifth not saving anything at all

HSBC: As a whole, 68% of respondents are worried about coping financially and 48% fear they are not saving enough for their retirement,

Scottish Widows: Three quarters understand the need to take personal responsibility for their future

So, as a generation, it is definitely important to us that we have enough income in retirement, we know that we’re not going to have it and that’s it’s our responsibility to address that. We worry about it. But we’re not doing anything about it. Ours is the Ostrich generation.

By all means have a look at the surveys and find some competing quotes. I haven’t read every page. One thing seems pretty clear to me though; we have to work together to make auto-enrolment the kick starter of long term saving. Otherwise we and, perhaps even more importantly our children and grandchildren, face severe social welfare issues in the decades ahead.

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