Positive experience boosts Hong Kong’s retirement mastery index score

The city’s score went up from 4.8 to 61.1 in the Sun Life Retirement Mastery Index.

Positive personal experiences on the retirement journey are one of the main factors that boosted Hong Kong’s retirement mastery index score, according to Sun Life.

In Sun Life’s Retirement Mastery Index, Hong Kong’s score went up from 4.8 to 61.1. This reveals that Hong Kongers’ control over retirement planning is gradually improving.

The Sun Life Retirement Mastery Index studies Hong Kongers’ degree of control over retirement planning by evaluating their real performance in three pillars: “Intelligence”, “Momentum”, and “Positive Experiences”. “Intelligence” assesses the individuals’ information and knowledge of retirement planning and retirement savings; “Momentum” looks at concrete actions taken to plan and save for retirement; and “Positive Experiences” considers personal experiences on the retirement journey.

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The index revealed that most people feel they are doing well in the “Positive Experiences”, with the percentage increasing from 33% in 2021 to 44% this year. This is higher than the two other metrics.

In comparison, 43% of the respondents claim they are doing very well when it comes to “Momentum”, representing an increase of 9 percentage points compared to last year’s 34%. In addition, 50% are very satisfied with the frequency of their personal finance review, while 48% maintain a positive attitude towards the management of their retirement savings portfolio.

 Hong Kongers underperform in terms of “Intelligence”. Although 54% of the respondents believe it is important, only 40% feel they are doing very well in this aspect – the largest gap between perceived importance and real performance across the three areas. Meanwhile, 50% of the respondents claim they have carefully researched their expectations and needs for retirement life, which represents an increase of eight percentage points compared to last year’s 42%. Moreover, 47% of the respondents are very satisfied with a personal review of the performance of all their retirement investments and savings portfolios, higher than last year’s 36%. 

50% of the respondents are confident about achieving their retirement goals, 12 percentage points higher than the previous year.

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Meanwhile, the index also revealed that married people had have more progress in their retirement planning with their scores increasing from 58.6 to 64.3. Singles, on the other hand, scored only 52.4, the same as last year.

“Although there is still room for improvement, the overall performance is inspiring. However, given high inflation and an increasingly uncertain global outlook, we cannot be complacent. People should start planning and saving for retirement as early as possible in order to reinforce their defensive capabilities, giving them control over their retirement life in the future,” Christine Yeung, General Manager of Life and Health at Sun Life Hong Kong Limited said.

Sun Life Hong Kong commissioned NielsenIQ (Hong Kong) Limited to survey 1,000 financially capable Hong Kongers, aged 30 to 45. The survey was conducted via an online questionnaire between June 2 and June 14, 2022. The final score is extrapolated and calibrated from the feedback received under the three pillars