Survey: 53% of Malaysians Cannot Survive More Than 90 Days With Their Savings

It can be difficult to get a good job these days and if you lose your job tomorrow, how long can you actually last before you go absolutely broke? If you’re thinking not more than three months max then you’re in the majority of Malaysians who feel the same.

Source: ringgitplus

RinggitPlus Malaysia did a survey previously in partnership with Visa International on Malaysian Financial Literacy for 2019 and the results were rather shocking. In a press conference, they informed that the survey results came from 8,139 participants and is based on a representative sample of 1,101 respondents across the demographics.

The respondents were aged between 20 to 60 years old and came from all over Malaysia. One of the key findings in the survey shows that 53.4% of Malaysians cannot survive for more than three months with just their savings and 20% of them said that they can only survive for less than a month, which is rather worrying.

Source: life or depth

Yet, 69.3% of Malaysians claim to be in control of their finances even as 43.4% of Malaysians spend exactly what they earn or more. That doesn’t look like they are really in control! Another interesting insight from the survey is the concept of saving for your retirement.

You might be thinking that there’s still plenty of time before you start planning for your retirement but it’s always better to start early. The survey shows that 89% of respondents say that their EPF savings are not sufficient for retirement, yet despite this, 38% of respondents do not have a retirement plan. That’s not good! Out of this, they discovered that the 54% of youths between the ages of 20 to 29 do not have any retirement plans.

Source: freepik

Another interesting factor they found was that 60% of women spend more than RM100 on a night out compared to 46.6% of men. However, for 46% of Malaysians, they would spend a maximum of RM50 on a night out and try their best to control their spending.

Liew Ooi Hann, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of RinggitPlus said, “It is time for Malaysians to take action and we hope this year’s results act as a wake-up call. The lack of awareness on personal finance is an ongoing challenge for us all. What’s more alarming to us is that people are in denial of their financial reality and are not taking active measures to manage their finances.”

Are you handling your finances well? Let us know in the comments section!

Also read: Survey: 73% of M’sian Men Bring Their GFs to IKEA When They Feel Like Getting Married