Money News
More than half of Britons do not know how much they need to retire on, according to new research from Abbey Savings.
The research identified that women were less likely than men to know what they needed to retire, with 63 % versus 44 % for men.
Remarkably 53 %of those aged over 65s - who have probably already retired - do not know how much they need to retire on. The research showed that 16 % of people believed that they would be able to retire on £50k or less. This is despite the fact that were someone to buy an annuity for £50,000 -the maximum they would get from it is £3,568 per year - or £304 a month. This is below the annual GDP per capita in developing countries such as Algeria, Namibia and Botswana.
A further 12 % believe they could retire on a lump sum of £100,000 or less, giving them a potential £7329 a year. This would give them a lower income than the annual GDP per capita of Puerto Rico, Hungary and Barbados.
Reza Attar-Zadeh, Abbey's Head of Savings commented: "Clearly Brits are not saving enough for their retirement. This is of particular concern, with the move from final salary schemes to money purchase schemes, which means increasingly people need to take personal responsibility for saving for the future.
"Abbey is committed to offering innovative new products to get people to save for their future by building a balanced portfolio of assets."
04 December 2007 © Moneyextra.com
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