HK the only economy with majority ‘save now' mindset, says survey

Research firm GfK reveals that internationally people with a ‘save now’ mindset outnumber people with a ‘have fun now’ mindset — but the numbers are very close.

More than one in every four (27%) online consumers in Hong Kong say they “disagree completely” with the notion of enjoying life today and worrying about savings and investments later — the highest level among all countries surveyed globally — and a further one in four (27%) “disagree somewhat”.

Looking at the other end of the scale: China has the highest proportion of consumers of all the Asia-Pacific countries surveyed who agree overall with the “have fun now” mindset, standing at 38% in total. They are followed by the Australians at 32%.

These are the findings of GfK, when the research firm asked more than 27,000 Internet users across 22 countries to say how strongly they agree or disagree with the statement “I want to enjoy life today and will worry about savings and investments later”. APAC countries covered in the survey included Australia, China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan.

GfK reveals further that internationally people with a ‘save now’ mindset outnumber people with a ‘have fun now’ mindset — but the numbers are very close. Hong Kong stands out as the only economy where more than half of the online population show a ‘save now’ mindset. In this territory, 54% overall disagree with the idea of enjoying life today and worrying about savings and investments later.

Women more inclined to be savings-minded; men are evenly divided
Although a third (33%) of women internationally agree with enjoying life now and worrying about financial security later, a greater number (40%) disagree. Men, however, are more evenly divided with 36% agreeing and 35% disagreeing.

Twenty-somethings beat teenagers on percentage of fun-lovers
Online consumers aged 20-29 years have the highest percentage of fun-lovers of any age group, with 41% agreeing with having fun now and worrying about saving later. Teenagers (15-19 years old) and those aged 30-39 years come next — standing almost equal at 37% and 36% respectively. And a quarter (26%) of people aged 50-59 years and 60-plus years also agree with living for today.

On the other end of the scale, the numbers showing a more ‘save now’ mindset increases fairly steadily with each age group. This starts at a third (34%) of both teenagers and the 20-29 year olds and peaks at 43% of the 50-59 year olds and 42% of those aged 60 years and over.

Frans Janssen, GfK’s APAC chief commercial officer, said: “These findings give financial service brands a useful, top-level picture of the differences in attitude towards the concept of savings and investments across countries, age groups and genders, versus those that support a more ‘live for today’ mindset, such as instant-access accounts."