'Indians rely on cash deposits,2nd home for retirement income'

India's working population relies heavily on cash deposits and a second home to generate post -retirement income, according to an HSBC report.
Around 88 per cent of respondents in India, the highest proportion amongst the polled countries, said they were confident that cash deposits in the banks or trusts were a good option to generate income for retirement.
In Indonesia, 82 per cent preferred cash deposits while the figure is 64 per cent in the US and 56 per cent for the UK, according to the report.
The proportion of Indians who are confident of second domestic property working as source of retirement income is 85 per cent, just behind Indonesia (90 per cent) but ahead of the US (54 per cent) and the UK (60 per cent).

Insurance products (81 per cent), personal pension schemes (80 per cent) and employer pension schemes (76 per cent) are some of the other popular ways Indians prefer for retirement income.
The HSBC survey showed that living comfortably during retirement is a real concern for many working Indians. Almost three quarters (74 per cent) of pre-retirees are concerned about having enough money to live comfortably in retirement.

"Our research shows, Indians are finally realising that they are not adequately saving for a comfortable retirement. The preferred means of cash deposits and income from second home, opted by Indians, alone may not deliver what they hope for," HSBC India Head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management Sanjiv Sud said.

As per the report, India, along with Malaysia, has the largest proportion of people (41 per cent) who think buying a home or paying for its mortgage adversely impacted their ability to save for retirement, the report says.
This compares with global average of 32 per cent and that of 28 per cent in Brazil and 29 per cent in Mexico.
Also, 29 per cent of Indians believe, paying for children's education affected their retirement saving plans, compared to a global average of 24 per cent.
Some of the other key events, which have impacted the ability of Indians to save for retirement include, current economic downturn (22 per cent), significant drop in earnings (20 per cent), job loss (17 per cent) and illness or accident (17 per cent), the report said.