Only 13 percent of Hong Kong residents feel highly financially secure, representing a 5-percentage-point drop from last year, according to a survey by Sun Life Asia.
Titled the third Financial Resilience Index: Asia navigates rising costs, the survey covered six Asian markets and polled 1,000 Hong Kong participants, focusing on their financial planning habits, financial literacy levels and risk appetite.
Survey findings point to a marked decline in Hong Kong residents’ financial resilience. The share of respondents with high financial resilience slipped from 30 percent last year to 23 percent. Overall financial confidence among the public remains weak. More than half of local residents lack sufficient emergency savings to sustain themselves for over six months without income or external financial support.
Soaring living costs stand as the top financial burden for households, according to the survey. Nearly three in ten respondents have cut back on essential spending, while over one-fifth have dipped into their savings to cope with price hikes.
Sun Life also found that over the next three to five years, more locals will prioritize daily expenses (43 percent) over retirement savings (41 percent). Currently, 47 percent of residents live with no financial plan or one lasting under a year. This preparation gap leaves 36 percent of pre-retirees dreading retirement, with 77 percent of passive planners yet to even calculate their future expenses. As a result, 16 percent of these passive planners now expect to delay their retirement until age 70 or older.
Among those who have already retired, the Mandatory Provident Fund remains one of the most widely used tools for retirement preparation. To better navigate these headwinds, Roger Lau, chief executive officer of Sun Life Asset Management (Hong Kong), advises investors to diversify their portfolios, adopting a lower-risk allocation strategy for the second half of the year, with a primary focus on defensive vehicles such as mixed-asset funds.
