Bangkok--18 Oct--อินทิเกรเต็ด คอมมูนิเคชั่น
GoBear Thailand, Asia's leading financial supermarket, has invited celebrities and financial experts to participate in the seminar "GoBear Fin Detective #สืบฟินวินทุกเรื่องเงิน," aiming to encourage Thai people to pay attention to their financial health, which, in turn, will benefit their long-term financial planning.
Mr. Marnix Zwart, Chief Commercial Officer and Co-Founder of GoBear (GoBear.com/th), a transparent and easy-to-use website that helps users across Asia compare financial products revealed that the GoBear Fin Detective #สืบฟินวินทุกเรื่องเงิน is a launch for the GoBear Financial Health Index, a study that was produced with the purpose of learning and understanding what people think, feel and do about personal finance. The study was commissioned to award-winning, full service research agency Kadence International, and was implemented in four of GoBear's key markets in Asia, namely Hong Kong SAR, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.
According to the study, the problem of not investing money mostly stems from the financial liquidity issue rather than the limited investment know-hows. A study conducted across 5 Thai age groups, ranging from 18-25 age group, 26-35 age group, 36-45 age group, 46-55 age group to 56-65 age group, found that about 50% of all age groups do not invest because they do not have money left from their monthly expenses. Other reasons are that they are not familiar with nor have limited investment knowledge or perceiving that investment always carries some risk. In addition, 50% of the respondents admitted that they do not have savings in their account that could last for 6 months if they suddenly lose their income stability. Most importantly, they encounter a personal cash flow problem, the recurring problem faced by 66% of Thai people every year. Besides, 15% of those without income or the unemployed are left with no solution nor any financial support, whether it be their relatives or those around them.
The lack of financial discipline often leads to other financial problems, including debt, zero savings and the lack of financial planning for retirement. The study also shows that the new generations aim to retire at the age of 50, while people aged 46 and above, aim to retire at the age of 60. This means that even though more Thai people expect to retire earlier, without the financial discipline, many of them may still have to continue working even after their 60s. In addition, the study from Kadence revealed that 38% of people aged 18-25 have not started planning for their retirement. Meanwhile, up to 26% of people aged 36-45 have not yet started their retirement financial planning either.
For this reason, GoBear has organized the " GoBear Fin Detective #สืบฟินวินทุกเรื่องเงิน" to provide participants with insights and better understanding in financial health check-up. GoBear has invited financial gurus, Dr. Benjarong Suwankiri, Chief Executive Officer, ME by TMB, to advise on how to enhance financial health of Thai people. The seminar also features the duo founders of the famous page "Thep Leela" Phusanut (Weng) Karunwongwat and Phuthiraphat (Third) Ongsri who will be sharing useful information and participating in the test to check their financial health as well.
According to the study, Thailand scored 61% for overall financial health. Part of this could be attributed to the fact that Thais scored relatively low for financial knowledge.
The major financial problems that Thai people face can be divided into the 4 following groups:
1) The problem of expenses exceeding income is the main reason why Thai people do not save or invest. The study shows that 49.8% of Thai people cannot invest because they do not have enough financial capacity. In fact, those with low income and high expenses are recommended to seek for options to invest in products that require a small amount of money and have low risk of losing the initial capital.
2) The cash flow problem as 50% of Thai people do not have enough savings for them to live for 6 months without working. This means losing their income stability due to unemployment or in case of emergency will make their life extremely difficult.
3) The lack of financial planning for retirement or start financial planning for retirement too late.
The study found that Thai people start paying attention to their financial planning at the average age of 41.5 years. In fact, financial planning for retirement can start from the age of 20+ or after graduation. Those who start saving early do not have to save a lot at a time but can be assured that they can have enough money for retirement. In contrast, people aged 30+ or 40+ who just consider for their retirement financial planning need to have different forms of saving to people who start savings at the age 20+
4) Limited financial literacy can possibly lead to different financial management mistakes. The study shows that 19.5% of the respondents are not keen to invest because they have limited knowledge or are not familiar with the concept of investment. 17.3% perceive that investment in general carries some risk despite the fact that there are various types of investments, both high risk and low risk. Therefore, if all of us pay attention to our financial health and learn more about finance and investment, we will be able to build our personal financial plan for our future without error.
For those interested to learn more about personal finance in various areas, seeking to improve your own financial health or to compare financial products in order to make the most cost-effective and smart decisions, please visit us at GoBear.com/th.