96 percent of affluent Kenyans have reset their life goals following the Covid-19 pandemic according to Standard Chartered’s latest survey into affluent consumers in 12 markets across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the UK.
The survey sats that for 59 percent of respondents, COVID-19 has diminished their confidence in their finances, preventing them from taking the actions necessary to achieve their new goals.
COVID-19 has prompted the affluent in Kenya to become more future-focused when resetting their priorities: more than half have set the goal to ‘to improve my health’ (57 percent) and to ‘to set aside more for my children’s future’ (57 percent).
Their current ‘confidence gap’ has made many increasingly averse to risk, potentially stopping them from putting their money to work through investing or making use of digital tools that simplify wealth management.
The survey noted that the emerging affluent have disproportionately suffered a loss of confidence, with 61 percent reporting less confidence compared with 24 percent of HNW individuals.
For the affluent across the wealth spectrum in Kenya, the three most common factors impacting their confidence were ‘volatility in financial markets (38 percent), ‘fear of poor returns on investments (37 percent), and ‘insufficient information about specific investment opportunities (32 percent).
A late start to retirement planning, combined with the pandemic-induced confidence gap, leaves a significant proportion of affluent consumers at risk of a shortfall for their retirement.
In Kenya, 17 percent of people do not currently save/invest for retirement. For those that do, ‘investment income’ (62 percent) and ‘cash savings’ (38 percent) are the most common expected sources of income.
At the same time, 45 percent plan to retire before the age of 65, and 22 percent have set a new goal to retire early. This shows a disconnect between current actions and future expectations if a confidence gap is holding them back from investing.
Globally, almost all (94 percent) of investors who had tried more than five new investments or investment strategies reported being happy with their finances.
