ĠEMMA’s webinar on Putting Retirement on a Young Person’s Radar tackled the paradox that young people need to plan for their retirement at a time when they have significant pressure on their limited finance, priorities to get on the property ladder and naturally enjoying their new found freedom and youth.
This notwithstanding, financial freedom in one’s later stages in life depend on one making retirement planning one of the priorities and a number of research findings from the behavioural sciences were presented from the literature on retirement planning to help explain this dichotomy.
The panel discussion tackled the different conditions that can help influence a change in behaviour by addressing motivational and behavioural factors at the personal, social and structural dimension.
Indeed, the solution appears to lie in finding ways how to make retirement planning a necessary consideration along with a young person’s consumption priorities which requires a comprehensive approach to change young people’s mindset that embraces sustainability and frugal living among others.
Such a change in mindset could only be achieved if a commitment is undertaken on a national level.