[One Day Ten Thousand Steps, One Day One Thousand Characters] Confidence and Health After Retirement Determine "Factors That Decide Quality of Life"

Mirae Asset Investment and Pension Center Report

[Asia Economy Reporter Myung-hwan Lee] In South Korea, which has entered a full-fledged super-aged society, preparing for a second life after retirement is practically considered essential. When people talk about retirement preparation, they usually think of financial measures such as retirement pensions or asset management, but experts point out that non-financial factors like health are equally important.

This is well reflected in the 'Retirement Confidence Survey of Korean Workers in Their 40s and 50s' report released by Mirae Asset Investment and Pension Center in November last year. The survey, conducted from August to September last year on 2,000 workers in their 40s and 50s, found that health significantly affects retirement confidence. Retirement confidence refers to the confidence in life after retirement. The center measured retirement confidence on a scale from 0 to 10. The survey questions were divided into financial factors such as earned income and non-financial factors such as health and emotions.

Regarding financial factors, the results showed that higher net assets and earned income correlated with higher retirement confidence. Similarly, respondents who had retirement pensions or private pensions also reported higher retirement confidence.

Survey on Health Concerns of Office Workers.
Photo by Mirae Asset Investment & Pension Center

What is noteworthy is that among non-financial factors, health was identified as a non-financial factor likely to influence retirement confidence. The center's survey results showed that when retirement confidence scores were 8 or higher, a high proportion of respondents expressed confidence in their own health status.

Concerns about health were also identified as the biggest factor lowering retirement confidence. Among the factors that undermine confidence in life after retirement, 37.3% of workers ranked 'health concerns' as the number one issue, the highest proportion.

In particular, respondents selected brain-related diseases such as dementia and cerebrovascular diseases as the most worrisome illnesses. Among all respondents, 40.4% chose dementia and cerebrovascular diseases. This is likely because the probability of brain diseases increases with age. Cardiovascular diseases (29.1%), cancer (26.7%), diabetes, and others (3.9%) followed. The center's analysis shows that retirement confidence varies greatly depending on health concerns. The center stated, "Regardless of financial conditions, if one lacks confidence in their health, the retirement confidence score was more than 1 point lower," and "retirement confidence varies significantly depending on health concerns."

Therefore, advice has been given to pay attention to health management in daily life. The center advised, "Health issues cause a decline in quality of life after retirement and financial risks. It is necessary to improve financial and non-financial conditions as much as possible through regular health management and insurance preparation."

Meanwhile, emotional factors such as harmonious family relationships were also found to affect retirement confidence.