Gadgets are expensive, luxury items – so naturally not everyone can afford them.
But what if you’ve worked hard your entire life? Aren’t you entitled to a shiny new iPhone or cutting-edge hi-fi?
Research from Norton Finance revealed one in nine retirees would rather spend everything on themselves and their loved ones rather than leave an inheritance.
The firm asked 2,000 UK retirees for their thoughts and found that only 5% wanted to save as much as they could for when they passed on.
“It’s fair to say that attitudes towards money changes when we’re retired,” said Paul Stringer from Norton Finance.
“From our research, we’re seeing that retirees are more likely to want to spend on themselves and people they love while they’re still around, which is a completely natural thing to want to do.”
Of course, the argument could be made that eight out of nine retirees are happily passing on what they’ve saved to their families.
But what’s not in doubt is that older people are spending more money on tech than before.
More than half (53%) of respondents admitted to owning a tablet, two-thirds (65%) to owning a laptop and a third (32%) to owning a smart TV. In fact, retirees were more likely to own a tablet (53%) than a student (41%).
One in ten had even bought at least one games console.
“We’re finding that the older people get, the less budget-focused they become,” said Stringer.
“There are a number of reasons for this, such as potentially not having to support a family and receiving benefits from the government.
“What’s really interesting is how much the attitude towards saving money for a Will changes the older one gets.
“On the one hand, you have more than one in five people aged 18-24 saying they intend to save as much as they can, and on the other you have just 5% of over-55s saying the same thing.”
[“Source-mirror”]
