Housing, healthcare, and food: what’s important to make retirement happy?

NPF of Sberbank has polled Russians aged 45-60 about things they need for a decent life after retiring. For more than 90% of the respondents, the priorities are their own housing, high-quality medicine, good nutrition, and the opportunity to do what they love or do sports. According to the respondents, as many as 45,600 rubles a month is enough for all this on average across the country.

Here's the list of opportunities that most Russians would like to have after retirement: owning an apartment or house (98%), having access to high-quality healthcare, including fee-based healthcare (97%), good nutrition at home, in cafes and restaurants (96%), the opportunity to do sports or have other hobbies (96%), modern home appliances (95%), access to cultural values (theaters, exhibitions, books, etc., 95%), the ability to organize their lives independently (90%). Owning a car is now considered mandatory by only 77% of respondents. And only one-third of the respondents are interested in free time (34%) and home help (30%) in old age.

Interestingly, the main priorities differ across cities. For example, in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Irkutsk, Rostov-on-Don, Makhachkala, Tyumen, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Omsk and Kirov, high-quality healthcare ranks first, as opposed to owning an apartment on average in Russia (housing issues in these regions are probably less acute than in the rest of Russia). In Lipetsk, Perm, and Khabarovsk high-quality food ranks first among all the things retirees seek for.

According to the estimates of the NPF of Sberbank respondents, the median monthly income required to maintain the desired standard of quality of life among older people is 45,600 rubles on average in Russia. However, in some cities, the metric is way higher: Moscow (65,100 rubles a month), Vladivostok (57,100 rubles), St. Petersburg (55,400 rubles), and Khabarovsk (52,400 rubles).

The residents of Krasnoyarsk (48,800 rubles a month), Irkutsk (48,600 rubles), Yekaterinburg (48,100 rubles), Novosibirsk (47,700 rubles), Novokuznetsk (47,500 rubles), Tyumen (47,500 rubles), Ufa (47,000 rubles), and Perm (46,000 rubles) also mentioned figures above the country average when it comes to the quality of life. The residents of Ryazan turned out to be the most unassuming: they believe that 38,500 rubles a month are enough for a decent life after retirement. The metric is relatively small among the residents of Ulyanovsk (38,600 rubles), Astrakhan (38,800 rubles), and Penza (39,900 rubles).

It is not surprising that older people consider basic needs as top priorities: housing, healthcare, high-quality food. Also, Russians find it crucial to have savings that allow them to cope with problems, and let them travel in and outside Russia - 86% of our respondents say this. Russians can secure all these advantages independently by the time they end their careers if they deposit 3-5% of their monthly income into an individual pension plan since the age of 25-30.

Alexander Zaretsky

CEO, NPF of Sberbank

The opinion survey was conducted in cities of Russia with 500,000+ people each, using a representative sample of at least 400 respondents aged between 45 and 60 in each city. In phone surveys, respondents were asked about the things that they need for a 'normal' and 'decent' life after retirement, as well as the size of monthly income per family member that allows them to gain access to these things.