Save for yourself: number of Russians saving for retirement increases in a year

SberNPF has learned from a survey of over 13,000 inhabitants of Russian cities with a population of over 500,000 that 7.7% of Russians are intentionally saving for retirement, which represents an increase of 1.4 percentage points (pp) compared to last year. Additionally, 8.7% of Russians are considering starting to save for retirement in the next three to five years.

People between 50-60 years of age tend to think about the financial aspect of retirement (8.5% of respondents in this age group are saving up, twice as much as among 18-30-year-olds), as well as Russians who describe their income level as "I could buy myself a new car, but not an apartment" (11.8%).

The cities with the most residents intentionally saving for retirement are: Omsk (8.8%), Novosibirsk (8.6%), Perm (8.5%), Yaroslavl (8.3%), Lipetsk (7.8%), Naberezhnye Chelny (7.7%), Yekaterinburg (7.3%), Vladivostok and Moscow (7.2% each), and Kemerovo (7.1%). The cities with the fewest are Orenburg (3.8%), Astrakhan and Ufa (4% each), Penza (4.3%), Krasnodar (4.6%), and Khabarovsk (4.8%).

There is a particularly high number of people willing to start saving for retirement in the next few years in Tolyatti (12.3%), Novokuznetsk (11.9%), Perm (11.3%), Voronezh (10.4%), Omsk, Orenburg and Yaroslavl (10.3% each), Ufa (10%), and Ryazan and Samara (9.8% each).

The primary reason Russians are saving or planning to start saving for retirement in the near future is that they are not certain that state benefits will be enough for them to live comfortably. Over half the respondents voiced this opinion (51.4%), while 41% would prefer that the standard of life they are accustomed to not decrease after retirement, 5.5% are giving themselves the opportunity to not work once their main career reaches an end, and 2.6% are doing all they can to lighten the burden on their children.

On average, Russians handling their own savings put away RUB 7,400 for retirement purposes per month. Men (RUB 8,600) save more than women (RUB 6,300), while older respondents (40-50) put away more per month than younger ones (18-30), saving RUB 10,100 and RUB 7,400, respectively. The study showed that residents of Makhachkala (RUB 13,200 per month), Kazan and Kirov (RUB 12,600), Yaroslavl (RUB 11,800), St. Petersburg (RUB 11,700), Khabarovsk (RUB 11,300), and Moscow (RUB 11,000) are above-average savers.

Natalya Alymova, senior vice president, head of Wealth Management, Sberbank:

"The answers by respondents saving for retirement show that ruble savings accounts (74.8%) are the main instrument used for saving funds for this purpose. Nearly one-fourth of respondents intentionally saving for retirement (23.6%) prefer the most conservative tactic - keeping their cash at home. Third place belongs to investments in real estate with the intention of reselling (13%). A little over 5% of respondents currently use NPF services, with approximately the same amount saving for retirement with the help of endowment policies and mutual-end funds. However, we can see that the number of people using alternative (so far) investment and savings instruments is growing steadily."

Alexander Zaretsky, CEO, SberNPF:

"According to the study, the number of Russians putting away money for retirement increased in 2021, amounting to 7.7% of the national population in 4Q21 compared to 6.3% in 4Q20. Today, NPF offers clients convenient instruments and services that enable them to maintain their living standard after they retire. One of these tools is the digital Pension Showcase on SberBank Online (under Pensions, Pension and SberNPF Services), which shows users' current personal pension level, helps them adjust their financial behavior, and start using an individual pension plan, a tool for long-term savings. In one year, 17.4 million Russians visited our Pension Showcase."