Many young employees list saving for holidays as their top priority

Ask young workers what they are currently saving their monthly salaries for, and chances are many of them will say it is for their overseas holidays.

- Tan Ooi Boon

In a recent survey commissioned by The Straits Times on the financial habits of those 30 and under, about 57 per cent of young full-time employees said saving for travel and leisure would be their top financial goal.

The number is a percentage point higher than the 56 per cent who listed saving for their first home as a financial priority.

As the survey participants, who were polled by market research firm Kantar, have just embarked on their careers for a few years, it is not surprising that only 31 per cent listed retirement planning as a goal as they are likely to care more about doing well in their career than retiring.

If you think the financial priorities of young people are quite the opposite of their parents who had focused more on material gains, you are not wrong, partly because many of today's young adults grew up in households that were not lacking in necessities.

This probably explains why 24 per cent of young workers even said that spending on their pets is one of their financial obligations.

Setting aside part of their monthly income to take care of pets probably never crossed the minds of many of their parents in their younger days.