Biases That Hold Back Senior Citizens

Seniors are often plagued by biases when it comes to investment, relocation or other life goals. However, longer livespans, inflation, and physical and mental well-being could often necessitate a change in outlook

- Versha Jain

Generation shift has always been a problem for the younger as well as older individuals, but in today's age, the gap is becoming wider with each passing year, thanks to technological advancements that are changing lifestyles drastically.

As a result, members of the current senior generation, face a unique set of challenges in every sphere of life.

While most boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) are already retired now, the Gen X (born between 1964 and 1980) has started entering the retirement zone. It is the boomers and older members of Gen X who feel the hardest punch.

In the financial sphere, there are several things that stump them. For instance, they are getting to know a plethora of investment options, half of which got popular only when they were in their late 40s or early 50s. Banks moved from physical to digital, but along came cyber frauds.

Medical inflation has become a monster they were never prepared to tackle, as private hospitals were few and far between.

The good part is that many seniors, especially those in their early or mid-60s, have managed to figure out several of these things and have found their comfort spaces. Then there are those who discovered stock markets in its early days in India and have grown along with it.

The problem is that there are many others, who are not well-versed with the changes, and have been bitten hard by frauds or mis-selling and are not ready to open up to changes that may actually benefit them. Still others have simply not kept pace with the changing times.

A lot of these seniors are led by certain societal and financial biases that make them a victim of their own thoughts and beliefs. Let's explore the common biases that seniors, typically, suffer from in India, and how they can affect their money lives.

Risk Aversion