A survey of 4,017 workers by the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) found that workers have changed the way they manage their assets in the past five years.
Compared to a similar survey conducted in 2002, the percentage of those putting money into properties, savings accounts, individual stocks and through "mutual aid societies" (
The survey was conducted to gauge the readiness of workers in this country to face retirement, said Lin Lee-jen (
"Our savings rate in this country is still quite high, in excess of 20 percent," Lin said. "However, whether or not those savings can give us a comfortable life depends on how they are managed."
The decrease in those using mutual aid societies is the most dramatic.
While 38.7 percent of surveyed workers participated in such societies in 2001, only 10.3 percent did so last year, a drop finance experts credit to the increasing number of firms offering financial planning services in this country.
Mutual aid societies are a traditional way for individuals to obtain credit from a group of peers. One member receives dues collected from the rest of the members every month.
The member who needs the money the most submits the highest bid for the pot. Those who are not in immediate need of the money do not bid and in return receive the pot when it comes to their turn to collect.
Investment in real estate is also down as property prices have risen out of reach for many. Those who saved through investing in real estate fell from 42.7 to 17.8 percent. Those investing in stocks fell from 42.1 percent to 31.2 percent.
In the face of low interest rates in savings accounts, those using them as an investment also fell from 72.2 to 56.6 percent.
The percentage of those investing in mutual funds increased from 32 percent to 41.4 percent while the percentage of those who bought insurance rose from 48.9 percent to 57.1 percent.
Hsin Ping-lung (
"So we know a greater percentage of people are buying insurance, but we don't know what kind of insurance they are buying or how much," Hsin said.
The savvy or lack thereof of individual investors could determine to what extent labor retirement benefits could be privatized, Hsin said.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
BACK TO WINTER: A strong continental cold air mass would move south on Tuesday next week, bringing colder temperatures to northern and central Taiwan A tropical depression east of the Philippines could soon be upgraded to be the first tropical storm of this year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the next cold air mass is forecast to arrive on Monday next week. CWA forecaster Cheng Jie-ren (鄭傑仁) said the first tropical depression of this year is over waters east of the Philippines, about 1,867km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), and could strengthen into Tropical Storm Nokaen by early today. The system is moving slowly from northwest to north, and is expected to remain east of the Philippines with little chance of affecting Taiwan,
RSS