Malawians challenged on retirement planning

By Deogratias Mmana & Witness Chipwere:

Local business and management consulting firm, Sycamore Consult, has challenged Malawians to plan for retirement to avoid living ‘miserable lives’ after successful years of work.

Sycamore Consult Managing Director Audrey Mwala said many Malawians are stressed and die earlier after retirement because they do not plan for such.

Mwala was speaking on Wednesday during a retirement planning training for public servants in Lilongwe.

“Malawians are not financially literate. They think they know but they do not. So they think short term. So, because of short term thinking, they find that they fail to invest because they think that if they invest today and they see that what they get is small, they get discouraged. They do not understand that wealth creation does not happen in the short term,” Mwala said.

Mwala added that wealth creation is a formula which many people do not understand and, so, fail to apply it to save money.

She said it is sad that after working for many years, a lot of people are not ready financially and psychologically by the time they retire because they do not have assets that can help them earn a decent living.

“So, it becomes a very big shock and it stresses people and makes others die earlier when they think that yesterday they earned a salary every month and were able to earn a living and now, because they have reached a certain age, all that disappears,” Mwala said.

One of the trainees, acting chief revenue accountant for the Electricity Corporation of Malawi Patrick Chamdimba, said many employees fear for their lives as they retire because of failing to manage finances.

Similar training was hosted in Mzuzu.

One of the participants, Augustine Chikaya, said the training came at the right time as many people are living desperate lives after retirement.

Chikaya added that the training should also be available to those that have just started work.