Attitudes, savings choices, level of knowledge and investment preferences of employees toward pensions and retirement planning: Survey evidence from Barbados

Abstract

This study draws on data from an online survey of a cross-section of Barbadian employees who are members of either defined benefit or defined contribution schemes. The results were heavily consistent with those from the United Kingdom. Generally, employees lack the basic knowledge to manage their own pension plans and they often times treat issues pertaining to retirement with low priority. Furthermore, results show that an extremely high weighting is attributed to property and land as assets for retirement. One major finding that came out of the study was that there are cultural differences between the United Kingdom and Barbados, where in the United Kingdom there is an individualistic culture, in contrast to the collectivist culture of Barbados. © 2009 Palgrave Macmillan.