Hana Financial Management Research Institute publishes ‘2024 Korea Wealth Report’ – Gyeongin Daily

[경인매일=김도윤 기자] Hana Bank (CEO Seung-yeol Lee) and Hana Financial Management Research Institute (Director Hee-soo Jeong) published the “2024 Korean Wealth Report,” which analyzed the financial behavior of Korea’s rich.

This year, the 17th year of publication, we attempted to reflect on the true value of money by analyzing in depth not only the asset management methods of the rich (those with more than 1 billion won in financial assets) but also the essential question of ‘money and happiness.’

■ The rich maintain their asset portfolio this year and watch the market

The proportion of rich people who have a positive outlook on the real and real estate economy in 2024 has increased, showing expectations for economic recovery. However, the number of wealthy people who failed to turn around optimistically and decided to take a wait-and-see approach and maintain their asset portfolio as is rather than actively adjusting it increased from 5 out of 10 in the last survey to 7 this time.

Real estate ranked first as the asset with the highest intention to make additional investments this year, and there was a slight increase in the number of respondents saying they would actually increase the proportion of real estate, showing cautious expectations of a recovery in the real estate market. Among financial assets, preference for deposits remained high compared to last year, followed by willingness to invest in stocks and bonds.

The ownership rate of real assets, such as works of art and precious metals, also increased compared to the previous survey, and in particular, more than half of the wealthy who invested in gold showed an intention to make additional transactions.

■ Women consider their families more when managing household finances

As the person responsible for managing household finances, men tended to manage them relatively aggressively and self-directedly due to their high awareness of managing ‘my money’. The proportion of people owning direct investment products such as stocks and bonds was also up to 1.4 times higher among men.

On the other hand, women tried to approach it from a family-oriented perspective, considering themselves as managing ‘family money’. Stable products that prepare for risks and prepare for the future, such as insurance and pensions, had a 5-11% higher retention rate when women were in charge of finances. When investing, the rate of direct investment was lower and the rate of utilizing ETFs (exchange-traded funds) was higher than that of men. When securing information about financial investments, women sought advice from experts and also took into account the opinions of their families.

In addition, when transferring assets through gift or inheritance, men first considered spouses other than children, but women tended to consider more broadly, including their original family members, such as nieces, nephews, brothers, and sisters, in addition to children.

■ Rich people’s days are 30 minutes longer and reading is a daily habit.

The average sleep time of rich people was 7.3 hours, which was 30 minutes shorter than that of the general public, meaning they were having a relatively long day. Rich people used their morning time more actively. In the morning, they had a light breakfast such as squeezed juice or Greek yogurt and practiced various activities at a higher rate than the general public, such as reading paper newspapers, exercising and walking in the morning, and scheduling their day.

Among the rich, the proportion of people who read newspapers and news increased as their assets increased. They read the economic section especially avidly, and had less interest in entertainment/sports and social sections than the general public.

For the rich, reading was both daily life and relaxation. Rich people read about 10 books a year. In particular, the super-rich with financial assets of over 10 billion won were found to read about 20 books, twice as many. The rich most preferred reading in the fields of humanities and social sciences to satisfy their intellectual needs, while the general public read books at a rate of 60% of the rich and preferred novels and self-help books, showing a difference from the rich.

■ Rich “Happiness does not increase indefinitely with the amount of money.”

When we asked both the rich and the general public about the meaning of money, the most common response was ‘comfort.’ More than 90% of rich people perceived money positively, saying that money is a means to reduce inconveniences in life and provide comfort for generations. On the other hand, the general public was more likely to view money as a goal in life and view money negatively as pain and restraint.

In fact, when the general public and the rich were asked about their ‘overall life satisfaction’, 70% of the rich responded that they were satisfied, which is twice as many as the general public (35%).

When total assets are less than 1 billion won, the satisfaction rate is less than half at 42%, but when total assets are about 3 billion won, two-thirds (66%) of respondents responded that they are satisfied, a significant increase of 1.6 times. As it approached 5 billion won, the increase in satisfaction (71%) slowed, but beyond that, the number of satisfied people (67%) actually decreased. It is true that economic power is important for life satisfaction, but it was confirmed that happiness does not increase infinitely with the amount of money.

1) Happy rich people have self-confidence and clear goals rather than being emotional.

When asked to choose an adjective to describe their personality, people who were satisfied with their lives were more likely to describe themselves as ‘goal-oriented’ (30%) and ‘reliable’ (25%). This tendency was answered about 10 percentage points higher in cases of satisfaction with life than in cases of dissatisfaction.

Conversely, among those who were not highly satisfied with their lives, the rate of describing themselves as ’emotional’ and ‘good’ was more than 15% points higher than those who were satisfied. Coincidentally, the tendency to regard oneself as ’emotional’ and ‘kind’ was also a characteristic that was expressed at about twice the rate among the general public compared to the rich.

Through this, it was confirmed that a life attitude of trusting oneself and pursuing goals rather than being conscious of others’ views or evaluations can have a positive effect on forming wealth and increasing life satisfaction.

2) The barometer of happiness is family relationships, eating frequently and spending more time with family.

Among the many factors that determine a happy life, the proportion of rich people being satisfied with their ‘family relationships’ was particularly high. While 7 out of 10 wealthy people were satisfied with their family relationships, only about 5 of the general public responded positively, showing a difference in the perception of relationships between family members.

When asked about the number of times they ‘eat with family during a week’, 41% of rich people said ‘almost every day’ and 27% said ‘3-4 times a week’, with 7 out of 10 rich people eating with their families more than 3 times a week. did it On the other hand, the proportion of the general public who said they rarely eat with their families was close to 20%, which was about twice higher than that of the rich (9%).

Hwang Seon-kyung, a researcher at Hana Financial Management Research Institute, said, “It is important to look at the asset management practices and changes of the rich through the Korea Wealth Report, but it is also very meaningful to closely look at their attitude toward life.” “We have confirmed that the ‘life attitude of the rich’, which involves facing the situation rationally, trusting oneself, and pursuing goals rather than being conscious of it, can build wealth and further increase satisfaction with life in general,” he said.

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