A third of Belgian self-employed people between the ages of 45 and 64 have not built up sufficient savings for a comfortable pension, research from Belgian financial services company NN has revealed.

The research also found that 39 per cent of self-employed respondents indicated that they fear that they do not have “sufficient” financial resources for the rest of their lives, until 100 years of age.

In addition to this, the research also revealed that 28 per cent of self-employed people have built up savings reserves for less than three months, while 43 per cent do not have a supplementary pension.

Meanwhile, half of the self-employed people (aged 55-64) who do have a supplementary pension have built up a reserve of less than €34,000.

On average, a self-employed person receives €1,156 gross per month after a full career.

Therefore, NN said it was crucial for self-employed individuals to build sufficient savings to ensure a comfortable retirement.

NN longevity expert, Colin Sanders, said that Belgian self-employed people fall into three categories, these included “good savers” who build up good reserves throughout their lives, “hard” workers who are left with hardly anything at the end of their careers, and those who are not badly prepared for retirement.

Sanders said that the hard worker category applies to approximately one in three self-employed people who, after a career of hard work, are left without any financial reserves.

The research also suggested poor retirement financial preparation is associated with a lower happiness score and poorer physical well-being.

In particular, poorly prepared self-employed individuals rate their happiness at least 1.4 points lower than well-prepared self-employed individuals, with an average score of 6.4 out of 10 compared to 7.8 out of 10.

The study also found that people who were well-prepared for retirement invested more in their health, with those who were well-prepared for retirement exercise an average of 3.3 days a week for at least 30 minutes. Meanwhile, for those who are poorly prepared exercise an average of 1.9 days a week.

Sanders said NN has noticed the preparedness of self-employed people goes beyond pension preparation, as 56 per cent of self-employed Belgians said they are struggling or even suffering.

The research also pointed out that self-employed people who are well-prepared for the future often had various sources to “fall back on” instead of a pension.

Real estate was a popular option for this other stream of retirement income, as 73 per cent people of self-employed people who were well-prepared have at least one other real estate property. As a result, almost half of them can also count on rental income during their retirement.

In addition to this, many self-employed people expect their main source of income to come from withdrawing their savings and investments.

Among well-prepared self-employed individuals, 73 per cent said they expect to be able to save money, while 72 per cent expect to ab able to earn income from interest and dividends.

“We see that a small group of self-employed people are well prepared for their retirement. Their secret is mainly that they know what they want to do during their retirement and can imagine their own retirement. This also allows them to better imagine what needs to be saved for this,” Sanders said.

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