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“The report from the app showed that my husband and I went several days without spending a single dong,” says the 30-year-old IT engineer living in An Hoi Tay Ward, HCMC.

For years, the couple have cooked all three meals at home, traveled by electric vehicles and avoided unnecessary purchases. Their apartment was a gift from her husband’s parents, allowing them to keep monthly expenses at VND10-12 million, or about 20% of their income.

They invest the rest in mutual funds and stocks with the goal of buying a rental property to generate an income and build a retirement fund.

They have also built a financial safety net through social and life insurance. Trang has asked her company to base social insurance contributions on 60% of her salary rather than the usual 10%, and herself pays another VND4-5 million in premiums every month to grow her retirement benefits.

This decision was shaped by her experience during the Covid-19 pandemic, when she lost her job and lived on VND7 million in unemployment benefits while searching for work for four months.

“Women often face career interruptions, and so paying more helps me receive better unemployment, maternity and pension benefits,” she says.

Preparing earlier than their parents

Global investment bank and financial services firm Goldman Sachs said in its 2025 Retirement Survey & Insights that Gen Z began saving for retirement at an average age of 23 and millennials at 28, nearly a decade earlier than Gen X at 34 and older generations at 40.

In Vietnam, more young people are preparing for retirement and pursuing financial independence from an early age.

A study on readiness for independent living in old age done by the country’s Institute of Labor Science and Social Affairs and insurer Prudential Vietnam found that 52.6% of young people plan for their retirement between the ages of 45 and 55 and that confidence in financial preparedness among people aged 30-44 was only 5.72 out of 10.

The 2024 Future of Retirement report by international bank HSBC found that 39% of young Vietnamese were willing to take higher investment risks to accelerate retirement savings. It also found that 42% of Asia’s middle class were not ready for retirement, estimating their savings would cover only 10 years of expenses and 58% expecting to continue working after retirement.

Retirement concerns affecting career choices

Salary is no longer the deciding factor for many job seekers, who now ask employers about health insurance, group life insurance, and social insurance contributions during interviews. Trang says she and many of her friends prefer working for foreign companies because they provide higher insurance contributions.

Lam Tuan, director of a financial consulting company in Hanoi, says the trend reflects changing attitudes toward old age.

“The previous generation believed raising children to adulthood meant having a natural retirement fund.

“Young people today see parents continuing to support middle-aged children and children carrying the burden when their parents lack savings, and are forced to prepare much earlier for their own old age.”

Changes in the employment and housing markets are also contributing factors, he says.

Unlike previous generations, who often stayed with one employer for life, young people today face a gig economy, short-term contracts and the risk of AI replacing jobs, prompting many to think of their own financial safety nets.

For Cat Phuong, 34, in Tay Son Nhi Ward, HCMC, retirement planning began after being bedridden for a week with a viral fever in late 2022. She was earning VND36 million a month but constantly exhausted from work pressure.

“I was trapped in a cycle of earning money and then spending it to compensate for the stress of making money,” she says.

The illness prompted her to reassess her finances.

“When I checked my account, I was shocked to find that after six years of working I had saved only VND100 million,” she says.

She attended a 10-day meditation retreat that cut off contact with the outside world. She says the break helped her redefine success, focusing less on job titles and income and more on time and financial security.

Trang, on the other hand, says her awareness of financial preparedness came from observing her parents, who were unskilled workers but had to support their two children and elderly parents who had no pensions. The pressure they faced made her think about her own retirement.

The idea became clearer after a trip to Taiwan, where she learned about the “time bank” model, in which young people care for older people and accumulate service hours that they can “withdraw” when they eventually need elder care themselves.

“I realized old age is not something decades away,” she says.

Preparing early for retirement

Personal finance expert Minh Thuy in HCMC says many young people are planning for retirement early to avoid being sandwiched between having to support their children and care for aging parents.

“What sets young people apart today is that they no longer rely on pensions or a single source of income.

“They are building retirement portfolios with multiple layers of protection and long-term investments.”

Cat Phuong aims to achieve financial independence by age 50. After switching to the finance industry, she rents out a spare room to offset living expenses and follows the 5-3-2 rule: 50% for necessities, 30% for savings and investments, and 20% for personal spending.

She also developed a four-step retirement plan. First, she estimated monthly expenses for older adults at around VND15 million. She then calculated inflation over the next 15 years and the capital required to generate enough bank interest at 6% annually to cover expenses.

She has also invested in mutual funds and real estate and maintains life insurance as an additional safeguard. “My income is lower than when I worked in media but I know how to preserve and grow my money now, and so life is no longer as stressful.”

Trang says her parents have also become more financially prepared over the past two years after beginning to plan for their own retirement.

“My parents started planning for retirement in their 50s, more than 20 years later than I did, but it is better late than never. It helps ease the burden on both generations.”

Tuan says retirement planning should begin as soon as people have a stable income.

Young people do not need to aim for a wealthy retirement immediately but should first eliminate bad debt, build emergency savings covering six to 12 months, accumulate assets gradually and create passive income streams, he says.

“Young people today are moving from ‘earn and spend’ to ‘earn, preserve and grow money.”