14 DAY TRIAL // As Christmas is almost here, Aviva, the international savings, investments and insurance group, decided to have a look at the shopping habits of UK residents for the holidays, in order to be able to compare them with interest in a pension or insurance policy. What it found is that, while the average Brit will spend an estimated 6 months Christmas shopping in a lifetime, only a week is dedicated to looking for financial instruments that might protect them in the future.
A man will spend about 3 days, 6 hours and 35 minutes shopping for a Christmas present each year, which amounts to about 6 months in his lifetime. Women, of course, dedicate more time to window shopping and deciding what to get to each person on the list, which means they spend about one year and 3 months doing the Christmas shopping, Aviva has learned. Ironically enough, only few dedicate at least a week in their lifetime to searching for the right pension or insurance policy.
“A quarter (23%) of adults admit they spend at least two hours shopping for a Christmas present for their work colleague, the same amount of time they would devote to buying a Christmas present for their pet. Amazingly, 10% of animal loving individuals spend more than one week shopping for a Christmas present for their pet. And despite the credit crunch, Brits remain generous with nearly half (46%) of all adults saying they would buy a Christmas present for their postie, bin man or hairdresser,” Aviva says of the findings.
Among the favorite gifts, holidays to sunny destinations reigns supreme, with 55 percent of the adults queried (over 1,000 participants were included in the survey) saying they spend an average of a week doing research for the perfect holiday. A similar percentage of respondents spends over a week looking for “lifetime” financial products (pensions and insurance plans), in what is seen as a clear oversight on behalf of the Brits, Aviva further says.
“It’s great to see that people are becoming more savvy as consumers and shop around to get the best deal. However, it’s worrying that we might spend more time choosing Christmas presents for our dog than we would finding the best product to see us through the whole of our retirement!” Darren Dicks, head of annuities for Aviva, says in a press release.