It’s not an easy task to help the elderly. This is especially when they retire and no longer have a fixed income and has to rely on their savings or even their EPF. In fact one advice for retirement is NOT to retire so early! Earlier article here. Just look at the ageing population in many advanced countries in the world today and you may understand the gargantuan task ahead for the government of the day when Malaysia becomes an ageing nation somewhere between 2035 – 2040. Perhaps one article in Edgeprop.my may help some of these elderly. It says that some 800 seniors aged 60 and above have earned more than RM5.6 million through hosting on AirBnB. This was achieved between September 2017 and September 2018.
(Number wise, RM5.6 million divided by 800 seniors would be RM7,000 per person. Divided over a period of 12 months, that’s around RM583 per month per senior. Okay, the amount may not seem to be that big but the elderly gets other benefits too as per the article). According to a global survey by Airbnb, close to half of the senior age group said hosting has helped them afford to stay in their homes while about 41% said they rely on their Airbnb income to make ends meet. (Yes, renting out some of the rooms can help tremendously!) AirBnB shared that the senior host cohort is a fast growing group in Malaysia, with a year-on-year growth of 51.37% to 884 senior hosts in September 2018 from 584 in September 2017. In fact nearly 80 percent of these senior hosts get five star ratings as hosts. (WOW!) Please do refer to the article in Edgeprop.my for reference.
Now, we get to some reality about the potential of seniors hosting travellers into their home. First of all, they need to have a home. This is the reason why it’s so important that when they were still ‘juniors’ they start investing in that property they are staying in. Perhaps investing in one property every 10 years? By the way, Kuala Lumpur is a top 10 MOST VISITED city in the world yeah. Earlier article here: Top 7 in the world for most visited city. In a year, Kuala Lumpur welcomed nearly 13 million international visitors. Second of all, perhaps we must always ensure the seniors know about all these opportunities and are ready to grab them. So, hopefully with this article, more seniors may see the potential opportunity and start to do something about it. That close to RM600 per month will sure be handy for everyone.
written on 19th Oct 2018
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