Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
How much do young, wealthy Koreans own?
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By Anna J. Park
By Anna J. Park
People in Korea who fall into the “young and rich” category possess 6.6 billion won ($5.3 million) in assets on average, including 1.7 homes. Over 30 percent of them are office workers, followed by professionals like doctors and lawyers at 20 percent. Those who inherited most of their wealth from their parents possess nearly twice as many assets as those who did not.
This is according to the 2022 Korean Wealth Report, published by a research institute under Hana Financial Group on Wednesday, based on an online survey. This was the first time the report compared features of the young and rich ― those 49 years of age and under ― and the old and rich ― aged 50 and over.
The report categorizes those who are 49 and younger and own over 1 billion won in financial assets as “young and rich.” The average amount of wealth these people own ― 6.6 billion won ― is smaller than the 8 billion won owned by the old and rich. Yet the two groups had similar asset portfolios, with real estate accounting for 60 percent of their wealth and financial assets 40 percent.
In terms of real estate, the young and rich own 1.7 homes on average, while the old and rich have 1.5 homes. The young and rich preferred commercial real estate, aside from their residences, while the old and rich preferred land as investments.
Regarding their financial asset portfolios, both age groups had most of their money parked in savings accounts, followed by stocks.
Also, 45 percent of the rich said the primary source of their wealth was earned income, while 23 percent of them selected business profits. The report showed 18 percent of them pointing to inheritance as the primary source of their wealth. However, three out of four young and rich people said their income comes from more than two sources, including earned income, business income and property.
Those who rely only on earned income made an average annual salary of 210 million won, while those who have both salary and income from property ownership averaged 480 million won in annual income.
Those who inherited most of their wealth had 12.8 billion won worth of assets on average, while those who have grew rich from their earned income owned 3.8 billion won.
When it comes to virtual assets, 21 percent of the young and rich and 5 percent of the old and rich said they have invested in cryptocurrency.