Nearly 4 in 10 M’sian workers have no savings buffer

Malaysians may be fairly adaptable when life throws them a curveball, but their finances appear to be a different story. A new global study has found that while Malaysian workers score above average for overall personal resilience, financial resilience remains their weakest area.

According to Zurich Insurance Group’s Global People Resilience Study 2026, conducted with Oxford Research & Development Partners, 39% of Malaysian employees say they do not have a savings buffer to fall back on.

The research surveyed 11,175 working-age adults across 16 countries and examined resilience across five areas: psychological, physical, social, financial and digital.

Malaysian workers recorded a score of 4.26 on Zurich’s personal resilience index, higher than the global average of 4.11 and not far behind the highest country score of 4.38. Some 39% of Malaysian respondents also fell into the study’s “thriving” category, with a resilience score above 4.5.

Nevertheless, money emerged as the clearest weak spot: financial resilience was Malaysia’s lowest-scoring domain despite being one of the strongest contributors to overall resilience.

Apart from those without a savings buffer, confidence that insurance or takaful protection adequately meets people’s needs was among the lowest-rated areas measured.

There is, however, an interesting comparison with the rest of the world. Globally, 49% of workers reported having no savings buffer – meaning Malaysians fared somewhat better on this measure.

Even so, only 51% of respondents worldwide felt confident they could manage financially for a few months without income.

The issue matters because financial resilience is not simply about accumulating wealth. In the study, it refers more broadly to whether people can absorb setbacks such as a sudden loss of income, unexpected expenses or caring responsibilities without their overall ability to cope being badly affected.

Zurich’s research also suggests that this can spill over into working life. Employees with the highest resilience reported good or excellent job performance at twice the rate of those with the lowest resilience, while resilience was found to be 2.5 times more predictive of job performance than income.

The Malaysian results were considerably brighter elsewhere: physical health was the country’s strongest resilience driver and its highest-scoring domain. Only 12% of Malaysian respondents reported poor sleep quality, compared with 17% globally.

Malaysians also showed a strong willingness to adapt and learn. Among the highest-rated individual measures were motivation to acquire new skills and confidence in being able to achieve personal goals.

Digital adaptability stood out, too. Some 37% of Malaysian workers said they use generative artificial intelligence every day, compared with 32% globally. Across the wider study, regular users of generative AI tended to report higher resilience scores.

Age produced another notable divide: Malaysian workers aged 18 to 34 recorded a resilience score of 4.30, compared with 4.07 among those aged 50 and above.

Taken together, the findings paint a somewhat paradoxical picture: Malaysians appear relatively confident, adaptable and willing to learn, but a substantial share remain financially vulnerable when something goes wrong.

For those without much of a cushion, the conventional advice remains to build emergency savings gradually. EPF recommends eventually setting aside about three to six months’ worth of essential expenses, although even a smaller amount can provide some protection against unexpected costs.

But perhaps the bigger takeaway from the Zurich findings is that resilience is not only about how well someone copes emotionally or professionally. Sometimes, it can be as simple, and as difficult, as having enough money in reserve when life suddenly changes.

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