Stock investment patterns among Koreans in their 60s and older are turning aggressive. Senior citizens who once sought out banks offering even 0.1 percentage point higher interest rates or parked their savings at the principal-guaranteed post office are now increasingly borrowing to invest. In the first quarter of this year, investors aged 60 and above held about 8 trillion won of the total margin loan balance of approximately 27 trillion won, accounting for 29 percent of the total. This marks a more than twofold surge from around 3 trillion won in the first quarter of last year, reflecting a major "money move" by seniors.
Breaking from the conventional view that older Koreans manage their money conservatively, the gray generation has emerged as a major player in "adventure capital." This shift in investment behavior is largely driven by anxiety about retirement. With 77 percent of seniors' assets tied up in real estate, the cash actually available to them is limited. The fact that margin loan growth among seniors reached 85 percent last year — far outpacing the 52 percent rate for those in their 40s and 50s and the 46 percent rate for those in their 20s and 30s — clearly illustrates the economic urgency they feel.
As time flies, attitudes toward divorce among the gray generation are also changing rapidly. Elderly women in particular have cast off the so-called "three obediences" (samjongjido), the traditional notion that a woman should follow her father in youth, her husband in marriage, and her son in old age. Last year, "gray divorces" — divorces among couples married for 30 years or more — surpassed "newlywed divorces" among couples married less than five years for the first time. Gray divorces numbered 15,628, exceeding newlywed divorces (14,392) by 1,236 cases. According to the Korea Legal Aid Center for Family Relations, women aged 60 and above accounted for 22 percent of the 4,013 divorce consultations involving women last year.
Japan is seeing a similar surge in gray divorce. In Japan, where gray divorce refers to the separation of couples married for 20 years or more, the ratio reached a record high of 23.5 percent in 2022. The trend is largely attributed to the "yakushoku teinen" system, under which managers in their 50s who fail to win promotions are demoted or stripped of their titles. Salary cuts often spark marital conflicts over retirement funds and childcare expenses, ultimately leading many couples to divorce. Bitter as it may be, in both Korea and Japan, staying together "until one's hair turns as white as the roots of a green onion" has become increasingly difficult in today's world.
