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More than half of middle-income singles are putting off plans for marriage in order to have more time to save money, according to a survey.儲存 Men are much more willing to delay marriage than females, with 65 percent intending to do so, compared with 38 percent of women. The Citibank survey sampled 1,014 people, aged 30 to 40 and earning between HK$20,000 and HK$50,000 a month. Fifty-three percent say they put off marriage for an average of four years. Financial burdens are high for this income group, as their living expenses eat up 70 percent of their income. Their median monthly income stands at HK$27,000, with median total monthly expenses hitting HK$19,000. This is despite 74 percent of middle- income earners having professional, white-collar jobs. A quarter of respondents have taken up part-time work for extra income, mostly in sales and tutoring - working an additional nine hours per week and earning HK$3,700 more on average. Nearly one in five (18 percent) had personal loans, including overdue credit card balances新蒲崗迷你倉 of HK$150,000. Marriage is also not the only life stage that respondents plan to delay. Some 44 pecent of married couples also said they are looking to delay having children in order to save money. And 45 percent of married people have decided against having children at all, or not any more, as child-rearing expenses have become too high. ``These people live relatively comfortable lives in Hong Kong. Their average incomes are more than double the median,'' said Priscilla Ng Sze-nga, country marketing manager of Citibank's Global Consumer Banking. She said the next 12 months should see the financial burden of middle- income earners ease as home prices cool. ``The government has implemented measures to make housing more affordable - we have already seen the market stagnate recently,'' Ng said. ``I expect property prices to fall a further 5 percent to 10 percent in the coming months.'' She said through prudent money management, the financial pressures on middle-income earners would ease. staff.reporter@singtaonewscorp.com mini storage