I am not a Manchester United supporter. Don’t laugh. I have been a West Ham supporter for at least 15 years, ever since my first job. Well, a famous former Manchester United player, David Beckham said that the best thing about retirement is getting to spend quality time with his family. This was in an article I read in The Sun Daily. Hey, this is so true! He is just 40 but I think everyone knows that he is the face for many luxury brands and he has even been acting! Today, he spends a lot of his time with his wife, Victoria also 40 and their children. He has three sons and a daughter. He said that he misses the games but the transition has been easy. Today, he may travel for 10 days for work but then he would be home for 6 weeks.
Many years ago, I told my wife that my goal which she has since adopted as her own is this. My wife and I may be having a breakfast in KL when we get a call from my brother-in-law that he would like to bring us out for dinner in the evening in Sandakan. Well, we could fly there with the next available flight since both of us were not working, by then. After dinner, we would stay in Sandakan for a few days before flying off to our tiny little vacation home in Langkawi before flying back to Kuala Lumpur and driving home to Ipoh my beloved hometown. Haha. None of this has happened yet. I am still working very hard, full time and am still trying to invest and gain good returns so that I may retire earlier than than expected 60 years old.
The places I stated above are all in Malaysia because I have zero plans to move elsewhere. Perhaps for vacations maybe I love Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and more but my permanent home will always be Ipoh, Malaysia. Maybe I am just a small time ‘budak kampung.’ I was born in Teluk Intan. In total, I think I have been to around 19 countries and many of these countries have environment which I would rate above Malaysia. However, none have the food diversity (I live to eat) and none have as many of my relatives and friends that I could visit often and whenever I wanted. Plus lots of other reasons including the opportunity to gain more from my investment simply because of the current demographics.
I personally believe that to retire is not to sit down and watch TV. I believe we should all strive to have more quality time with all our loved ones. The worry for money should be lesser and instead of work-life balance, it would be time-life balance. Time is because the time lost is lost forever.Thus, it should be on how we balance our available time with what we love to do. That’s time-life balance. Yeah, yeah, if Korean drama is the only thing you love to do, please go ahead. Thanks David, I will persevere towards retiring as early as possible so that I can spend more quality time with my family and loved ones. Not so soon, that’s for sure but well, definitely before 60. What do you think about this ‘retirement topic?’ Do share.
written on 23 Sept 2015
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