Someone shared a status on FB and said that his relative, an elderly man at at the age of 77 was still healthy enough to keep working in Singapore. (a repetitive daily job for 8 hours) I just wanted to say that I have every intention to continue working until the day I say bye-bye. However, it should be for interest and not because I needed the money. For example, writing in leading independent property blog; kopiandproperty.my is definitely something I am glad to do. Perhaps by then some readers could tell me that they have been reading my blog for over 30 years? Haha..
The role should also be for variety, for the society perhaps and even for the benefit of the younger generation and not a repetitive kind of work every second, minute hour and day after day for years. This is the reason why it’s important to invest in property and preferably to have 3 by the time we retire. A small one for own stay, a bigger one to sell and use the proceeds and a popular one to continue collecting rental. Basically, we could even sell all three and just leave the money in the bank for continuous FD interest on a monthly basis.
These days, instead of daily, weekly or monthly salary, the economists say we should look at living wage instead. In other words, the salary should be enough for us to also spend it on something beneficial to our lives like socialising and not just enough to buy us food and shelter. This should be the same case for the elderly. They have contributed to the society for such a long time that when it’s time for them to retire, they should be allowed to ONLY do things they love.
Let’s understand there’s a real difference with interest vs repetitive jobs (every minute, hour, day and years!) yeah. As a son, I would hate it if my parents have to continue doing repetitive work everyday when there are already old enough to just enjoy what they like to do!
This is why its important for all stakeholders, including the government to ensure the elderly has a quality life after they decide to retire. This is also why it’s important for everyone to have financial awareness because the truth is, savings is no longer enough. In fact, whether it’s EPF (Malaysia) or CPF (Singapore), it will not be enough to sustain our lifestyle before we stopped working. Main reason is because everyone is living longer. MUCH LONGER. By 2040, Singaporeans will live to over 85! In 1999, the life expectancy was just 77.6 years. Malaysia’s median life expectancy is 74 for men and 78 for women. If we retire at 56, the men needs to have money to last another 18 years (216 months!) and the women for 22 years (264 months)! Even if we need just RM3,000 per month, that’s an extra RM650k for men and RM800k for women! Okay, we can reduce this as a couple. 😛 Start thinking and start doing. Investing on a monthly basis helps too. (Here’s one option which is low maintenance fee) Regretting when the day arrive may be too late.
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written on 1 March 2019
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