Tom Happy 2025 Everyone!
To kick start the year, we’ll be talking about a topic that we’re passionate about.
Retirement.
If you’re in your 20s and 30s, you’ll probably be thinking that retirement is still a long ways off and you’re still too young to think about this. But a friend once shared this saying:
“We spend 15 years (or more) studying for a 30 years career but spend 2 years (or less) planning for a 30 years retirement.”
Which does make sense.
We spend time in nursery, kindergarten, primary school, secondary school and tertiary education that easily adds up to 15 years and we’d probably do some upgrades and re-skilling during our career as well. If we spend all these years for us to be “productive” in our working years, shouldn’t we spend the same amount of time, if not more, for a 30 years retirement (from 60 years old to 90 years old)?
Our Increasing Lifespans in Singapore
Although life expectancy is currently at 83 years old for Singaporeans, with medical advances and better amenities in Singapore, it is not unimaginable to see this number rise to 90 or even 100 during our lifetime. Already, Singapore has been identified as “Blue Zone 2.0” – an artificially engineered country with long life expectancies, not by cultural or dietary habits but through policies and social engineering.
And we’re doing more.
First, war was declared on diabetes, with healthier alternatives to sugary drinks as recommended options. Then, war was subsequently declared on salt and its associated presentations such as sauces and seasonings.
But it’s not only about food.
Our government has been encouraging us to stay active by giving ActiveSG credits for use at public gyms and sports facilities; continue to be life-long learners by reskilling through SkillsFuture credits and staying socially engaged as we aged; with $3.5 billion set aside over the next decade to help our elderly age well.
And you know what? Our government is on the right track. As we continue to combat unhealthy diets, sedentary lifestyles and social isolation, our overall physical and mental well-being will improve, possibly leading to longer lifespans in Singapore.
The real question now is that with longer lifespans, how should we properly plan and use this gift of time that has been given to us? Our first article on retirement hopes to be able to start a conversation about this interesting but complex topic.
Retirement – A Really Interesting But Complex Topic
Over the years, we have been reading many books on the topic of retirement. We realised that while the topic of retirement is really complex and multi-faceted, many books usually cover one of the major tenets – finances. Our curiosity on finances started early with Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad Poor Dad” series on generating passive income and books like “The Richest Man in Babylon” laid foundations for our earning, saving and spending habits.
In recent years, you would have come across the FIRE movement for retirement. Known as Financial Independence Retire Early, this retirement movement essentially advocates the generation of passive income early so as to utilise the time that you have otherwise spent on working, to do what you have always wanted to do. Within the FIRE movement, there are also “sub-specialisations” such as
Barista FIRE – Retiring early while still generating some income through part-time work (such as being a barista) or side hustles.
Fat FIRE – Increasing your income as much as possible and saving as much as you can to have a comfortable early retirement.
Lean FIRE – Living within your means, to the extreme, typically of less than $25,000 per year.
Coast FIRE – Using a combination of savings and investment to reach a desired retirement amount and once you have attained the amount, coast till retirement.
However, these only address the financial aspects of retirement. With finances addressed and time in hand (especially if you’re retiring young), what would you be doing with the additional time that you now have?
Thankfully, many books these days have started to cover more of these other tenets of retirement. Here are some of them…
1. Keeping Your Body Healthy. Now that you have finances addressed and time in hand, what would you want to do now? Travel? Spend time with your loved ones? Learn a new language or pick up a new hobby like pickleball? Guess what? You’d probably need a healthy physique to be able to do many of these activities. Hence, it is important to exercise regularly – walking 10,000 steps a day could be a good start.
2. Keeping Your Mind Active. Similarly, to do many of the things that we want to do, we probably need a good frame of mind to think, analyse and overcome challenges that we’d continue to be facing during retirement. Nope, retirement won’t be a bed of roses. The Lord has mentioned that “In this world, you will have trouble…” and keeping our minds sharp can help us to make sound decisions during these times. Learning memory verses, discovering new things through traveling, playing games like “double decision” or conversing in a new language can help us in this aspect.
3. Good Relationships. According to the Harvard Study Team that wrote the book “The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness”, good relationships seem to be the key ingredient mentioned by this study of 3000 participants over a period of 80 years (i.e. 3 generations of people). But one thing we’d probably want to add is that you may want to mix in good friends, in addition to good family relationships. Afterall, your children would probably not know Fandi Ahmad, Michael Jordan nor Michael Learns To Rock as well as your peers would – yes, we’re old…😅
4. A Purpose To Tie Everything Together. Now that you are equipped with the finances, time, a healthy body, an active mind and strong ties with your loved ones, what would be the purpose of your remaining time on earth? Well, for us, it is to continue to spread the love of God and the Lord Jesus Christ while we are still able to. Admittedly, there’s a big-Purpose (big-P) – change the world kind of purpose as well as the small-Purpose (small-P) – raising kids who are loving and God-fearing. Purpose and meaning would drive you as you begin this next phase of your life.
Any Lasts Words on Retirement?
As we continue to read more about retirement, we also noticed more areas to have in-depth discussions about. Particularly from the psychological aspects post-retirement.
For instance, on the topic of finances, there’s a psychological aspect of how we want to spend in our retirement years. We have been conditioned to save, save and save but without earnings from a job, would we be ok to see our bank accounts continuing to drop each year? If not, do we need to draw diligently from a 4% investment account? Or would “bucketing” help you have a peace of mind, knowing that you are spending from a bucket that you have set aside?
For instance, on the topic of death, there’s really a need to have conversations with your loved ones on what happens if you suffer from dementia (mental) or cancer (physical) and probably need more care at the end of your life. How would you want to live out the remaining days? Trying to recover from cancer in its entirety? Or address the symptoms while you continue to do what you can and love to do? These are deeply personal questions that would probably need to be discussed – sooner rather than later.
As Christians, we know where we’d be when we leave this earth – safe in the Father’s arms. As mentioned in John chapter 3 verse 16:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
If you’re not certain where you’ll be if life were to end today, consider Jesus’ invite to believe in His life, death and resurrection for us all. If you’re willing to invite Jesus into your life, all you have to do is to say the following prayer and understand that you can receive Jesus Christ right here and now:
“Dear Lord Jesus, I believe in you. I believe that you died on the cross for me and rose again on the third day. Thank you for saving a sinner such as I. I ask for the Holy Spirit to come live inside me and guide me as I journey with you in the days ahead. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”
Next Steps
1. If you have prayed the prayer above, we’d strongly encourage you to join a local church and perhaps join a cell group to grow deeper in Christ. Remember, the Lord speaks to us primarily through the Bible. So read the Bible and commune with Him through prayer. As you grow, you will be sensitive to the many ways that He will speak to us – through His Word, directly through an audible voice, through people or situation around us. Go on now and enjoy this journey and freedom in Christ! 🥰🙏
2. No matter what age you are, we hope that is something that you can take-away as you plan for your retirement years. If you’re in your 20s or 30s, save diligently, spend wisely and invest intelligently. If you’re in your 40s or 50s, don’t forget about the other pillars – staying active both physically and mentally while maintaining strong relationships and finding your purpose. If you’re in your 60s and 70s, please get in touch with us, because you probably have some lessons that we can glean from as well! 😄
If you’re still thinking that retirement is about chilling at the beach and sipping cocktails all day long, we hope this post has at least changed your perspective of it. Also, we’ve done the beach part – twice. While it was relaxing, being sunburnt is definitely not something that retirees talk about. 😂
Here’s to wishing you and your loved ones a blessed 2025! Should time permit in the future, we’ll touch on the other topics related to retirement as well!
