After working for about 40 years, the thought of planning for retirement is scary.
Retirement may sound nice. And when you do retire, the office throws you a retirement party, people say good things about you.
Then you are tossed out.
No job. No office to go to. No income. No plans. No hope?
You are in the last chapter of your life. The job you gave your life to, just tossed you out to live your final chapter on your own. It’s a scary proposition.
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Moving Forward In Planning for Retirement
Heading into the unknown, I started making plans based on what is known.
Money Matters
The thought of living off your savings is scary. How long will it last? What if my wife and I have a serious illness? I thought of the time when I was a child, and I asked my father what would happen if we were seriously ill and did not have money for treatment at the hospital. He said they would leave you under the coconut tree to die!
I made a list of all our assets and shared it with my wife, who had been a housewife for the last 30 years.
Then I started receiving payouts from my CPF Life. We went to the CPF Board, made some enquiries, and topped up our CPF Life/Retirement Account to the maximum, and we both started receiving comfortable monthly payouts for our daily living expenses, plus a bit of extra for staycations and Malaysian holidays.
Very seriously, this took a huge load off my mind regarding my finances during retirement, and is highly recommended.
Health Factors
I was an educator for the last many years, and my benefits included 85% subsidy for hospitalisation, and 50% subsidy for my wife, even though we barely had any use for it.
But at this age, when we would need this benefit more, it is taken away!
Fortunately, I took up an Integrated Shield Plan very early for us, so that any pre-existing illness on retirement will be covered.
Unexpectedly, the government came up with the Merdeka Generation package, the Healthier SG scheme, etc., which covered our regular medications, referrals to government hospitals at subsidised rates, etc… This also took a huge load off our minds regarding our health.
Activity Chart
This is the exciting part. I started making my bucket list, and ranked them into daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and once-off activities. For example,
- Daily - Bible reading, stretching/exercise, gardening, Netflix.
- Weekly - Walking 10,000 steps, swimming 10 laps, bring my 90-year-old mother for an outing, church, leading a Bible study group, a more expensive meal, etc.
- Monthly - Call an old friend for lunch, visit a place of interest, go for a cruise or staycation or travel to Malaysia, read a book, DIY at home, community service, take up a sport, go to the beach, etc.
- Yearly - Visit grandchildren in the US, travel to a further country, go on a mission trip, etc.
- One-off - learn Chinese, play the guitar, arts n craft, sketch, build model battleships/aeroplanes, etc.
It is good to have plans. The longer the list, the better, because if you have nothing else to do, look at your plans. You do not have to do all of them at once. Just do them as they come along, when you have the time, are in the mood, and have the inspiration to do so.
Changes
I was clearing leave for three months before retirement, taking off two to three days a week, to ease myself into retirement.
To get used to staying home, to get used to the slower pace of life. For my wife to get used to me staying at home. And I could still run back to the office, thus easing the shock of sudden retirement.
Retirement came and I pulled out my planned activity list, and started on the daily and weekly activities. It works.
COVID
Barely a few weeks had gone by, I was still not bored of not going to work, when COVID struck. Circuit Breaker was implemented. Supermarket rush started. Stock up on canned food, rice, instant noodles, whatever food (perishable and non-perishable) you can get your hands on, toilet paper, anything. How long do we need to stock up for? No one knew the answer.
Circuit Breaker was for one month, then extended for another, followed by a phased opening up.
Everything was closed: schools, offices, restaurants, places of interest, church, etc. Where to go? What to do?
Find out what you can do. Supermarkets were open. Should not have bought so much toilet paper! We started going to the big supermarkets two to three times a week, just to get out of the house, and go for a walk in air-conditioned comfort, avoid people, keep our masks on. We went from one supermarket to another. Our house looked like a minimart.
Has our son bought his stuff? Does he need any? Send it to him anyway.
Food and beverage outlets were allowed to open, but only for take-away, no dining-in. We read in WhatsApp chats about supporting hawkers who suffer a drastic drop in business, and balanced that with the amount of foodstuff we needed to eat.
One of the nicest activities was going to Changi beach for a walk in the early morning, buying nasi lemak at the Changi Village hawker centre and eating it on the picnic bench along the beach.
We met lots of people, chatted with some while maintaining our distance and wearing our masks, and wondered at the amount of Brompton bicycles (which cost over $2,000 each) being ridden. Their rationale must be if the bicycle is going to be ridden more often, might as well get a good one. Besides, there was nowhere else to spend the money!
Then we had to learn to use YouTube for church services and exercise programmes, and Zoom for Bible study sessions. Cannot log in, accidental log out, forgot to mute, can’t locate the volume control, share screen, etc. We also could not meet up with the grandchildren overseas. So we had to learn to use videocalls on Skype and Facetime.
Internet banking, PayNow, PayLah!, payWave, pay anyone, pay salah! Online shopping picked up. Computer literacy was a steep learning curve, but necessary. This change was unplanned, unanticipated, and had to be quickly adopted. It had so many platforms, each with a different system. Laptop, handphone, smartTV, home security system, and even a smart car!
Then things started coming our way. We were approached by the church to be trained and to conduct Bible study courses by Zoom. We were also approached by a non-profit organization also to be trained to conduct courses by Zoom. As we saw a need, and we could contribute, we volunteered.
Then there were weddings and funeral wakes we could not attend, the DIY jobs at home which needed to be done.
Calling my mother and friends to keep them company, long walks at the parks and beaches, staycations with hotels offering deals, cruises at $128 per person for three days and two nights, etc.
All unplanned, but came along the way for us to ‘seize the day’.
While we looked after family and friends who were shut-in, it was a very nice surprise when a young friend called and invited me to go kayaking at the mangroves at Khatib Bongsu.
Another young friend invited me on a few occasions to go fishing at Bedok Jetty and Kallang River.
Post-COVID
As the situation returns to normal after COVID, our computer/handphone skills are still being used. Zoom Bible studies and training are so convenient that it is now difficult to meet up for face-to-face sessions. But the latter is still important and we must make the effort to meet face-to-face occasionally. Meeting friends, visiting places of interest, and travel frequency have increased.
Will not Change
When looking at retirement and our financial health, one of our largest expenses was the car. My wife and I each had a car since we started working and got married. We worked very different hours since she was a school teacher and I worked on a construction site then. Cars were cheap with respect to our salaries. A new Mini then was $5,000 and our salaries were $1,000+ each. And there was no COE!
Now, it’s no income and new cars are $150,000 upwards. And then there is the running cost, maintenance, etc.
We have a very efficient public transport system with a maximum fare of 99 cents per journey. And car sharing. Many people we know gave up their cars because it made no economic sense to keep it. Then they became Grab drivers, so that they could still have a car to use, and make some money to cover the rental and running costs.
What do we want to do? Since retirement, my wife and I did things together: marketing, walks, aqua fit, church, outings, etc. So we kept one car and gave up the other.
After four years, we have no regrets keeping the car. We felt free, jumping into the car and going out for meals, recreation, church, social events, etc. No restrictions. No excuses like “Wah! So far!”, or “So hot”, “it is raining”, “Can you fetch me?”. We even use the car for “ministry”, for example, bringing the elderly for outings or to the doctor, visiting the home-bound, etc. Is it a “steeply depreciating asset?” or a liability?
NO! It is an asset which greatly enhances retirement! And we do not want this to change.
Conclusion
A few years ago, I was one of the organisers of a youth camp, and activities were planned by the hour. By late morning, one of the organisers came to me and said that we needed to pick up the pace because we were still in activity one, while the schedule indicated we were late for activity 2, and should already be at activity 3.
My reply was that if everyone was having fun at activity 1, and the objectives are met, why break it up, and start to build the momentum up again for activities 2 and 3?
Similarly, we must make plans based on what is known. But we must also learn to recognise things that come our way, some things we cannot change (e.g. COVID, IT skills), and walk along with it.
And we will be surprised at how well we embrace the changes, as they lead us away from a planned predictable path, to a much more exciting life with new adventures.
