“We have just joined the SKI Club!” my friend announced to me with a chuckle as he shared some life updates.
He had just retired, sold a property, and returned from a 3-month round-the-world holiday with his wife on Business Class, with private tours at each city.
Another newly retired friend sold his trusty 18-year-old family MPV and bought a Porsche, now that his children are both working.
He is one of many retirees driving around town with a cheeky grin on his face.
Welcome to the SKI Club!
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What is The SKI Club?
The SKI Club, short for “Spending Kids’ Inheritance” Club, is quite self-explanatory; essentially splurging on experiences or things that you would enjoy using the excess from your remaining savings, hence leaving little behind for your kids to inherit.
After all, most of our kids are financially comfortable and don’t need this. And enjoying my retirement years sounds really appealing to me.
I want to join! I want to join!
But what is the starting point? Let me qualify – I do not have a huge inheritance, trust fund, Toto win, or any other windfall. However, as a retiree in my 70s who had been a salaried professional all his life, I do have quite a nest egg saved up.
I will need to set some money aside for retirement and projected medical expenses, and then with the surplus, start spending my kids’ inheritance!
But what are some considerations to join the SKI Club? Here are the big-ticket expenditure areas I identified to consider being a SKI Club member for:
- House
We have set aside sufficiently for retirement and projected medical expenses, but to have a surplus, we would need to sell our current house and downgrade.
We met up with an agent friend, agreed on a valuation and sale price, and it was put in the market. Offers 20% below that were easy to reject. Then one day, we got an offer 20% above that. How to refuse?
Excitedly, my wife and I sat down and listed the steps that needed to be done.
- Pack up 30 years of accumulated stuff and dispose the rest. The children’s old toys, the parents’ stuff, our boxes of photo albums, our own rubbish, etc.
- Start looking for a new replacement property. Each time we looked for an investment property, or a property for our son and sister, we viewed at least 10 properties. It was very tiring and confusing.
- Then we have to move and unpack.
- Get acquainted with the new neighbourhood, public transport, supermarket, HDB shopping areas, etc.
We then realised that the price of a reasonable conditioned terraced house was $4 million, and a condominium of about 1,500 sq ft in a reasonable area was also around that price.
We eventually reached the conclusion that downgrading would not leave us with much surplus to fritter away, and the trouble of moving was too much physical and emotional effort for two folks in their 70s.
We sadly went back to our agent friend and told him we appreciated his effort but regret that we will not be selling the house.
- Car
We have a bread-and-butter saloon car, but to join the SKI Club, we would need a sexy sports car as well. I test drove one. It was beautiful.
The look of the car, the feel, the power, the handling. When we went back to the showroom, the salesman was so confident of a sale, that he just asked me for the colour I would like.
Then I started getting out of the car’s low-slung seats. I had to hold the side of the car, the door, the roof, and anything I could get a hold of. It was excruciating!!
I just smiled at the salesman and said that he should know why I could not buy the car!
I then test drove a new continental saloon car. The salesman kept the car key in his pocket. The controls to the car were all on the “iPad”. There was no parking brake, which is now in the form of a push-button.
I looked for the gear handle, which is now a knob which you turn to select “Reverse” or “Drive”. I tried parking the car which had many blind spots. The salesman told me to use the cameras around the car. The car had many “beep-beep” sounds for everything. I had to learn how to drive again!!
I went back to my trusty 18-year-old saloon with a manual handbrake, and click-click control buttons to “sayang-sayang” my car. I also decided to renew the COE when it reaches 20 years old, to my wife’s relief.
However, we are now quite happy to drive longer distances within Singapore, like to Changi Village or Woodlands jetty, and pay carpark charges.
We would not even grumble about the petrol cost nor the carpark charges, so that we can feel free to roam and explore Singapore, and not be limited to nearby places and places with free or cheap parking.
- Travel
We travel to the US to see our grandchildren each year. SKI Club friends advise us to take Business Class flights for the 15-hour flight because “Your kids will fly Business Class with their inheritance, so you might as well enjoy it yourself!”
The air ticket per person (at the time of this article) cost S$2,229 for Economy, S$4,719 for Premium Economy, and S$5,899 for Business Class.
Psychologically, we are prepared to pay for Economy Class because we look forward to seeing our grandchildren each year.
To pay more than double for Premium Economy, or almost triple for Business Class? For 2 persons (my wife and I) the difference is even more stark – from $4,000+ to about $10,000?? No lah, I will be a true-blue SKI Club member maybe later.
Leisure travel all over the world is also popular for the SKI Club folks. Europe, Middle East, Africa, China, Japan, Korea, etc. We have been there, done that.
Do we want to go again? Why? Jetlag, immigration hassle, unfamiliar language, finding our way around, taking photos which we never see again, different currencies – Maybe not.
We are very happy going to Malaysia which has everything, plus the strong currency conversion of around MYR3.50 to S$1. It also has something for everyone. Here’s some popular Malaysian holiday destinations for us:
- Hill resorts — Genting Highlands, Cameron Highlands
- Island resort — Tioman, Redang, Langkawi, Pangkor, Sipadan
- Beach resorts — Desaru, Kuantan, Trengganu, Port Dickson, Penang
- Culture and food — Malacca, Penang, Ipoh
- National parks — Taman Negara, Endau Rompin, Kinabalu
- Marine parks — around most islands
JB is also a great day trip location from Singapore, and cheap at that, costing just S$0.99 to get there using the senior citizen concession card.
And we need not spend our kids’ inheritance at these places. We have also started staying in better hotels, but still cannot get ourselves to pay for 5-star hotels and above.
- Food
We have been fortunate to be invited to enjoy omakase meals, private dining, exquisite Chinese set meals, etc, and were not impressed by what we ate compared with the price paid. And neither would we pay for such meals again.
We find very good food at smaller restaurants at shophouses and shopping centres, and even cooked food at coffee shops and hawker centres, all at reasonable prices.
We are very happy paying about $50 for two people which gives very good food and a very wide variety. I have stopped griping about not eating at hawker centres and food courts.
Is SKI Club for you?
Spending Kids’ Inheritance can mean spending unnecessarily large amounts of money on something we do not need or want, for the “satisfaction” of splurging thoughtlessly.
After consideration, we found that SKI Club membership is not for us as it doesn’t fit our lifestyle. However, it has taught us to be a bit more generous with ourselves, to enjoy our retirement without counting our pennies.
