We all need a retirement career ….
In life, as in sports, how you end matters more than how you start or how well you play in the middle of the game. With an average life expectancy of 85 and an official retirement age of 63, 22 years is the number of years we will need to support ourselves …. if we are average. One in two reading this blog post will live longer and very likely up to the age of 100.
While CPF Life will provide us with enough for the essentials, living life beyond ‘hand to mouth’ will require us to be able to continue earning some income after retirement. Even for those who have amassed a healthy nest egg, without money coming in, there will be anxiety over spending money for: (a) fear of living longer than the average of 85; and (b) how inflation whittles away the spending power of our savings.
I recently shared the concept of having a Retirement Career with some friends. Aside from the financial benefits, an active life brings with it health and mental benefits too. Getting out and about keeps us fit, and using our minds to solve work challenges delays the onset of ailments like dementia. This is corroborated by a 2006 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research that showed complete retirement leads to a 5% to 16% increase in difficulties…
