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The more I read about lifestyle design and think about how it applies to retirement, the more I realise that my paradigm on what constitutes retirement has fundamentally changed.
Previously, I used to think like what many of us did, that retirement was an age and it was not to work. But increasingly, my own research and reading of books such as Tim Ferriss’ “The Five Hour Workweek” and thinking about the day-to-day trends we see in Singapore has led me to re-evaluate what it means to retire when I advance another 20 years in life from today.
Retirement is Not an Age
The CPF system and the traditonal life of study-work-retire is under pressure. First of all, increasing life expectancy sees us living longer and hence needing to fund our living over a longer period of time. Secondly, the concept of lifelong employment and having a job for life is under threat from today’s volatile world. Thirdly, research has shown that mentally we degenerate if we do not keep ourselves active mentally and physically after we transit from a full-time career to a post-career lifestyle of not going to a routine of working from 8.30 AM to 6.00 PM Mondays to Fridays.
I see retirement as more a lifestyle design issue in that one needs to plan for how one can live on possibly reduced cash flows from a full-time job and transit more into a lifestyle dependent on less certain cash flows supplemented with some freelance type of work and passive income from CPF or other sources.
Continuing Cashflows Post Career
To continue to thrive post-career when one is close to the “official” retirement age of 62 (will probably be 67 by the time I hit that age bracket), one needs to plan for cashflows or a source of income then. Our CPF will only allow us a very subsistence type of living if we have minimum sum. Many will barely have it as most of our CPF is parked in our homes. Thus, I realise that one of the paradigm shifts that occurred for me was to be open to monetising my home through renting it out. Read more...[caption id="attachment_1358" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Photo by Francisco Belard "][/caption]
The more I read about lifestyle design and think about how it applies to retirement, the more I realise that my paradigm on what constitutes retirement has fundamentally changed.
Previously, I used to think like what many of us did, that retirement was an age and it was not to work. But increasingly, my own research and reading of books such as Tim Ferriss’ “The Five Hour Workweek” and thinking about the day-to-day trends we see in Singapore has led me to re-evaluate what it means to retire when I advance another 20 years in life from today.
Retirement is Not an Age
The CPF system and the traditonal life of study-work-retire is under pressure. First of all, increasing life expectancy sees us living longer and hence needing to fund our living over a longer period of time. Secondly, the concept of lifelong employment and having a job for life is under threat from today’s volatile world. Thirdly, research has shown that mentally we degenerate if we do not keep ourselves active mentally and physically after we transit from a full-time career to a post-career lifestyle of not going to a routine of working from 8.30 AM to 6.00 PM Mondays to Fridays.
I see retirement as more a lifestyle design issue in that one needs to plan for how one can live on possibly reduced cash flows from a full-time job and transit more into a lifestyle dependent on less certain cash flows supplemented with some freelance type of work and passive income from CPF or other sources.
Continuing Cashflows Post Career
To continue to thrive post-career when one is close to the “official” retirement age of 62 (will probably be 67 by the time I hit that age bracket), one needs to plan for cashflows or a source of income then. Our CPF will only allow us a very subsistence type of living if we have minimum sum. Many will barely have it as most of our CPF is parked in our homes. Thus, I realise that one of the paradigm shifts that occurred for me was to be open to monetising my home through renting it out. Read more...
[/caption]
The more I read about lifestyle design and think about how it applies to retirement, the more I realise that my paradigm on what constitutes retirement has fundamentally changed.
Previously, I used to think like what many of us did, that retirement was an age and it was not to work. But increasingly, my own research and reading of books such as Tim Ferriss’ “The Five Hour Workweek” and thinking about the day-to-day trends we see in Singapore has led me to re-evaluate what it means to retire when I advance another 20 years in life from today.
Retirement is Not an Age
The CPF system and the traditonal life of study-work-retire is under pressure. First of all, increasing life expectancy sees us living longer and hence needing to fund our living over a longer period of time. Secondly, the concept of lifelong employment and having a job for life is under threat from today’s volatile world. Thirdly, research has shown that mentally we degenerate if we do not keep ourselves active mentally and physically after we transit from a full-time career to a post-career lifestyle of not going to a routine of working from 8.30 AM to 6.00 PM Mondays to Fridays.
I see retirement as more a lifestyle design issue in that one needs to plan for how one can live on possibly reduced cash flows from a full-time job and transit more into a lifestyle dependent on less certain cash flows supplemented with some freelance type of work and passive income from CPF or other sources.
Continuing Cashflows Post Career
To continue to thrive post-career when one is close to the “official” retirement age of 62 (will probably be 67 by the time I hit that age bracket), one needs to plan for cashflows or a source of income then. Our CPF will only allow us a very subsistence type of living if we have minimum sum. Many will barely have it as most of our CPF is parked in our homes. Thus, I realise that one of the paradigm shifts that occurred for me was to be open to monetising my home through renting it out. Read more...
Hi Derek
Thanks for featuring my post!
Be well and prosper! :-)