While many Singaporeans are always complaining about how raising retirement ages as well as the CPF structure in Singapore, looking at other parts of the world gives a better perspective of the problems faced. Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey intend to raise Australia’s retirement age to 70, which would be the highest in the world.   Government Pension Systems vs Self Funded Schemes While many envy the pension systems in the Western countries, where the government actually gives retirement income to retirees, many of these pension plans are facing sustainability problems. How these pension systems generally work is that the working class generally pay part of their income to support the retired. In an aging population however, as there are less and less working people compared to the retired, the pension funds face the danger of being underfunded. In fact, the ratio of working age Australians to those over 65 is expected to ......