I feel fairly confident in saying that most Singaporeans won’t be able to stop work. Many will have to stay employed well into their 70s, and will plead for the privilege. The environment for retirement is the worst it has ever been. This generation and the next have it much tougher than their parents. I will touch on four aspects why this is so, though I think there are quite a few more.

Low Interest Rates

First, we are looking at ridiculously low interest rates for the foreseeable future. The lowest it has ever been. This is bad for most Singaporeans, because much if not most of their money is tied up with insurance, such as in whole life and endowments. With low interest rates, insurance companies can’t make the same kind of returns when fixed deposits and government bonds were going at 5% or even 2%. Chances are that the projected returns will go considerably lower, unless insurers start adding riskier equities to their portfolio....