Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Retirement reality

With advancements in medical sciences, better health care facilities and services and improvements in living standards in some countries, people are living longer lives. Take Singapore for example. Singapore’s life expectancy is among the highest in the world. As per data by Singapore Department of Statistics, life expectancy at birth, 1995 – 2000 (years) is 77 years old. That means average Singaporean will survive for 15 years after they had retired (the mandatory retirement age is 62 years old).

If we take that example as our model, 15 years is a long time to live without any meaningful and enjoying activities.

Most of us are busy pursuing our life and family goal, making financial provision for retirement and routinely taking care of our health. But we don't give sufficient thought to how we will spend our time.

The early weeks and months of retirement can feel like an extended vacation. Having been used to the routine of the working life for so many years it can be quite pleasing not to have to get up early to work.

Some people spend these early months catching up on various chores about the house and on friends and families. The question is how long these activities will last? Soon we will run out of things to do. That is the reason that we must have at least a hobby which we can do to spend the time while at the same time enjoying it. It is unlikely that a person will suddenly develop a hobby on the stroke of midnight on their 62th birthday. That means we need to start finding and developing a hobby now.

Retirement should be a time of contentment and fulfillment.

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