When Can You Retire in Singapore?

Personal Essay

When Can You Retire in Singapore?

Retirement age has gone 55 to 64 since the time of my grandfathers

Photo by Zohre Nemati on Unsplash

My grandfathers retired at 55. That was around 1960.

My grandmothers were homemakers. That was the norm then. Also they had tons of children to look after. Paternal grandparents had ten and maternal grandparents had seven children.

55 (my age right now) was the retirement age then when Singapore was under British colonial rule. They also had a pension they could live on unlike our payouts these days that can’t keep up with inflation. When my grandpa died my grandma was given a pension from the widows’ fund.

No matter how much people complain about the scheme called CPF (Central Provident Fund), which is the system now, I always think, it’s better than nothing. It’s forced savings set aside from your salary with your employer matching payments.

People complain as they say they can manage their own money better. In my case I am so grateful these forced savings were set aside and it can’t be touched.

I am glad I have this from the years I was working, but regret I didn’t do this for longer so I’d have more savings and higher monthly payments at 65.

Once you’re out of the workforce it’s hard to get back in. They do not take kindly to any gap in your resume. And they say there is no ageism but it’s laughable.

At that time the savings seemed enough but the minimum sums required kept going up over the years due to inflation and a rapidly aging population.

Hopefully health insurance premiums (for hospitalisation and critical illness) don’t rise to crazy levels. That’s my biggest worry. I’m just hoping I won’t even need to use it as none of us ever wants to be hospitalized. Being hospitalised is far worse than paying premiums.

Payouts from the Singapore pension scheme called CPF Life only start at 65 though and they encourage you to delay it to 70 for bigger monthly payouts. I am not so clear about all the details.

For each generation, retiring gets harder and harder. I pity Gen Z and beyond as AI is already causing retrenchments and I see TikToks of young people unable to secure a job. Their tiktoks are often titled – the unemployed life.

Japanese grads who went to the top universities are living at home on their parents’ pension as they face unemployment. I see the videos online. Perhaps the videos on social media are earning them a small income as most young grads seem to be doing these type of short form video/ influencer work instead.

I was inspired by AJ who wrote a very brave personal story about retirement and just life in general. I appreciate that he shared all of it so openly and he made me feel seen and not so alone. I often feel like such a misfit in my society.

[embed]Why Retiring at 57 Doesn’t Make Me Lucky What looks like a success story from the outside isn’t quite what it seemsmessingwithwires.medium.com

In the time of my grandfathers and even my father, there was pride in retirement. These days we face worry and uncertainty. In my case even regret and shame.

Why didn’t I just take the abuse and stay longer to collect more salary. But in reality I know I couldn’t as it made me have suicidal thoughts, something that had never crossed my mind before. The pain was so great I dreaded waking up every day.

I was crying too much.

And then I got cancer. I feel it was the immense mental distress.

The very first piece I wrote on Medium details this regret over unemployment. I felt braver back then compared to now. Helped that not many knew I existed on the platform when I was brand new to Medium.

[embed]My Shame Over How I’ve Failed in Life My very first post on medium medium.com

The upside is the platform gave me a voice and hope. The community makes me feel I have a purpose again.

And both my grandfathers died soon after retirement. My maternal grandpa at 55. My dad retired at 59, but I lost him when he was just 61.

Even though my dad was retired officially he never stopped working. It seemed like it was a sin to rest. Which is why I have this constant need to be productive. This constant guilt that I’m wasting my potential.

Life is so unpredictable. I was diagnosed wirh cancer at 45, with a recurrence at 46. Going from stage 3 to 4 I honestly didn’t think I’d make it to 55. But you know what made me happy thinking I’d go early? That I wouldn’t then have to worry about finances. Isn’t that twisted?

I deeply desired to travel but that can’t be materialised right now.

I spent much of my life babysitting and that was deeply fulfilling to me. I miss it now as all the children are grown. It was honestly one of the highlights of my life. Children teach you how to live in the moment. I felt so much joy.

My mum, partner and aunt keep urging me to put my health above everything else but I just can’t stop this feeling that I wasted all the money that went into my education. I am so grateful that they are so supportive though.

It’s the pressure from society that I can’t seem to shake off. To get into the top schools. Ace the exams etc etc.

I wish I didn’t care what anyone thought. I wish I didn’t know that they deemed me useless and a failure.

I did all of what was required (cramming for exams) but had no clue how to handle the corporate world and office politics in the mid part of my career.

All I wanted was to do a good job but so much else, toxic and not related to work messed it all up.

I enjoyed the work but not the office bully. That just stripped me of any dignity. I couldn’t play the game where in order to win I had to be a bully as well. Very much like those awful reality shows like survivor where you thrive on deceit.

If the owners of companies knew how much of their resources were wasted on all of this I’m sure they wouldn’t like it. Gossip, attrition, low morale etc can’t possibly be good for the bottom line. Is that why they are slowly replacing us with AI?

I am still nostalgic for the dream jobs I was lucky enough to have early in my career. I don’t think those exist anymore unless you’re super lucky.

Writing would be a dream job if it paid a decent income, but everyone would want to do it then and the market is saturated. So I write for fulfilment instead.

Thanks for indulging yet another of my rambling sessions. Every time I write something like this I’m so glad it’s behind a paywall.