Work Longer!? Bah Humbug!

This morning, in the Straits Times, one of the the main heading in the front page was this "Work Longer to save for Old Age, says Boon Heng" Before I make any "nasty" comments about the articles, let me make a disclaimer here. Mr Lim Boon Heng has made many contributions to the labor union here. To tell you the truth, I am not in the union so I have no idea what contributions he has made, but I am sure they are good ones or else he would not be head of the labor union for such a long time.

Now coming back to the headlines. I definitely have something to comment about. I thought the government should create an environment where the old age is able to retire comfortably and have a CHOICE of whether to contribute to the society or not. How come now we have come to a stage where the people have to work longer to save for Old Age? Is that not ridiculous? And since old age is an evitable stage in life, as such we can plan for it, why now, we Singaporeans have to work longer to save for old age? Don't you find it ridiculous? Since we started working, we should be able to save a sum of money for old age. Or the standard of living has increased in Singapore too much that now a lot of people cannot live on their savings anymore? If that is the case, whose fault is it? Or during our life, we have too many outflow of cash, so much so we are not able to save for old age? If that is the case, again, whose fault is it? Now before anyone make a comment, I say first, we are responsible for our own retirement plans and we work out our retirement plans based on what is the outside environment. So if one is not able to achieve his retirement plans, one should still be part of the blame.

The moment I read the article and its headline, I am glad that I can do something about it, because to me, working for a living during old age is RIDICULOUS. I am absolutely glad that I learn about financial planning, increase my financial literacy and took actions. The government should actively push for everyone to have financial planning skills, so that people know that there are alternatives to saving, to prepare for old age. Have some time planned in our school curriculum to teach people the importance of financial planning and have financial planning skills be part of the curriculum. People skills which is another life skill might be difficult to teach in school but financial planning skill is not.

Our school curriculum is so full of imparting working skills, so much so that we know how to earn an income, but we do not know how to plan our finances well. In the end we know how to play offense (or do we?) but we do not know how to play defense well. Have anyone seen any good teams that only know how to play offense only or play defense only? Don't have right?
All champions material sports team know how to play offense and defense well.

Anyway, savings is too slow a way to accumulate wealth, just for your information, if you want to retire as early as possible. Brush up your financial literacy and take actions, please. Learn how to play offense and defense well. Don't wait until when you old age then you realise that you do not have enough to retire. Plan early.

Cheers!