Personal Finance 101: Not enough money. Let us work till 70!?
Could I still travel like I wanted to when I am 70 years old?
The header image shows what I would also do when I stop working. I will plant more stuffs too.
One of the first few articles I wrote when I started kopiandproperty.com was my lifestyle when I retire. I do think I will stop having any full-time role by 56 years old. When I am 56, my children will be 18 (First Year Uni) and 20 (3rd year Uni respectively). I do not think they like to stay with me and every day listening to my stories, so they will stay at some place nearer to their university and my wife and I would travel. Yes, I know that the retirement age for Malaysia is now 60. It was still 56 when I started kopiandproperty.com
I think if I am travelling when I am 56 years old, I should be fit enough. I am just not that sure if I would still be fit enough when I am 70. Okay, okay, I have to start my 10km walking per day again soon. Haha. Take a look at the image below, I really did walk that much for many months.
Why did I say we may have to work until we are 70?
Well, there’s a call for Malaysia to increase the retirement age. No, it’s not from current 60 years old to 70 years old. I think 65 may be what is being asked. Certainly not a sudden increase from 60 all the way to 70. The reasons are due to an ageing population, there’s a high number of Malaysians without sufficient savings and Covid-19 has actually eroded the savings of many Malaysians, especially the B40 households who had withdrawn a lot of their retirement funds aka EPF savings.
Some statistics according to EPF include the following. About 6.62 million (52%) of EPF members aged under 55 have savings of less than RM10,000, and 3.2 million members aged under 55 have savings of less than RM1,000. Only 4% of current EPF members would have enough to retire comfortably. Most members would not be able to.
Retirement age around the world?
Australia: 67 years old
Germany: Gradually up to 67 years old by 2029.
Japan: 64 years old
The Netherlands: 66 – 68 years old
Singapore: 62 – 65 years old
UK: 66 – 68 years old
United States: 62 – 67 years old
Nope, Malaysia’s 60 years old is not the lowest yeah. There are many countries which are still below 60. However, I would say 60 is certainly that number in the middle. There are many reasons why retirement may need to be later. First and foremost would be that money is not enough. Secondly is maybe the person feel they want to continue working. Third is probably due the need within the country so that government continue to get tax payments so that they could sustain the older population who are no longer working but needs medical care and more.
Working longer or retiring earlier may not be an option for everyone. For some, working longer would be compulsory. Be ready.
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