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To retire or not, and when to retire? kcchongnz
To retire or not, and when to retire?
“Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I'm not there, I go to work.” Robert Orben
“I want to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life!” Henry D. Thoreau
"What do you do?" is a common question asked in a social gathering. When you're working the answer is easy. Saying that saying "I'm retired" doesn’t sound good when you still look young. By the way, “young” means you are still below the retirement age of 65 in most western societies. Then comes the inevitable, "So what do you do all day during your retirement?” Actually, that follow up question gets to the heart of the retirement dilemma for many. I'm hoping the answer isn't watching 6 hours of TV and taking naps. But, what exactly do we do to make the best use of our time, energy, and talents?
Let us assume that we have attained financial freedom and have enough money to last for twenty or more years during our retirement, leading a life of your choice. You may like to read the following link about if you have adequate financial resources to retire now in the following link:
http://klse.i3investor.com/blogs/kcchongnz/49384.jsp
We still have to answer the concern of how are we going to spend the time? Actually this depend on individual and each and every one of us should have control of his own destination.
To retire happily, I believe first and foremost is one must have a hobby and interest in something. I have a friend who has retired and spending whole day and everyday doing gardening (not my cup of tea). He enjoys it very much. One likes fishing and he bought a boat for fishing in the deep sea. The problem is getting keen kakis to go with him. Another friend of mine like trampling. He goes round everywhere in beautiful forest reserves and national parks to tramp with his group of kakis. Another loves karaoke and he has two sets in his house, although he doesn’t sing well at all. He also likes to watch all kinds of sports in TV, golf, billiard, tennis, darts, soccer, etc. A couple of my other friends and their wife go ballroom dancing every week.
Many retirees enjoy playing golf three of four times a week. Walking 7-8 kilometres in the golf course is a good exercise and spend the time. Besides golfing can maintain one’s social life, keeping inform of things around us, and have some cheap excitement with some small bets. Going everywhere to play different courses is a joy for many keen golfers. One can really while away a lot of time, and hopefully happily and fruitfully in the golf courses. Golf is about the only sport one can still engage in even if he is already in the eighties.
What about travelling around the world with your spouse and seeing interesting places, beautiful sceneries and different culture? Have you done cruise around the Lake districts in Italy? The Silk Road, Safari, 張家界, 張家界, Bungee jump in Queenstown, NZ, Taman Negara, Sarawak Muru Caves and Mount Kinabalu etc? But make sure you got loads of retirement money and read the same link above regarding if you have enough money.
What about learning some new skills; reading and learning investment skills from books, online resources, or even go for a course? Isn’t finance and investment skills very useful for our everyday life? Often spending time analyzing financial statement and doing valuation can be very interesting. What about reading books about War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy? The histories of all the old empires (Roman, Egyptian, French, German, Genghis Khan, British etc) and about world wars, The Three kingdoms in China, Sze Jee (History of olden China), The Water Margin, The Chamber of Red Lotus (?), The Memoir of Lee Kuan Yew or Mahathir etc. Haven’t you missed this for a long time already since started a busy career? Game for writing a book about your life and experience, and start a blog etc? What about teaching others some useful skills such as finance and investment, helping many novice avoiding pitfalls and make some extra-ordinary return from the equity market, while you can earn a little income? Is your time enough to do all these?
One other major concern of retiring is how one and his family members can cope with this sudden change. Many of you may have been working in the corporate world and mostly already in high positions in the company. Can one copes with his sudden loss of self-identity and self-worth? Can the spouse (normally the wife as women usually retire earlier than men) afraid that he will “disturb her peacefully life”; asking her to prepare this or that for him to eat while being a couch potato? Will he be always fighting with her to watch each other’s favourite TV programmes, the Korean sabun? Will the children feel that dad is always kachauing them; nagging, and keep on repeating things without knowing himself? Can his wife stands what other lady friends are talking about how successful their husbands’ career or businesses are, the big car or house they have bought; comparing this and that with Ah Fatt and Ah Choi, but her “man” is shaking his balls and doing nothing at home, at this “young” age?
So before retiring, one has to think about if it is acceptable with everyone, what is he going to do, discuss with family members and sort them out before he can enjoy a satisfying retirement. Failure to do so may severely strain a relationship and makes one regrets of his action later. For those who have no spouse nor children, you are luckier, you have more freedom. Friends are then the most valuable assets to have for all of us, but be sure your friends who have their own family, or are still working, have time for you.
In conclusions, one needs not to retire if he enjoys his work and can make more money to enjoy life and leave some inheritance to our children, besides carrying on contributing to the society. But if he dread to go to work every day and find that thinks that he may expire soon and likes to pursue other more interesting things, he should do some pre-retirement due diligence before retire, financially and non-financially. I believe that if he is proactive, he can find many things to do and may find retirement life a fulfilling and satisfying one.
K C Chong (3 April 2014)
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Discussions
5 people like this. Showing 24 of 24 comments
The grass next door is always greener. Other’s wife is always more beautiful. Human is greedy and never satisfy. I am working now and plan for early retirement long ago as I hate stressful life in office. But I believe when I retire, I will miss the office hours and regret.
Example: When I were young, I envied colleague who got opportunity for oversea assignment. When the opportunity came to me and I stayed in oversea, I missed those days in Malaysia very much and asked for a return after reasonable period of time. This happened many times in my working life even today. So I knew my character very well which is “Thing does not owned by me is the most beautiful thing”.
Conclusion: Make early retirement plan “execute-able” but never execute. “talk-talk” is good enough.
2014-04-03 07:30
Dear Kcchongz, this is very true i believe alot of senior citizens can't adjust themselves properly after transforming from hectic life to a calm and placid life style. This includes my Poor dad, after working 40 years in oil palm industry, retired at the age of 55, after 6mths couldn't suit himself, he went out to work again in same industry until now. Albeit he has hobbies, readings, involve in church activities, etc as mentioned above. The main drive here is, all his children are not by his side, yet loneliness comes into picture.
2014-04-03 07:35
With internet around, it is not easy to call "retirement", one can always switch to internet for business ideas such as internet trading in forex, gambling, sale of anythings that can be think of.
2014-04-03 15:31
Subject: Life Explained...by an MBA Graduate
A boat docked in a tiny Mexican fishing village.
A tourist complimented the local fishermen
on the quality of their fish and asked
how long it took him to catch them.
"Not very long." they answered in unison.
"Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?"
The fishermen explained that their small catches were
sufficient to meet their needs and those of their families.
"But what do you do with the rest of your time?"
"We sleep late, fish a little, play with our children,
and take siestas with our wives.
In the evenings, we go into the village to see our friends,
have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs.
We have a full life."
The tourist interrupted,
"I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you!
You should start by fishing longer every day.
You can then sell the extra fish you catch.
With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."
"And after that?"
"With the extra money the larger boat will bring,
you can buy a second one and a third one
and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers.
Instead of selling your fish to a middle man,
you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants
and maybe even open your own plant.
You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City ,
Los Angeles , or even New York City !
From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."
"How long would that take?"
"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years." replied the tourist.
"And after that?"
"Afterwards? Well my friend, that's when it gets really interesting, "
answered the tourist, laughing. "When your business gets really big,
you can start buying and selling stocks and make millions!"
"Millions? Really? And after that?" asked the fishermen.
"After that you'll be able to retire,
live in a tiny village near the coast,
sleep late, play with your children,
catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife
and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends."
“That’s what we are doing now” Replied the fishermen
2014-04-04 05:26
My opinion : The big different between the two is that the Tourist(millionaire) has an OPTION to work or not to whereas the fisherman has NO OPTION, rain or shine, sick or good, he has to go out to fish for living. So do you want to be the Tourist or fisherman? You choose.
2014-04-04 07:01
The way I look at it the fishermen are quite contend with their life and no need for more work than necessary whereas the tourist wants to achieve a very comfortable retiring life hence the need to work very hard and be successful to achieve it. No right or wrong in both - just each other preference :)
(Though the fishermen probably thinks the tourist are crazy to suggest something that they are already doing right now by working their butts off to achieve the same results :))
2014-04-04 07:56
I have some friends who are very well to do. One of them is a doctor in Australia. He loves and has a lot of passions in his work. Many of his patients told him not to retire before they die. For him, work is an enjoyment. Why retire and forfeit his enjoyment in life? What is going to do with his wealth? H is going to donate the major portion of his wealth to charity.
I had (not have) another accountant friend in NZ, 50+, and very wealthy. He got a few properties in Auckland as well as in Singapore, besides his investments here and there. He had his accounting firm in Auckland, earning some regular income. He dreaded to go to work and used to say he had had enough of the stressful life. However, his wife said he must worked and not touch any of the existing wealth they had, but only from regular income for daily household expenses. He died a couple of years ago with cancer. He had no chance to enjoy his fruits. All wealth was inherited to the wife and later the children. Their children would not have to work hard nor worry about money forever.
2014-04-04 14:55
Just be flexible and balanced up ya. If you have more than be thankful and humble and charitable. If not be grateful being positive and enjoy life as well.
2014-04-04 16:17
For me, i will not provide everything for my children, but only the important ones;education is a must. Another factor is, your spouse mindset also plays a vital role in shaping the family either negatively or positively. Look at my poor dad, most of the times is like the accountant.
2014-04-04 17:38
there are 3 things that we could not understand or estimate:
1) The amount of Forces that is pulling our loved one down.
2) The amount of struggle that they have gone through to fight those forces
3) We are not sure if we are going to be better in their shoes as we don't know the problem and diagnosis.
2014-04-04 17:50
KSK, not everyone has a path like u do. most of us are the other category which is work for others. Envy you my fren.
2014-04-05 19:11
In the beginning, God created man. He told man to eat fruits from thee of life but not to eat fruits from tree of knowledge&wisdom. Man eaten fruits from tree of knowledge&wisdom. They r so knowledgeable tat they created system tat run the world. Communism & then capitalism. These systems suppress people, making most of us in misery. These people r all tied up by the system. Only a handful r doing relatively well. They run the systems & make sure everybody r tied up. Somehow, there r very smart people who found the key 2unlock themselves from the systems & declare themselves being financially free. Once they r free, they should seek God's words & help 2free more people. So, don't feel weird 4not working. There r lots of meaningful things 2do. God bless u.
2014-04-05 20:07
It is wise to be master of money and not serve money as our master.But without working enough for ourselves and dependent ones,it is also being lacked in our duties as breadwinners.Hence it is up to individual to choose his path of life where it is fair to his loved ones and right in God's viewpoint.The scriptures did mention that obedience to God's laws is better than sacrifices.So we must set our priorities correctly in order to receive blessings from God.
2014-04-05 22:51
One chooses one's way to life. Likewise one decides whether one need to work further or otherwise. The choice is up to the individual. You reap what you sow. What , How you sow is up to you as an individual. There is no hard and fast rule for everyone as everyones' circumstance in life and financial status/situation is different.
2014-04-05 23:14
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I think a lot of our kakis here in i3 would find this article interesting
The part about how to handle your spouse or family, I have figured it out.
You are right, it could become an issue if not handled properly
2014-04-03 07:16