How long can you expect to live?
I recently stumbled upon this life expectancy calculator for Singapore residents. I was shocked to find out that at my current age of 47 (yes, I’m ancient!) I still have another four decades – 39.6 years, to be exact – to live out my life.
This means that after years of living, working, and surviving, I am only a little past the halfway mark towards the finish line.
I am part of a fast-growing segment of the population that will most likely live past 80.
The Population Trends report released in 2020 showed that there were 103,100 Singapore citizens and permanent residents aged between 80 and 89. This is a whopping 77 per cent increase from the 58,300 in this age group back in June 2010.
This made me panic a little.
Will I have sufficient savings by the time I retire to sustain myself for the remaining years I have left? Will my husband and I be able to travel the world after our kids are grown like we planned? Or even just have enough to meet basic needs?
Given the recent moves to raise the Statutory Retirement and Re-employment Ages, I am somewhat relieved that I now have more time to save up for my retirement years.
I have been given a chance, and the choice, to keep working towards my goals.
Delayed Retirement = Stronger Retirement Adequacy
From 1 July 2022, Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has increased the retirement age from 62 to 63 and the re-employment age from 67 to 68.
By 2030, these will be bumped up further to 65 and 70 years old.
The Labour Movement lobbied for these changes a few years ago, which led to the Government setting up the Tripartite Workgroup on Older Workers that came up with these recommendations.
To further strengthen workers’ retirement adequacy, the tripartite partners also called for sustainable increases in CPF contributions for older workers over the years. The first of these will apply to wages earned from 1 January 2023.
Now, what do all these mean for me and others who are in the same boat?
To put it simply, it will give me – us – more time to remain employed, more time to earn a living, and more time to put away savings for our retirement years. And these adjustments will buy us more time.
But does it mean we have to work longer? Well, only if we want to.
Everyone has individual needs and goals – only we can decide how much we want to have tucked away for our twilight years. Of course, a big factor in that equation is when we retire and the lifestyle we want to have when we take that step.
Thinking About Tomorrow, Today
Given the longer lifespans, when do we start planning for tomorrow? The best answer, of course, is yesterday.
The younger we are when we map out our goals, the more likely we are to find our way in the right direction towards retirement adequacy.
But what about those who didn’t start early? You can always catch up if you are healthy, eager to work and wish to stay relevant.
Thankfully, with raised retirement and re-employment ages, we now have a longer runway to do just that.