Must I retire at 60?

Due to my family background and social upbringing, I always had this idea that people retire at the age of 55. After retirement, they will either relax at home doing gardening or playing with grandchildren or go traveling around the world.

That was the idea I had about retirement even after I met my first insurance agent. The only difference after talking to my insurance agents was that the retirement age had been postponed to 60. That is the official retirement age for most of the companies including governmental organizations today. And yes, you bet, I can fly till the age of 60, provided I clear my medical checks every 6 months.

However, as I gain more exposure through reading and meeting people from various backgrounds, I start to rethink the definition of retirement. Does retirement always occur after a certain age? Or does it occur after certain criteria are met? Please correct me if I am wrong, most retirees are people who have the following characteristics:

- Freedom of time to do whatever they like including continuing with their old hobbies or picking up new ones
- Financial freedom, i.e. all of their financial commitments such as medical care and living expenses have been taken care of, and
- If they work, it is usually just to past time and not for the money


If you examine closely, the above characteristics can be acquired by anyone at any age. A person who is born with a silver spoon in his/her mouth can practically retire since day one. (Alternatively, you can marry a rich husband/wife and reach an agreement that he/she works while you enjoy life. :-) ) Unfortunately, I am not one of them. Like the majority of us, I still have to work for my retirement.

The next question will be: Do most of the people manage to assume the above-mentioned characteristics by the age of 60 – the official retirement age? Some do, some don’t. Those who plan early do. Those who didn’t plan don’t. Why? Because when you don't plan, you are likely to fall into the trap of financial debt. Banks and credit card companies will not hesitate to grant you loans to buy new and bigger houses, cars, club memberships and so on. Before you knew it, you are trapped in the rat race of working for money to pay off your debt. Sounds familiar?

In order to achieve financial freedom, you don’t have to become a millionaire. If your daily expenses after retirement is small, you do not need a huge amount of reserves to last you till the end of days. If you fancy living in a big bungalow, driving big cars and dining in expensive restaurants after retirement, you probably have to work triply hard to save up your financial nest eggs. Obviously, it is up to each individual to set the targets.

But whatever the target is, we need to work on either increase the source of income and/or resizing the target or both. And the retirement age is just a time frame you set for yourself. Your company or the government may have some form of retirement plans in place for you. But is it enough for you to reach your target? Bearing in mind, those plans assume that you stop working at the age of 60. For my case, it’s not enough. So I have to rely on myself now. Furthermore, I have set myself a stricter time frame – by the age of 45. I sure need to work many times harder to achieve my target.

A friend asked me: Why stress yourself? Is there a need to have a target? Are you being ‘kiasu’? I will attempt to answer those questions in my next post. Watch out for it. :-)

How BIG is your dream?

I came from a poor family. I didn’t know much about life except that I had to study hard and do well in school as taught to me by my parents. It was ingrained in me that the only way to get a better quality of life is through good education.

Due to poor family background also, my mother didn’t have the chance to further her studies beyond primary school. Nonetheless, she realized the importance of good education that she spent lots of effort deciding which school was best for me.

And so I just followed what was arranged for me. I seized the opportunity to do well in good schools. As I grew up, the idea of doing well in schools will fetch me a good job in the future was deeply entrenched in my mind. I also came to realize that working for an airline pays well too.


(Don’t believe me? Click on the following links:

http://www.cathaypacific.com/careers/en/choices/0,,128402,00.html

http://www.emiratesgroupcareers.com/index.asp?cid=EKGCREF_INT_NA_EKCOM_LINK_MENU_EN1

http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/en_UK/content/company_info/careers/tech_crew.jsp )


Becoming a pilot was my dream then. I didn’t think much. All I wanted to do was to prepare myself to be a pilot. I studied science and aviation related modules in schools so that I could stand a better chance of being hired. (I realized later that I didn’t need a university degree to be a pilot.) I am now where I wanted to be since young.

Was my childhood dream a BIG dream? It was, considering the fact that I took 17 years of education plus 3 years of flying training to realize the dream. So where do I go from here? I can very well be contented with what I have and live happily ever after. Or I can find another dream and work hard again to achieve that dream. And I have concluded the latter gives me more satisfaction and meaning to life.

Through talking to people and reading, I have come across a lot of people with much bigger dreams than mine. I have met a German boss who owns and flies his own private jet to attend meetings. He is also able to fly a helicopter carrying friends up to a mountain resort for lunch, prepared for them by his private chef. I have been flying 'other people’s aircrafts'. Will I be able to fly one of my own one day?

I have also come across retirees who are in their late forties whose dreams are to build a second business to leave a legacy. There is also a lady whom I met whose dream is to build an income source for an orphanage. Just two days ago, a featured article in the newspapers highlighting the boom in private banking sector catering to ultra-high networth individuals’ philanthropic needs. Can I be one of these ultra-high networth individuals?

After much soul searching, I have raised the bar higher just like taking part in high jump in the Olympics. I have decided that I should aim to retire early, as early as the age of 45. (Retire doesn't mean stop working. Confused? Read my next post.) I am not going reveal to you how much time I have to work on achieving that goal. Because by doing that you would have guessed my age – something that I like to keep secret at this moment. ;-)

How big is your dream, my dear friends? Or you do not see the need to dream? Whatever you decide, we are here today because of what we did in the past. And our future is decided by what we do today. Leave your comments or email me at speckypilot@hotmail.com

In the next post, I will tell you what is the plan put in place to achieve my newfound dream. So watch out for it. ;-)