Is there a need to have a plan?

It was a typical off day in year 2002. I just came back from a five-day operating pattern to Manchester, UK the day before. As scheduled, I had three off days in a row to get rid of the jetlag before the next flight.

I woke up around ten in the morning. After brushing up, having breakfast and reading newspapers, I was at a loss of what to do next. I thought of continuing reading the many self-help books on various topics that I have started reading but never got the chance to finish. Then I thought I would do that after checking my emails. So I switched on my computer. While reading through the emails, I was distracted by one of the junk mails. (Yes, I received many offers on penis enlargement too. Of course I deleted all of them. You mean you actually read them?) It directed me to a website that offers a brilliant business opportunity. It prompted me to discover further. And I ended up surfing a long string of websites ranging from desktop publishing, website hosting, graphics animation to blogs and online magazine.

When my stomach started grueling, I was in the midst of reading some gossip news about Jennifer Lopez. So I called a good friend of mine for lunch. He happened to be my colleague also and he said that a few more other colleagues were joining us as well. So we ended up having a long lunch and coffee and gossiping session. (What do pilots usually gossip about? Next post.) If not for the fact that two of my colleagues had to go to fetch their wife from work, we could have continued to have dinner and beer!

After dinner, the night was spent watching TV and surfing on the internet. Before I knew it, it was time for bed and I had hardly achieved anything! When I was lying on bed and trying to figure out what I had done today and what to do tomorrow, my mind just went blank. Had I worked out my detailed plan last night and had the discipline to carry out the plan today, I would have felt much more happy and satisfied.

Do you have similar experiences? A lot of my cabin crew colleagues often ended up buying a lot of other things that were not needed when they went shopping in Xiang Yang Market in Shanghai. Xiang Yang Market has a lot of imitation branded goods that are going for rock bottom prices compared to the originals. And if you are not disciplined enough to stick to your initial shopping list (if you have one i.e.), you are most likely ended up buying lots of rubbish. Same situation occurs in a 100 Yen Shop in Japan where all the merchandise in the shop is selling at 100 yen before tax.

Some of us might argue that we should take life easy. We are already working so hard trying to meet datelines and various targets. Why can’t we just spend an off day without having any plan? Well, the decision of not having any plan is also a plan itself. The point here is we have to put in some conscious effort to think about what to do. Should we decide not to do anything, that itself is also a course of action.

But very often, we either implement our own plan or fit into others’ plan. Like what had happened to me as described above, since I didn’t have a plan, I ended up following what the web providers wanted me to do: read their webpage to facilitate their business. If I had worked out a plan to limit myself on the internet usage, I would have more time to read my self-help books and achieve much more for the day. If I don't have a shopping list, I will end up following what the shop-keepers wanted me to do: buy things from all of them! Well at least, buying more than necessary.

Taking it further towards life, if I don’t have a plan for my life, I’ll be like a horse controlled by my rider, going where he wants me to go. Imagine yourself living through each day without directions, will you be able to achieve anything significant? Fifty years down the road, will you be able to produce a happy answer when someone asks you “What is your biggest achievement in life?”

“Oh, nothing much really, I just live through each day without giving much thought to what I really wanted out of my life.” Surely you can come out with a happier answer than that!

Having a plan for myself gives me control over my time, my space and my life.

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. :-)