The letter above highlights the predicament many Malaysians face upon reaching their 55th birthday. They start to worry about their impending retirement. While there may be some who eagerly await their last day at work so they can be boss of their own time, there are others who dread receiving their retirement letter.
With the average life span at 76, you need to have at least RM1m saved up to see you through the next 20-25 years of retirement if you plan to maintain your current lifestyle. Inflation will push the figure even higher. It's a scary thought, especially if you have a retired spouse and elderly parents to support. The healthcare expenses alone can strain and drain your limited financial resources. Most retirees would want to remain on the company pay-roll as long as possible. Not everyone has the means or the aptitude to start their own business.
The retirement age for civil servants has been raised from 55 to 58. For the private sector it remains at a young 55. The government wants stakeholders in the private sector to consider upping this to 60. In
Singapore, by 2012 it will be mandatory for companies to retain older workers till aged 62.
France recently raised the retirement age to 62, and in
Australia, there's no official retirement age. Raising the retirement age will give older workers more time to accumulate sufficient savings to see them through their non-working years.
The
World Bank's 2011 fact-book on migration shows that for every ten skilled Malaysians born in the country, one of them elects to leave the country. This is double the world average. With the massive brain drain and exodus of talent from the country, re-hiring older workers is one way to stem the haemorrhage. Other countries suffer loss of home-grown talent too. However, as in Singapore, this is compensated by a large inflow of skilled workers and professional experts. This is not the case in Malaysia.
For more, read the
special coverage on Malaysia's brain drain in today's Star.
2 comments:
The retirement age for Australians is 65 currently. In a few years time, it will be higher.
A former bank manager from Malaysia who retired and later, migrated to Australia, even got married again and fathered two girls. He is 70 years now and enjoying a pension as well.
So why must one retire at 55 years today? One can still lead very active life so long as one is still in good physical condition which only tends to deteriorate if one becomes idle.
There should be an option to delay one's retirement so long as one is still healthy.
Gold Coaster
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