Do Singaporeans save enough to retire?

By Peter Loh

Not if we are the World’s “Longest Retirements Fuel Pressure for Singapore Remodel” – Bloomberg

According to an article on Bloomberg - Longest Retirements Fuel Pressure for Singapore Remodel:

“Almost half a century after independence, Singaporeans now live the most number of years after leaving the workforce, according to the Global Sunset Index of 68 countries compiled by Bloomberg. In the world’s sixth-most expensive city, 41 percent of more than 1,000 residents surveyed by HSBC Holdings Plc (5) said they haven’t saved for retirement, with nearly half of them blaming living costs for hampering efforts.”

“Singaporean men live an average 20.8 years after retirement while their female counterparts have 25.6 years, according to the Bloomberg Sunset Index. The measure, which places Singapore ahead of France and South Korea, estimates the age at which residents leave the workforce and subtracts this from their life expectancy. A 2012 Bloomberg study on the healthiest nations awarded the highest grade to Singapore out of 145 countries.”

In view of this reported trend, it begs the question – Do we Singaporeans have enough savings to retire and age gracefully?

Or another viewpoint to this – When can we Singaporeans retire without a worry?

This also reminded me of how our government has been raising the retirement age in the past decade. It’s interesting to observe these two apparently non-related occurrences. It seems our government might have the premonition that with our increasing mortality we would encounter this issue that the Bloomberg article is underscoring.

This continuing trend is worrying when our minister had mentioned that perhaps we should consider working beyond the age of 65, and retire may be at the age of 68 or 70?

It makes one wonder when our government started to raise the retirement age, and perhaps has foreseen such an event occurring, have they started to search for a solution? Or it’s simply a case of us having to find our own means to stretch our savings, or in the worst case scenario, continue to work till 70 or beyond as suggested by our government.

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