Lessons from ‘pretirement’

IN SINGAPORE, we treat retirement as a destination – a fixed date where the “doing” ends and the “being” begins. We are told to save, invest and wait for the clock to run out.

But the modern economy is rarely that predictable. For many, retirement will not be a choice made at 65. It will be a circumstance forced upon us much earlier.

The risk of forced exit

The hardest truth to face is that we may be forced to retire early rather than ease into it. Whether it is market fragmentation or the digital upheaval of an entire industry, the economy often decides we are redundant long before we feel finished.