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.

In 2009, I left journalism. I saw a future version of myself in my 50s, laid off because the industry couldn’t find its way out of digital challenges, and being told by an employer that I had “only ever been a reporter”. I realised then that if you do not have a trust fund or a welfare state to cushion you, you must build your own social safety net.

My approach was to skill up in something evergreen: human interaction. I trained as a psychotherapist. In 2025, I qualified as an executive coach while getting accredited by the International Coaching Federation. I am now PCC-accredited – the second-most senior tier.

I reckon psychotherapy and coaching will always be needed because human communication cannot be replaced by automation.

Even while holding corporate roles at Shell, GIC, Edelman Smithfield and now FTI Consulting, I have viewed these qualifications as essential experiments in resilience.

You have to trial a small business – or three – while you still have the luxury of a salary, just to see which one sticks.

Lived experience vs the desktop exercise

There is much talk about “desktop exercises” for retirement – calculating burn rates and staring at spreadsheets. But a spreadsheet cannot simulate the anxiety of a Tuesday morning with nowhere to go.

I am a firm believer in the “short pretirement” – a sabbatical of up to a year – to stare reality in the face, if you can afford one. It is a surefire way to know if you can actually lean on your side business for income, and more importantly, if you are ready for the engine to stop.

You may not want to be so dramatic. You can do a desktop exercise and come to the same conclusion, but nothing beats lived experience in helping you confront the facts.

During my own pretirement, I had to be honest with myself. I realised I still valued the reach of a business with scale and visibility. I like having a platform to write, speak and influence.

While one can certainly do this independently, a role in an established organisation offers more leverage than running my own small business – at least until those things no longer matter.

The technical audit of the self

This level of self-knowledge requires a brand of introspection that many Singaporeans shun as “navel-gazing” or self-indulgence. But without such introspection, you risk a significant psychological disconnect when the professional engine eventually slows down.

Consider it a cold audit of objective facts. I have found myself increasingly bothered by the “trendoid” phase of purpose-seeking currently capturing the imagination of a niche group of Singaporeans. This is the group that keeps telling us to “be, not do”.

No, sir. I am happy doing. I am happy being busy. As long as I enjoy the work, that is purpose. What others might see as bluntness or political naivety, I see as a technical assessment.

If a role provides a platform for scale and keeps me busy, that, to me, is a successful outcome. It is a data point, not a moral failing.

Prepare, not predict

My biggest lesson is something I have taken away from my erstwhile employer, GIC: prepare, not predict. It applies this as an investment philosophy: you don’t waste time trying to predict the exact moment of a market shift. You prepare your portfolio to survive it. We must make that our personal investment approach, too.

Retirement is a phase we have to invest in by preparing well for it. It is not something that just happens because we are getting too old for the economy.

It is a strategic pivot we execute because we have already built the ground we intend to stand on. If you refuse to know yourself – honestly and literally – you will be very miserable when that pivot is forced upon you.

The writer is a senior managing director at FTI Consulting and the founder of The Doing Well Centre.

Switching Lanes is a new column exploring the diverse realities of life after a full-time career. From money strategies to finding fresh purpose, we’re redefining what it means to retire well.

Have a perspective to share? Write to btletter@sph.com.sg with the subject, Switching Lanes.