Mr X, a Malaysian Chinese, in his late 30s, falls into the category of Generation X, a generation born in between 1965 to 1980.
His parents are in their 60s, retired baby boomers with saving last only for 3 years of retirement. As long expected, taking care of them become his responsibilities. The baby-boomer is a generation which works the whole life to bring up their children, usually a couple of them, with little planning for their retirement in their early working lives. Their savings are usually insufficient for retirement as they have used up most of their hard earned saving for their children’s cost of livings and education. Most of them are expecting their children to look after them in their golden age, hopefully a shared responsibilities among the siblings. They believe in fixed deposit savings in bank or owning some real estates. Few of them can probably afford to retire independently, funded by their retirement savings, rental income, interest income from their deposit savings or dividend income from their stock investments.
Mr X has a lot of married colleagues and friends in the same age-group, in their mid 30s and 40s. Unlike their parent’s generation, they keep their family size small with 1-2 children the most. He even heard about the female colleague who aborted the unplanned baby so as not to jeopardize the family planning. This is a poor sandwiched generation which is caught in the rat-race situation. They have to look after their aging parents, their children and most importantly funding for their education. To maintain their lifestyle, they have no choice but to have both the couple working to earn the double incomes.
He counted at the time spent in the formal education and it was 18 years of his life (6 years of primary school, 6 years of secondary schools including an additional 1 year for Remove Class, 2 years of high school and 4 years of college). It is therefore no surprise that he entered the working life only at the age of 25, as compared to his peers in other countries with their age of early 20s when they graduated. With the official retirement age of 55, he has only a maximum of 30 years to accumulate savings for his retirement, which he expected to be another 30 years of life. It is definitely too early to retire at the age of 55 as compared to other countries which are now extending or considering to extend their official retirement age due to the higher life expectancy. Singapore is considering to raise the retirement age for its citizens to 65 from 62 by 2012 and eventually to 67 to account for the higher life expectancy of its ageing population. Spain has just announced recently the plan to raise the retirement age from 65 to 67 from 2013 onwards.
He owned his first property at his age of 30, similar to many of his colleagues and friends in the same generation. He was lucky as he bought the property at discount when the country is at the 97-98 financial crisis and the property market is at its trough. The price for the resident properties have since recovered, inflated much in the last 10 years and the prices are still on the way up without fail even in the current financial crisis. Many of the colleagues have bought their primary residence at the cost of RM500k or more. He knew that it is definitely tough for them even with their double incomes.
With the knowledge gained from his financial course, he estimated several years ago that he would require a total of RM2.5 mil at the age of 55 in order to support his retirement years at no degradation of the current lifestyle. He could not imagine at the whopping figure as he used to think a million ringgit is already a huge figure. His current net-worth is not even a quarter of the required figures even though he has used about half of his working life accumulating the savings with investments. He knew he is definitely not on the right track for a comfortable retirement. His fellow colleagues and friends are in the worse situation, struggling to maintain their decent lifestyles. He looks forward for the aim for Malaysia to become High Income Economy by 2020 as average Malaysian does not enjoy the fruits of the GDP growth for the country in their income over the years. He realized that he is about 50 by then and does not have many years left before retirement. Other than extending his retirement with a part time job, he is thinking seriously on what other options do he has now. He is really doubtful on this.
His parents are in their 60s, retired baby boomers with saving last only for 3 years of retirement. As long expected, taking care of them become his responsibilities. The baby-boomer is a generation which works the whole life to bring up their children, usually a couple of them, with little planning for their retirement in their early working lives. Their savings are usually insufficient for retirement as they have used up most of their hard earned saving for their children’s cost of livings and education. Most of them are expecting their children to look after them in their golden age, hopefully a shared responsibilities among the siblings. They believe in fixed deposit savings in bank or owning some real estates. Few of them can probably afford to retire independently, funded by their retirement savings, rental income, interest income from their deposit savings or dividend income from their stock investments.
Mr X has a lot of married colleagues and friends in the same age-group, in their mid 30s and 40s. Unlike their parent’s generation, they keep their family size small with 1-2 children the most. He even heard about the female colleague who aborted the unplanned baby so as not to jeopardize the family planning. This is a poor sandwiched generation which is caught in the rat-race situation. They have to look after their aging parents, their children and most importantly funding for their education. To maintain their lifestyle, they have no choice but to have both the couple working to earn the double incomes.
He counted at the time spent in the formal education and it was 18 years of his life (6 years of primary school, 6 years of secondary schools including an additional 1 year for Remove Class, 2 years of high school and 4 years of college). It is therefore no surprise that he entered the working life only at the age of 25, as compared to his peers in other countries with their age of early 20s when they graduated. With the official retirement age of 55, he has only a maximum of 30 years to accumulate savings for his retirement, which he expected to be another 30 years of life. It is definitely too early to retire at the age of 55 as compared to other countries which are now extending or considering to extend their official retirement age due to the higher life expectancy. Singapore is considering to raise the retirement age for its citizens to 65 from 62 by 2012 and eventually to 67 to account for the higher life expectancy of its ageing population. Spain has just announced recently the plan to raise the retirement age from 65 to 67 from 2013 onwards.
He owned his first property at his age of 30, similar to many of his colleagues and friends in the same generation. He was lucky as he bought the property at discount when the country is at the 97-98 financial crisis and the property market is at its trough. The price for the resident properties have since recovered, inflated much in the last 10 years and the prices are still on the way up without fail even in the current financial crisis. Many of the colleagues have bought their primary residence at the cost of RM500k or more. He knew that it is definitely tough for them even with their double incomes.
With the knowledge gained from his financial course, he estimated several years ago that he would require a total of RM2.5 mil at the age of 55 in order to support his retirement years at no degradation of the current lifestyle. He could not imagine at the whopping figure as he used to think a million ringgit is already a huge figure. His current net-worth is not even a quarter of the required figures even though he has used about half of his working life accumulating the savings with investments. He knew he is definitely not on the right track for a comfortable retirement. His fellow colleagues and friends are in the worse situation, struggling to maintain their decent lifestyles. He looks forward for the aim for Malaysia to become High Income Economy by 2020 as average Malaysian does not enjoy the fruits of the GDP growth for the country in their income over the years. He realized that he is about 50 by then and does not have many years left before retirement. Other than extending his retirement with a part time job, he is thinking seriously on what other options do he has now. He is really doubtful on this.
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