SG retirement trap: Why retiring at 65 in Singapore might be the biggest mistake of your life; a wake-up call for SG's mid-lifers

Independent Singapore

3 days ago

SINGAPORE: We've all heard the mantra: work hard, save up, retire at 65, then finally kick back and relax. But what if that blueprint to life's golden chapter is actually fool's gold?
According to Xueni Yang, a licensed private wealth advisor in Singapore who spends her days advising senior executives and high-net-worth families on how to make their money matter: Waiting until 65 to retire could be a costly — and regretful — mistake.
'I spend a lot of my time helping senior executives in their 50s figure it out. Financially, many are ready, but emotionally, not quite,' Xueni said.
Her message is that retirement isn't just about the dollars in your CPF or the timeline set by the government. It's also about health, mental clarity, and freedom — and all of those are ticking away, one week at a time. Cognitive decline doesn't wait for retirement
Xueni pulls no punches. Cognitive decline begins much earlier than we think, she warns. While many associate forgetfulness with frailty in their 80s, the slippery slope actually begins in their early 60s.
In Singapore, a Duke-NUS (medical school) study found that 15 – 20% of people aged 60 and above suffer from mild cognitive impairment (MCI). That's one in five. MCI isn't just about misplacing your keys — it's a measurable decline in memory, focus, and emotional balance. And the kicker is that over half of those affected will slide into dementia within five years.
Imagine this: you wait your whole life to retire at 65, only to realise that your mental sharpness has already begun to dull. Early cognitive decline might affect your ability to manage finances, travel with confidence, or pick up new skills — the very things people dream of doing in retirement, Xueni says.
In short? Your bucket list could be compromised before you even get to open the bucket. Your health clock is louder than your CPF alarm
Singaporeans boast one of the highest life expectancies in the world — 84.1 years, according to the World Health Organization. Sounds like plenty of time, right? Well, not quite.
Our healthy life expectancy — the years we can live without serious illness or disability — is only 73.6 years, Xueni reveals.
That means if you retire at 65, you get roughly nine years of active living before potential health complications start showing up uninvited. Think about that: just nine solid years to travel, hike, play with your grandkids, or start that painting class you've postponed since 1989.
The sad reality is that if we delay retirement till 65 or later, we might be spending our healthiest years working — and our retirement years managing health issues, she added. You've got less time than you think (and that's a good thing)
Xueni's not trying to be a buzzkill. Her message is actually one of empowerment. She just wants to replace vague optimism with crystal-clear reality.
If you're 45 today, you have about 1,500 weeks of good health left. If you're 55, that's fewer than 1,000 healthy weeks, she explains.
That's a finite number of Sunday brunches, sunset walks, and pain-free mornings. 'Because if most of those weeks are spent stuck in overtime, putting off serious retirement planning, and waiting for someday, it's time to rethink. Someday is today,' she stressed. See also Can the average Singaporean actually afford to stop working? Retirement isn't the end …
Xueni is flipping the script on what retirement means. It doesn't have to be all-or-nothing. She calls on people to take control of their retirement timeline.
'This is your life and your timeline,' she says. 'Retirement doesn't mean doing nothing. It could mean scaling back, switching to part-time work, or finally exploring a passion project you've put off for years.'
The first step is awareness. The second is action. How to prepare for early or semi-retirement (without panicking)
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Prioritise one home and one clear goal: Now is not the time to buy that fifth investment property
In Singapore, where shiny condos and 'forever working' mentalities often dominate the retirement conversation, Xueni's advice feels refreshingly grounded. She adds, 'Focus on liquidity, not fixed assets. Invest in your health because there's no point in wealth if you're not healthy enough to enjoy it.'
Her bottom line is, 'Freedom isn't about how much you have saved in your retirement accounts. It's about having the energy and clarity to enjoy the years you have worked hard for.' Retirement should be a reward instead of a regretful mistake
Xueni's message is sobering and hopeful. She's not telling you to quit tomorrow , but she's urging Singaporeans to stop putting off life in the name of a distant finish line.
Retirement, she says, should be a reward, so don't let it become a regretful mistake.
If you're in your 40s or 50s, now's the time to revisit your financial plans, reimagine what freedom looks like, and most importantly , reclaim your time while you still have plenty of good years ahead.
Watch Xueni Yang's full video to hear her advice in her own words below:
In other news, when Lim Wei Ming sat at his Tanjong Pagar office one March morning, staring at his CPF retirement projections, he didn't see it as his golden years. Instead, he saw it as a financial black hole.
Wei Ming saw his decades of dutiful saving and climbing the corporate ladder led to one cold, hard truth: even with the maximum Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions, retirement in Singapore might be more sobering than celebratory.
His calculations resulted in a modest S$2,800 monthly payout from CPF, compared to a real-world expense of nearly S$8,000. Mortgage, mum's medical bills, daughter's overseas uni fees —all of that wasn't fiction. This is Singapore's retirement reality.
But Lim, like hundreds of Singaporean seniors, discovered a game-changer: remote work.
You can read how he went about it over here: Remote work for Singaporean elders: How a 58 y/o man in SG secured his financial lifeline and retirement needs with just a laptop and Wi-Fi