COMMENT | What type of retiree are you?

COMMENT | Like many academics compelled to teach online over the Covid-19 pandemic, my friend is considering packing it in. But what will he do next? “Travel the world,” he thought. Do what he has always wanted to do.

We know we’re treading closer to the grave each day. The emotional reckoning, though, was kept at bay when we were working, 48 hours, Monday to Friday, as replaceable cogs in the corporate machine.

The average life expectancy of males in Malaysia is 75. For females, it’s 79. Which, if you’re considering retiring, leaves you about 15 to 20 years or more to do what you’ve always wanted, free from the stress of meeting company performance metrics.

When is a good time to retire? When you still love what you do, when you’re still healthy, effective, and productive? I retired four years ago.

With no pressing deadlines, my weekdays and weekends now merge. Only the change in seasons reminds me that another year has come and gone. Meaningful events, and the occasional engagement with close friends, remind me I’m not yet part of history.

“What a man can be, he must be,” psychologist Abraham Maslow once said, alluding to our basic need for self-actualisation, our desire to become what we are capable of becoming. Retirement provides us with that needed time for a reset...