The Ideal Retirement Life

Living an Ideal Retirement Life is Up to You

Everyone of different occupation and age will go into retirement one day, and everyone can choose his/her own lifestyle, but to live an ideal retirement lifestyle, one must have sufficient preparation before retirement.

• After a long military career and worked at the Institute of Information Industry since military retirement as colonel, “Father Bear” had been living a routine early-rise, early-to-bed lifestyle. One day he made up his mind and asked for voluntary retirement. Since then, he has been getting all the sleep he needs, and doing a lot of hiking, exercising, and meeting up with old friends to chat over food, tea or good wine. As he has no worries financially, it is quite a heavenly lifestyle indeed.
• Old Liang taught Chinese at a prestigious high school for over 20 years during which he often worried about the student’s grades. After retirement, his children have all found good jobs. Since he has made solid investments during his retirement, he is financially independent and can contribute wholeheartedly to the nonprofit sector without financial worries.
• Mr. Tu was supported by his family in his decision to retire early, even though it meant giving up an annual salary in the tens of millions. He wanted to devote his time to missionary work and found a second career at World Vision Taiwan.
• Mr. Tu's life took a turn; he became the president of World Vision and went all over the world to conduct relief work for those in need. He now believes that working for public welfare is even more challenging than working in a regular business setting.
• Gao worked for a newspaper for 25 years during which he lived his days as nights and nights as days; even though he is still healthy, he decided to retire. His colleagues wondered what his plans would be after retirement, and to their surprise, he decided to move back to his hometown in Penghu County to set up a shop on Magong Street, stroll around the dock in Magong at dusk, swim, scuba dive, and watch the planes fly by the night sky, guessing if they were going to Taiwan.
• Kuo was a top manager at a foreign company in charge of software marketing. He had a high annual salary and bonuses, but had to devote almost all of his energy to work. He often had to work in the middle of the night for conference meetings with headquarters in the US, not to mention having to travel overseas for conferences all the time. Whenever he logged onto MSN, there would be endless messages to which he had to respond.
• Kuo retired before 40 to completely get away from his computer. He packed lightly and began traveling in Europe and all over China. All the stress-induced illnesses he suffered cured miraculously and he no longer had to worry about sales figures. Kuo tells his friends now that good health is priceless, no matter how high the salary; without health and time to spend it, there is no meaning. He can enjoy his life now because he had done financial planning early on and now has no worries about money.

Retirement Planning Need

The global population is aging. According to a HSBC survey about future trends in retirement, conducted in 20 countries and regions with 6,000 corporate participants and 21,000 individual participants, people believe that to live happily in retirement, family, friends and health are more important than money, and that one cannot depend on the government for their retirement life. As competition gets ever fiercer due to globalization, pressures at work are causing people to opt for early retirement; however, many cannot do so due to financial considerations, and there is no guaranteed lifelong employment on the market. An elementary school teacher, Ms. Wang told us that after reading many research reports in the media, she is planning for her retirement early, saving early and learning to invest. This is not only for her children, but also to ensure that she has a retirement fund sufficient for a happy retirement life.