Let People Decide When To Retire

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YOURSAY | ‘Do they expect senior citizens to beg by the roadside?’
Reintroduce 55 retirement age instead, Amanah Youth tells Azalina
Siva1967: I believe the argument presented is fundamentally flawed and appears to be a vote-baiting exercise aimed at younger voters.
Given the rising life expectancy and the soaring cost of goods and services, the current retirement age of 60 is no longer realistic.
Many individuals in their 60s and beyond find it increasingly difficult to support themselves without a steady source of income.
There are thousands of people over the age of 60 who are unable to secure stable employment.
Without proper protections in place, they are vulnerable to exploitation by employers.
One only needs to look around to see numerous male security guards aged 60 and above working 12-hour or even 24-hour shifts, often compelled to cover for their colleagues on off days. That’s just one sector.
Speaking from personal experience, I am healthy, yet no amount of EPF savings can last indefinitely - unless one passes away early.
As long as a person is healthy and able to contribute, they should have the right to continue working.
The decision to retire should lie with the individual, not be mandated by a fixed age.
Moreover, considering today’s cost of living, older individuals cannot depend on their children for financial security or daily needs.
Many young people, even after graduating, face great difficulty in securing employment, let alone affording a house, especially in urban areas.
In my view, raising the retirement age is a welcome and necessary move.
It would not only empower individuals to remain financially independent but also increase contributions to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), thereby enhancing their financial security in the long term, particularly post-retirement at age 65.
Robbie98: Dear Amanah Youth deputy chief Danial Al-Rashid Haron, I wonder which fantasy world you are living in.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said’s proposal requires a serious and unemotional appraisal.
Consider the following facts when you suggest retirement at age 55.
The average age (2023) Malaysians live to is 74 for males and 78 for females. Only four to five percent of Malaysians pay tax.
There are 34 million of us. Only 15 percent of working Malaysians pay tax. Five percent of the workers in Malaysia are government servants. They draw a pension upon retirement. Right now, the retirement age is 60.
Economists have repeatedly warned that the expanding pension burden on the government is fiscally unsustainable.
Private sector employees cannot live out their lives with financial independence with the money they save if they retire at 55 in the absence of a pension.
No government can guarantee employment to a large family unit any more. Makes you wonder why birth rates are low in financially stable countries.
Over here, we take a lot of pride in our fertility rate. What is required for us to survive into the future is:
1. Pensions to be paid from a self-contributing pension fund. No more government pensions or subsidies.
Something similar to the EPF, from which you draw down a monthly payment upon retirement based on your contributions.
2. Work longer as you need to save up to live your life independently. You are also going to live longer.
3. No responsible government can go on the way we function now without going bankrupt. Change must be mandatory, it is not an option any more.
Now tell me, sir, do you want to retire at 55 or 65?
Politics aside, Azalina’s proposal requires consideration.
Open minded 2281: The issue of graduate unemployment is due to the quality of our graduates.
When you introduce a system which does not reward based on merit, then employers use their tools to evaluate their prospective employees.
Some employers now give an English and Math test, and most local university graduates fail.
You will be surprised that employers are employing graduates from foreign universities and graduates from private universities.
BlackPuma1084: Don’t see the logic of Amanah’s argument.
Those young graduates can’t fill the shoes of a 55-year-old for many reasons, including a lack of skills and knowledge.
The current job market skills requirements are different, the mindset of 55-year-olds who are more responsible because of their background, and growing up in a different value system.
The reason for many young graduates being jobless is the education and industry requirements.
That’s what Amanah should focus on: less religious education, more technology and artificial intelligence skills to meet job market demands.
J Wick: Address the root cause of why so many young graduates are not able to secure permanent jobs!
If these graduates are smart and have graduated with good and high-quality degrees, they should be able to secure good jobs.
If they are not able to get a job here, Singapore or the public sector will employ them based on meritocracy.
The root cause is universities churning out tens of thousands of half-baked “graduates” not on merit but on some agenda.
Because they are half-baked and unable to speak and write proper English, they end up becoming delivery drivers or working in the public sector.
BlueCougar1744: Stupid idea from Amanah. Go and find the root causes of those unemployable youths and graduates.
Our education system stinks to high heaven. That’s one reason you are in politics.
Go and sort that out with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and the education minister, and forward those questions to them.
methink: At the end of the day, do you have enough to retire to a comfortable life?
If you can retire earlier and maintain a comfortable and sufficient life till the end of your and your spouse’s days, then retire.
Most at age 55 are still paying off mortgages, children’s education and other loans, so they may have to rely on their working children to help out, and this burdens the children.
At this moment, 60 is a good age to retire.
Southpaw: In the first place, these politicians from Amanah should go into retirement after they turn 40 so that the younger generation of politicians can take over, filtering off those who cannot use their god-given.
Nasi Ayam: After 55, enter politics and become a state assemblyperson, MP, senator, and receive pension plus MP pay plus perks and talk nonsense in Parliament?
Good for them, but bad for the nation and taxpayers!
Madani is just another wayang kulit: The entire developed world is raising the retirement age, but Amanah is stuck in reverse gear.
Do they expect senior citizens to beg by the roadside? - Mkini

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