I have been writing and speaking about retirement planning for the past 27 years.
In the initial years of my career, they were all about how to accumulate enough wealth to retire. As my clients became older, I realised that helping them withdraw in retirement is more complex and led my firm to start researching more into it. In the past decade or so, my work on retirement has moved in that direction. But it was still just about money.
In 2010, I had an epiphany that gave me the conviction that money is just an enabler and that it is sufficient to have enough. So, I encouraged people that we should first make life decisions before arranging our financial affairs to support these life decisions. In the last 12 months, I discovered that ikigai decisions are actually life decisions and started helping my clients to discover their ‘ikigai’ (not based on the erroneous 4-circle Venn diagram). Ikigai, according to the Japanese, is ‘what you will wake up each morning for’. It is about living a daily life that is of worth.
But then, knowing our ikigai and having the wealth to enable it is useless without good health.
To be healthier is to be cognitively sharp, physically fit, and emotionally strong. Unfortunately, as we age, these three areas naturally decline due to the increased risk of us suffering from cardiovascular diseases (such as a heart attack or stroke), cancer, neurodegenerative diseases (such as Alzheimer’s), and metabolic diseases (such as diabetes).
These 4 horsemen of chronic diseases can rob us of having a good life, a good retirement. While we cannot prevent our biological age from increasing, we can delay the onset of these illnesses until as late and for as short a period as possible. The objective is to allow us to have ikigai-kan (feelings of ikigai) for many healthy years before and especially in retirement, but if we are struck with diseases and our health starts to regress, it lasts for a very short period before we pass. Health researchers have termed this as good health span, the amount of time a person is in good health, as a fraction of their total lifespan.
I started my journey of improving my health span by going through a targeted health screening designed by my doctor after he listened to my medical, family history, as well as my objectives. Besides the standard screening such as lipids, liver profile, and glucose test, I have also done hormone and endocrine tests, prostate cancer screening, vitamins study, and a test for helicobacter pylori bacteria. I also checked for special lipids such as Apolipoprotein B and Lipoprotein (a) that are bigger risk factors for heart diseases than cholesterol. I have also done CT scans on my lungs, pelvis, and stomach as well as a CT angiogram for my heart. I have also completed a number of gastro/colonoscopies over the years. Based on the results, my doctor and I worked out a comprehensive health improvement plan. These are the five areas that I am working on.
Exercise
One’s exercise regime should be based on what they still want to physically do in their retirement years. For me, up until the last decade of my life (which I obviously do not know when), I hope to still be able to hike in the forest, go on camping trips, run, cycle, and if I have grandchildren, carry them and play with them. I also hope to be able to do grocery shopping and cook. To do that, I put in place an exercise regime which requires me to run 3 times a week at about 60%-70% of my maximum heart rate as well as do interval cardio training once a week. I also try to go to the gym 3 times a week for strength training. I attended a personal trainer course to learn how to use the weights correctly.
Nutrition
From scientific evidence, a large part of our health depends on what we eat. So, I calculated my daily maintenance calorie and planned my diet on where my calories should come from. Suffice it to say that most of my calories would come from a protein diet rather than carbohydrates. I also cut down on my sugar intake because sugar is a key contributor to many chronic diseases. I used an app to track what I eat each day.
Sleep
There is also enough evidence showing that sleep quality contributes to our overall health and well-being. I try my best to sleep at least seven to eights hours each night.
Emotional Health
This measures a person’s ability to manage their emotions, cope with life’s challenges, and maintain a sense of well-being. While my work can be very stressful at times, I am grateful that because I enjoy my work, the stress is manageable. Having other areas of ‘ikigai’ also help with my emotional well-being, and I am a work-in-progress in having ‘yutori’ or mind space in my daily life.
Medicines and Supplements
I used to have very bad low-density lipids (LDL), and nothing I tried worked. So, my doctor decided to start me on cholesterol-lowering statins, which have successfully brought it down to a very low level. To make sure I am not affected by any side effects, my liver profile is regularly checked. I also take some supplements that are useful based on my medical history.
There are obviously many other ways to becoming healthier than what I can write. Depending on your health situation and personal convictions, some of you may prefer alternative medicines/supplements such as TCM, herb-based supplements, or do exercises such as yoga, Pilates, or even qigong or practise mindfulness. Whatever you believe in, just like in investing, I encourage you to make sure that they are evidence-based and that what you put in place is something you can adhere to for the long term. I believe this approach gives the highest probability of success. Also, even though you don’t have to do all the health tests every year, they can still be expensive when you do them. Some of you may choose to engage personal trainers in retirement and nutritionists to plan your meals. All these cost money, and you want to plan for them financially.
So, a successful retirement is one where you have the wealth to improve your health span to enable your ikigai. All three require intentional thinking about, planning for, and acting on them.
I am a planner at heart, and I run a practice that excels at it. But yet I know that while man can propose, God can dispose. We can plan as much as we want, but our lives are in God’s hands. But to use that as an excuse to not plan is being unwise.
The writer, Christopher Tan, is Chief Executive Officer of Providend Ltd, Southeast Asia’s first fee-only comprehensive wealth advisory firm and author of the book “Money Wisdom: Simple Truths for Financial Wellness“. He is also a Certified Ikigai Tribe Coach.
The edited version of this article was published in The Business Times on 28 October 2024.
For more related resources, check out:
1. Beyond Finances: Are You Really Prepared for Retirement?
2. Discovering Your “Ikigai” with Providend’s Philosophy
3. What My US Trip Taught Me About Homelessness, Succession Planning, and Retiring Overseas
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