Overseas retirement – what you don’t know
May 2, 2025
Retirement in a foreign country is the dream of many.
It is expensive to live in Singapore. We have high inflation, high housing cost and high cost of living. In contrast, our nearby countries can offer the same quality or even better retirement life at a fraction of Singapore’s costs.
As more of my friends are approaching the age of retirement, discussions come up on an ideal place for retirement. What about your set of criteria? Affordable with low cost of living? Comfortable living and great food? Nice weather and fresh air? Or professional healthcare and caregiving?
Life after retirement – health span versus lifespan
Although Singapore has one of the world’s highest average lifespan of 84 years, our average health span is only 74 years. This means an average Singaporean lives about ten years in bad health.
In other words, there are two stages of our life after retirement: 1) When we are still healthy and active and 2) when we are sick and require caregiving.
In the first stage, it is up to individuals to choose their lifestyle. And we are free to relocate to any country to enjoy our retirement life. But as we proceed to the last ten years or so, we may have no choice but to seek options for caregiving. The caregiver can be a family member, a domestic helper, or staff in a nursey home.
Obviously, our priorities can be very different in these two stages. When we are planning for our retirement, very often we only focus on health span. Seldom will we think of stage two... read more