Life & Thereafter

My colleague took urgent leave this morning. At first I thought it was due to the aftermath of watching too much late night football last night. But, it was not the case. His friend had just died the night before.

He was out for his regular badminton game with his usual group of friends, among whom was a 50-odd year old man. They partnered each other last night, and in the middle of the game, the guy just collapsed.

Despite efforts to revive him, he was pronounced dead. I was told that he was the sole breadwinner at home. The first thing that came to my mind was how sorry I was that a seemingly healthy person died so suddenly. The second thing that came to my mind was whether the man had insurance.

My wife and I spend quite a lot of money each month on insurance premium alone. We are both strong believers of insurance. In fact, I often joke openly that my children will be very rich when we die. To put it bluntly, they will really profit from our death!

Well, I think, why not. Many of my parents' generation weren't so much into insurance, but they were into investments. They bought properties over the course of the last 30-odd years, and I guess this is their insurance policy. For me, I do not have the discipline nor the interest to bet on uncertainty. I also do not have the cashflow. Besides, I do not mind living in a HDB flat. In fact, I loved it. And I intend to go back to living in a HDB flat in future. That's another story for another day.

Coming back to this insurance thingy. So, to cut a long story short - I do not have the luxury of being able to buy lots of property for my children. So, the most I can do is to buy some insurance, and have small investments here and there to pass to them in case there should anything happen to me. I do not believe that I need to support my children forever. I just to cover them until they are old enough to take care of themselves.

As for myself, I do not need to travel the world or some such cliche that the old folks like to dwell on. I would be happy just to be able to enjoy nature. And then, I would learn to do all those things that I never got the chance to do - gardening, calligraphy, artwork. Of course, these things need money, but I am happy to learn that they are quite affordable at community centers. Hence, HDB living is perfect for me.

The only unknown, of course, is the wifey. Maybe she thinks differently - maybe she wants to walk into the sunset on a red carpet, maybe she does want to hv a "glorious" golden years. She is entitled to want that. I guess this is something we have to work out somehow. Its management of expectations vs proactive retirement planning.

In the end, when you tear it all apart, we are all on our own. We were borned alone, and we will die alone. This life that we have is solely ours, even if it were shared briefly with others. Ultimately, we answer only to ourselves for the life that we have.