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We often dream of retirement as a reward, but for many Malaysians, it's becoming an unattainable privilege.

Are we truly prepared for the challenges of an aging nation?

There's talk about raising the retirement age to 65 because Malaysians are living longer and can work longer. But, a recent study shows a different story.

Over the past ten years, more and more people are claiming they can't work due to health issues. In 2023, over 52 out of every 10,000 workers said they were too sick to work. These people aren't old; they're around 45 years old.

Most of these cases are due to diseases like diabetes and heart problems, not injuries. These diseases are caused by stress, not taking care of themselves, and not getting help early enough. These workers tried to keep working, but their bodies gave out before they could retire.

It's easy to say people should work longer, but we need to ask if they're able to. Raising the retirement age without helping those who can't work is unfair.

Even those who do retire aren't necessarily secure. Malaysia's retirement system relies heavily on what people save.

If you don't save, you don't have anything to retire on. If you stop working early, you stop saving.

Many people don't have enough saved to live on.

Because of this, people are taking money out of their retirement funds for health reasons. This shows that the retirement system is struggling because people are living longer and getting sick earlier.

We need to:

- change how we think about retirement.

- support those who can't work and make sure everyone has enough money to live on in retirement.

- stop thinking of retirement as just a number and realise that not everyone can work until a certain age.

- protect those who worked hard but couldn't make it to retirement.

Do you feel confident that you have enough saved for retirement?

What steps can we take as a society to better support those who can't work until retirement age?