Wow. Thanks for sharing bro! I’ll definitely PM you in due time after I’ve firmed up things in my end. Enjoy your Sakura 🌸 visit to Japan!

Thanks in advance. Ain’t retiring just yet, but it’s a step in that general direction for me!

Will definitely share the photos and my experiences when that day finally arrives, just like how I shared my Porsche purchases in Sydney 3 years after I first asked /k for their opinions, and how I went on to share my month long epic (well, it was epic for me and wifey) road trip from Sydney to Tasmania and back.

Thank you for letting me share my joy with all of you!

Thanks for the question. To be honest I really didn’t think I would be contemplating early retirement. I love my job, I love my patients, I love the challenges medicine presents both academically and professionally and even after nearly 30 years I am still passionate about what I do.

However, I also love my wife, and I know she has given up 30 years of her life to support my ambitions and my calling. Yes, she had a professional life of her own but she also wished for a richer family life with her husband. I often say that for the first 30 years she’s given me far more than I have given her. So it’s only fair that for the next 30 years (and that is if we both stay in our present good health together) that I step up to the plate and be as good as husband to her as she has been a wife to me. that she would like me for herself and not have to share me with my patients.

We are blessed to be in a position financially to contemplate early retirement. So I figured why not take advantage of it while we still have good health and we can still travel the world, enjoy smelling the roses and still have money left over for a meaningful post full time work life.

So I don’t think it’s a question of losing satisfaction from work. In my opinion, I have too much passion for medicine to ever face that concern. I think this is more a question of me wanting to be as successful and as good husband to my wife as I have been as successful and as good a doctor to my patients.

So, this new year, I’ve started the ball rolling and planted the idea of retiring in my mind. My time frame is 2 years - if I’m lucky, and I can successfully decant my patients to my other colleagues, I hit my target on time. If I’m not so lucky, I might miss the self-set deadline, but I’m determined to get there before the official retirement age arrives!

I see it as a new challenge for a new stage in my life.

This post has been edited by hksgmy: Feb 4 2024, 10:43 PM

Might be a plan, but definitely only after the round the world trip happens

Thanks for the suggestion… definitely worth a good think about it!

Thank you my friend, for the insightful replies and the great suggestions…. I’ll put some serious thought into Paris, it’s just that at our last visit there, wifey didn’t quite enjoy the people and there was a distinct disdain - almost bordering on neglectful nonchalance - when it came to service standards at some of the cafes and bistros we visited. The opposite was true when we stepped into LV at Galeries LaFayette and a PuTongHua speaking server would nearly trip over herself in obsequious obedience to our every wish and command. It was all a bit too much and we left with a rather unpleasant taste of the whole thing.

Thanks again for your input!

So, since starting this thread, and reading the helpful responses (with my grateful thanks), I’ve already made some adjustments to my original planned length of stay at major cities.

The destinations are still pretty much as listed, but we now intend to spend at least 10 days to 2 weeks at a major destination.

That’s going to require a lot of additional planning to ensure I don’t end up lazing in the hotel room and wasting those extra days!

This post has been edited by hksgmy: Feb 5 2024, 07:42 AM

That’s a brilliant idea…. But, I highly doubt the rental companies will allow rented cars on track… I might just have to settle for a ‘Ring taxi ride in a M5.

Hi bro, wife and I decided 30 years ago that our kids would be better off if we didn’t have them…. So, we did the responsible thing by our definition and opted not to have children.

30 years later, we still believe that was the one single most important and correct decision we made. Our natures are excellent for our workplaces. I’m immersed in my work, and she was dedicated to hers. This would make us absent parents - or worse, parents that (because we obviously have the wherewithal to do so) splurge on their kids materially to make up for their emotional absence.

Sydney was where I spent my university years on a very generous Australian scholarship and I can’t help but feel I owe Australia a debt of gratitude. We have friends and family there, and my network is there, and I have a part time practice there which suits me fine post retirement. The country is huge, and I could easily spend a lifetime discovering it… especially since I love to drive. We intend to be active retirees in Sydney, and I still intend to contribute to society there in my own way - and the low humidity works better for me, because I hate feeling sticky all day long.

Singapore gave me everything… and I gave it the best 30 years of my life. That’s a fair trade. So, as an experienced player would say, it’s best to quit while I’m ahead.

What field is your son or daughter pursuing in Singapore? I could help give you a better perspective if I knew the area of studies…

If your daughter is keen on either law or medicine, then staying put in Singapore (especially for medicine) is the better option. As your sister just realised, the criteria for hiring of foreign trained doctors have been tightened over the past decade or so, as we're now churning out 500 medical students locally yearly (up from 150 per year 20 years back), and there are returning Singaporeans on MOH half scholarship/sponsorships, all fighting for limited spots.

Singapore is also positioning itself as a hub for arbitration, as well as the usual financial wheeling and dealing that goes on in the Republic, so I think if she gets into law, she'll be well served in her career as well.

Do you intend for her to come back to Malaysia?

Bro, that's got nothing to do with the ASEAN scholarship, but everything to do with the recipient's character & values.

These are early days, and I'm sure the plans will change or be modified, but the general aim is there for a round the world trip in First Class.

I'll update this when I've done it in a couple of years' time, and let all of you know whether it's a good idea, or a fool's errand haha!

That’s a great reminder. I’m currently with Allianz and it’s pretty good, but I’ll definitely look into the fine print for the round the world trip when the time comes and upgrade accordingly!

I've done and I'm done with trekking up mountains and hills. I did a retreat to a secluded island off the coast of NSW and did the 7 peaks... and I swore to myself, I'm never ever doing anything remotely like that ever again. Never.

Thank you bro. Yes, we intend to take like a year to do the round the world trip, which means we should have more than enough time to take in the sights and sounds and smells of each destination. No rush... we'll be retired by then!

Bro, I'm not an expert on this - everyone's retirement needs will be different.

My wife and I are retiring because we can afford to, based on our calculations.

Bro, there are other ways to enjoy a trek in nature, or a clamber up a rock face. It doesn't have to be Everest, at least not for me.

I’m not sure about that bro. There are some real heavy hitters here in /k… heavy hitting but humble and keeping a low profile one and all. I wouldn’t dare to count myself as belonging to that rarefied club with that which my wife and I have.

It’s enough for the two of us to enjoy life and then some, and that’s good enough for us.

And, as ry8128 mentioned in an earlier reply, we haven’t even considered the self proclaimed richest /k of them all yet….

Well, it’s not quite the start of my round the world trip yet, but we are our way to celebrate CNY in Sydney … oh, and to start the engine of my 911.

It’s a hard life but someone has to do it haha.

Happy CNY /k