WHAT does tomorrow hold for us? While the specifics remain unknowable, there are megatrends in place, which grant us glimpses of our future. I'm writing this column a week before the Sunday it's slated for publication, May 22, 2022, barring, of course, Money Thoughts being held back for space constraints — which happens rarely.
This date holds major significance for me. My late mother, Janaki Bai Devadason, was born on May 22, 1922. So "today" will mark her centenary milestone.
Sadly, she only made it two months and three weeks past her 94th birthday when she passed away from the ravages of a multi-focal stroke on Aug 12, 2016. My older sister, Viji, and I still miss her every single day.
My mother and I were especially close, perhaps in part because she had me rather late in life, on her 42nd birthday! For those paying attention, that makes me 58 "today".
I'm not telling you this to garner an avalanche of "Happy Birthday" greetings, but rather to make the point that with the passage of each year in recent decades, I've been feeling rather old. Quite frankly, I find myself often being surprised and sometimes startled by the aged face, thinning hair and greying temples staring back at me in the mirror.
What throws me for a loop, though, during these jarring episodes is that often I feel — deep inside — as though I'm only 17 or 24 or 30, depending on which specific memories happen to be percolating to the surface of my consciousness at the time.
I even took an online quiz about a year ago to assess my so-called "inner age", which apparently was 28. If nothing else, the quiz cheered me up for the day.
Back when I truly was 17, 24 and 30, my mother and I had celebrated her 59th, 66th and 72nd birthdays. Even as she visibly aged with the clicking forward of the calendar, I irrationally assumed she'd always be around. I was wrong.
GREYING POPULATION
A couple of weeks ago, I chatted with a Perak-based friend of my uncle, Dr Benjamin Devadason, who is visiting from Brisbane, at the bar of the Royal Ipoh Club.
Uncle Ben's friend is also a retired doctor. After we'd conversed a bit, this octogenarian asked me how old I was. When I told him, he flatly stated, "You're young."
I thanked him profusely and said very few people say that to me nowadays, which is understandable because the current median age of Malaysians is 30. That means if you lined up all 33 million citizens and residents of our country, you'll find about 16.5 million are under 30, and the other half is at or over that age.
Translation: Malaysia still has a relatively young population, but we are graying, figuratively speaking, at an alarming rate. We became a so-called ageing society (with seven per cent of our population aged 65 or more) in 2020 at the start of the pandemic.
Furthermore, current trend lines suggest we'll transition from an ageing society to an outright aged society in just 22 years (2044) and — brace yourself — a super-aged society in 34 years (2056). (Based on metrics used by demographers, a country reaches aged status when 14 per cent of its people are 65 and over, and super-aged status when 20 per cent of its population is 65 or older.)
Why is this happening — both in Malaysia and worldwide? I believe for four reasons, three of which are intertwined:
1. Falling human fertility rates;
2. Improving nutrition;
3. Blossoming healthcare services; and,
4. Lengthening lifespan.
While only God determines how long each of us has on Earth, based on the "Law of Large Numbers" and well-defined demographic trends, it is evident that collectively, Homo Sapiens are thus far snubbing our noses at lifespan-inhibiting factors — like Putin's megalomaniacal tactical nuclear threats, global warming, crop devastation, water shortage, and industrial pollution — to live longer.
The different population growth models suggest our planet's living human load will peak sometime between 2068 and 2100, before sloping down.
It is my conviction that before the end of this critical century, humanity will have initiated the colonisation of our inner solar system (Mercury-Venus-Moon-Mars) and established sizeable mining activities throughout "our" asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
WORKING LONGER
The human race doesn't have a choice as we teeter at the brink of outgrowing Earth's large yet ultimately finite capacity to support our graying, energy-ravenous, burgeoning civilisation.
What does this mean for us?
With our lengthening lifespan, all of us should focus on finding meaningful work that nourishes our soul, stimulates our mind, and funds our savings-and-investment portfolio.
Those who are unwisely fixated on retiring early have missed the plot. In my opinion, it's wiser and far more exciting to aim to work longer rather than shorter because those around us are perfectly positioned to appreciate and applaud the fine music still locked away within us.
So, focus on unleashing it. Also, do figure out how best to get paid for meaningful work well past Malaysia's too low national retirement age of 60. My goal is, God willing, to begin to contemplate gearing down only at 75.
What's your target?
© 2022 Rajen Devadason
Rajen Devadason, CFP, is a Licensed Financial Planner, professional speaker and author. Read his free articles at www.FreeCoolArticles.com; he may be connected with on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/rajendevadason, or via rajen@RajenDevadason.com. You may also follow him on Twitter @Rajen Devadason and on YouTube (Rajen Devadason).