Against the Grain: Retirement Savings?

In the past couple of weeks while I watched over the re-tiling of my dining room, I had time to watch a number of financial management videos including on retirement savings. The more I watched, the more I realised that in my first 50 years of my life I was going against the grain. I only started saving money for retirement when I was 49 years old, not 29 as most videos suggested. It was in the last year of my sojourn in Singapore. My son in New Zealand had not graduated but in his final year. Since I know I might be returning home to Sabah, though many things were uncertain at the time, I realised I needed to save.

If I were posted into the interior, I needed to save for a 4x4 pick-up truck, the usual mode of transportation on the majority of roads into villages and towns. I needed to save to pay off my brother who loaned me money for the house. I needed to pay off the mortgage owed to the bank. In more ways than one, it was a mighty step of faith when I departed from Singapore which I did not need to do since at that time I held Singapore Permanent Residence. If I were not fussy, I could have accepted at least a couple of offers of pastorates after I left TTC in June 2014. One church pursued me for 6 months and the reason at the end I rejected their offer was that I was told that I could preach at most once a month in church. My bare minimum threshold is at least once in three weeks and preferably preaching alternate weeks. I felt my main gift had to be utilised when I was 50 years old in my middle age and beyond. There is no time to do what would be second best. 

Coming back to savings, one year of savings in Singapore was not never going to be "enough" so when I returned to Sabah, I had some savings, enough to purchase a 2nd-hand pick-up truck which I bought cash for RM70,000.00. Yet my friends, among those who asked me how much longer I was paying for my Triton, I told them the truth. I bought it cash. I don't think I have come across any church members who bought their cars cash, usually the assumption is that you take the longest period of 9 years with bare deposit. No wonder so many people are poor because they are servicing the loans for way too long. But God is good to me. After 6 years of working back in Sabah (with a year sabbatical in between), my salary is stuck in the RM2K plus per month range. When my former School mates group sent a message about Sabah's poverty line of RM2,750.00 per month for an individual, I replied jokingly that only then I realised my salary was below the poverty line and much worse if that's all the family income. There was a deafening silence for 10 minutes in our group until someone texted and said at least you still had a job. She did not know that I had lost my job and neither did I say that in the group. Within my School group, all of them knew that I was the top student (the only classmate who beat me once into 2nd place is also a pastor - A testimony that God chooses the best to serve Him). But God is a generous God and He is my shepherd and I shall not be in want (Psalm 23).