Personal notes
Ten months of experience as a retiree made me decide to share my experience (experience defined as the mistakes of the past that we like to reminisce and chuckle about) with fellow and close colleagues of the same line of business. Because this business of the UN plucks us out of the African reality and we live another level of comfort. The system protects and inures, but we then return to reality on retirement. Then we realize it was dreamland compared with the day-to-day reality of our families, our relatives, our classmates etc.
So
I decided that others should not have the same dramatic wake-up and should keep in touch with our realities.
I assembled a group of 23 active Tanzanian colleagues with whom I do share my retirement experience, so they can learn and adjust personal/family plans.
I thought I share wider through my site. The reader should not hesitate to share further on, even if you do not attribute authorship.
------xxxxx------
The Article
PREPARING FOR RETIREMENT
Message batches
1. Batch 1: HEALTH
2. Batch 2: WEALTH
3. Batch 3: SOCIAL
A. Health
Studies have shown that the later you retire, the shorter you live afterwards and have put the best retirement age at between 55 and 60. The UN moved from 60 to 62 and then to 65. It is a choice we have to wait until normal retirement age or cut short and do something else.
Personal situation: I could have retired at 62 with a monthly right of $.... but I chose to retire at 65 with a monthly right of $.... plus $1,600.
Why this discussion?
Because it has an impact on heath. In UNHCR many colleagues passed away barely 2 years after retirement. And where does their contribution to the pension go?
Many of our jobs are sedentary, HR, Admin, Supply, Programme, sitting in the office all day long and coming home tired, only to sit again. Result: obesity, diabetes, cholesterol and lumbar deformations.
What am I saying is that quality of life after retirement is a sequel to our lifestyles while in service.
That we should look at our lifestyles, we should look at what and how we eat. It is said that if you do not treat your food as medicine, you will treat your medicine as your food in future. I know that for sure. Only now.
That after the ages of 45, we no longer need sugar. We need to reduce salt and we need to be aware of the oils that we eat. It is proven that soft drinks are killers. Oil should not be recycled: you cook once or twice and that is it.
That heath should be invested on before we have health problems: a full gym of running thread, bicycle and four station body stretch equipment costs no more than $3,000 in China and you can afford to import duty -free while you have the diplomatic cover.
That we should pay attention to what the body tells us. How do we wake up from bed for instance?
That we should all have health insurance after public service: and the After-Service health Insurance in the UN is an option.
Occupational therapy can be the focus of being active after retirement. It is not for the money, but for the health. In other words, do something and keep physically active.
One last point: You have hard of a few retired colleagues who died because they fell. You have heard of people who fall and die in the bathroom. You wonder why. One of the phenomena is sudden rise from bed. While sleeping, the heart rate reduces from the normal 70 beats/min to 45/minute. The heart is pumping at 65% less. Sudden rise forces the heart to instantly go to 100%. The blood is drawn from the head because you are now standing, and the pump is being forced. Careful. Sit in bed for 2 minutes before standing
B. Wealth
We all know our African realities: while for our colleagues in Europe and America, they marry one person, we know that we in Africa we marry a whole family, and the family is entitled to share in our good and bad times. So what do we do?
We share the money: how many of us do not have a group of people waiting for our salary at the end of every blessed month?
We forget to share information with our spouses: African experiences in Geneva show how important that relatives have access to our index number, to retirement entitlement information, to banking information.
We forget that when we die, we leave behind, not just a bereaved spouse, but also an anxious, noisy and self-entitled crowd of meddling uncles and aunties for our spouse to deal with. We forget to leave behind a last WILL, because we are afraid that a will means that we are inviting early death.
Again, what am I saying and what am I proposing?
The UN is not an African institution and therefore it was not built around an African culture. It serves the interests of big capital money. That is why most of our accounts, including on retirement, are in Geneva, in New York and we feel more reassured than with our national systems. Let us just be careful to ensure that when we are unable to reach our benefits, our spouses still can.
That after the main UN retiree passes away, the spouse is entitled to half the retirement monthly income. But that he/she needs to have continuous access to it. Who should help?
That reducing retirement age by a few years may have a regressive arithmetical progression on your after-service cash flow, but it has an exponential progression of negative impact on your health. If I had retired at 62, my lumpsum would only have reduced by $15,000 and my monthly income by only $1,600. With all family needs included and my upgraded living style, we would still be way above not just the struggling hoi-poloi, but even the honest sweating local bank manager.
Health is more important that wealth.
Cash flow is important and be careful that you are not counting on selling land or fixed assets to solve your cash problems. Reduce the number of people that depend on you now, because that will have an impact on your retirement wellbeing and standard.
C. Social
There is a saying that when you can untie a rope, do not cut it, you will need it later. Similarly, retirement is a time when you need to reconnect with all that you left behind when you became international. What will you do with your time?
If you have good cash flow, try not to seek another UN employment after retirement. You will be received by a G5, who will make you sit in the corridors, while you were a big person in your own right. There is so much more than the UN in the world.
And, what am I saying? I am suggesting that, apart from a exceptional experience that one needs to give back to the organization, it is best to avoid returning to your old employers. And to find instead more imaginative useful economic or social activities that engage you emotionally and physically, and if possible, without the financial anxiety.
Thank you and have a fine weekend.
Antonio Canhandula
Dar-es-Salaam
17 September 2022
Excellent essay!