Wall of text incoming because my brain is officially fried and my salt levels are hitting maximum capacity.
Today, this 40-year-old Malaysian colleague of mine suddenly walked into the boss’s office and straight up threw his resignation letter. Not to hop to another MNC for a 20% jump, okay? The fellow is officially RETIRING. Finito. Finished. Game over, he won liao.
He has been working in Singapore since he was 18. Did the whole standard route: study here, work here, got his PR, contributed to our economy, and endured the daily peak hour MRT squeeze with the rest of us corporate slaves. We always thought he was just another ordinary guy, tapao-ing $4.50 caifan everyday and driving a second-hand Honda.
Turns out, he was playing 4D chess while the rest of us were playing tikam-tikam.
He told us today he is giving up his PR, withdrawing his entire CPF lump sum, and moving back to Malaysia for good. He already bought a massive double-story landed house there—freaking cheap compared to our million-dollar 4-room HDB pigeon holes. Car also dirt cheap over there, can buy a nice SUV without selling a kidney for a COE that costs more than the actual vehicle.
He calculates until very nice. With the exchange rate right now, his converted Singapore dollars make him an automatic millionaire over there. He can just put everything in fixed deposits or low-risk funds, sit down, relax, and eat Ramly burger every night while watching the sunset.
Meanwhile, look at me. Local true-blue Singaporean, 30+ years old. I am still looking at BTO launch prices and crying. I look at my CPF that is locked up until I am a senior citizen. If I want to retire at 40, my only choice is to retire from life. Every day wake up at 7 AM, grind until 7 PM, deal with endless corporate wayang, just to pay off a 30-year housing loan.
He spent 22 years here, extracted the SGD wealth, and now he is escaping the matrix at age 40. At the age where my back is just starting to ache, this guy is choosing which golf course to visit on a Tuesday morning.
I cannot take it anymore. The envy is real. Happy for him, but honestly? My mental health just took a nose dive. Anyone else feels like we are playing this life game on ultra-hard mode?