The Squeeze: Why Mid-Life Feels Financially Tighter Than Ever
If you’re in your 40s or early 50s, juggling aging parents, school-going kids, mortgage payments, and career demands, you know this stage of life isn’t a walk in the park. It often feels like you’re being pulled in every direction financially. You’re not alone. Many middle-aged Singaporeans find themselves caught in what we call the “sandwich generation.”
You earn a decent income, yet there never seems to be enough left over. You’re expected to save, invest, plan for retirement, and maybe even help your children with future university expenses. And yet, month after month, you’re just managing to stay afloat.
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: Your own financial needs often come last.
In the process of caring for everyone else, many people forget to prepare for their own retirement. It feels too far away to matter, but the truth is: 10 years can pass in a flash. And when you hit 55, the CPF Retirement Account will be formed, and how much is in it determines how comfortably you can retire.
So what can you do today, realistically, without huge amounts of spare cash?
Stay with me over the next few posts. We’ll talk about how to:
- Invest even with limited funds (yes, it’s possible!)
- Use your CPF to build up your retirement savings wisely
- Choose options based on your comfort level with risk
- And most importantly, create a plan that puts YOU back into the equation
Because investing isn’t just for the wealthy — it’s for anyone who wants to be prepared for the golden years.
Before you start writing this off as another one of those wealth planning articles which promotes certain investment products, we invite you to stick with us to the end. Because we are also on this same journey of financial discovery, while we may have been a little ahead, we endeavour to help provide some enlightenment in making finance as simple/ straight forwardly / palatable to both women and men.
