Lack of adequate retirement preparation can lead to financial risks. (Illustration, Bloomberg)
The golden years of annual income of 6 million yen (approximately NT$1.19 million) are long gone! A 72-year-old Japanese man once opened his own shop, but now he only receives an annuity of 60,000 yen (approximately NT$12,000) per month. In order to survive, he can only endure the back pain and work in the supermarket four days a week. He was once a prosperous small businessman, but in his later years he "didn't dare to take a break." What he feared most was not that he had no money, but that one day he would not even be able to work anymore.
Japanese media reported that Duff (pseudonym) currently lives alone in an old rental apartment in the countryside. For many years, he ran a small local printing shop, with annual income reaching 6 million yen at the peak of his business. However, as society gradually moved towards paperless society and the popularity of online printing, his business was affected and eventually closed down a few years ago.
When the business began to decline, Duff used the savings accumulated over the years to pay for living expenses and expenses needed to maintain his business. By the time the business actually closed, he had very little retirement funds left.
Since he was self-employed in the past and did not join the Welfare Pension, his monthly fixed income is now only about 60,000 yen from the National Pension. But it was obviously not enough to cover living expenses, so Duff had no choice but to continue working.
He is currently responsible for recycling shopping carts and cleaning around the store at a large local supermarket. He works 4 days a week, 6 hours a day, with an hourly salary of 1,200 yen (approximately NT$238), which can increase his monthly income by approximately 115,000 yen (approximately NT$23,000). After adding annuity, the total monthly income is about 175,000 yen (approximately NT$35,000).
The problem is, that revenue leaves little room for error. Duff has to pay monthly rent, food, water, electricity and communication fees. In addition, he also has to pay for medical treatment and medication for low back pain, as well as national health insurance. In addition to daily necessities and other miscellaneous expenses, the monthly expenditure is about 150,000 yen (approximately NT$30,000), and in the end he only has about 25,000 yen (approximately NT$4,975) left.
What made him even more uneasy was that the 25,000 yen could not really be called "free money." Once a large expenditure occurs temporarily, or you take a few days off due to physical discomfort, you may fall into a deficit that month. The low back pain accumulated over the years has also made work more difficult, but I can only go to work hard.
Duff said frankly, "I have always had a fear, that is, what will I do if one day I can no longer stand at the work site." In the past, when I was still running my business, I never really thought about how life might be in such a fragile state if I did not have sufficient savings and lost the ability to work in my later years.
Duff's later life also highlights the financial risks that self-employed individuals may face after ending their careers if they lack adequate retirement preparations. For him, what is really disturbing may not be that he saves less money every month, but "how can I survive when one day I can't even work anymore."
