Health and Fitness Goals: Challenges in Middle Life

I have always prided myself in keeping myself "fit", and for the vast majority of my life, this was not so much of a challenge.  In spite of a hectic work schedule, I used to play soccer on weekends and run a marathon every year.  But somewhere around the middle 50s, nature happened, and things started to get a little challenging.  

The first is the creeping realisation of weight gain.  It comes gradually, but surely.  As we age, our basal metabolic rate drops, but so does hormone production (testosterone and growth hormone), resulting in the combined result of a loss in muscle mass and a gain in fat.  This creep change occurs anytime between 40 to 60.  Suddenly, in middle age, it is possible to weigh up to 10-20kg heavier than when you were in your prime at 18.   

The second is the creeping health problems with the body.  I did not have any serious body issues until my mid-fifties.  And then, I snapped my Posterior Cruciate Ligament playing soccer.    And then, I started needing dental treatment - crowns, root canals and even an implant - all in the space of a few years, things I never needed when I was younger.  And then, I developed knee and hip pain which stopped me from running for a while to recover.  I frequently joke that past 50, your body is like a 15 year old car and you need to drive it with car. But overlay this with other problems you find out only in extensive health screenings.   I was pushed to do this when one of my friends died while training for a triathlon.  It is inevitable that indicators for one of the four chronic diseases of ageing - cardiovascular disease (high cholesterol levels, atherosclerosis), metabolic disease (diabetes, obesity, fatty liver), cancers, and neurodegenerative disease (Alzheimer's, Parkinson's etc) get picked up.   I recently met a person who used to be from the Special Forces, a person who used to be and still looks very fit.  He told me he has been diagnosed with blockage of his arteries.  There is clearly a distinct difference between health and fitness.  You can clearly be fit without being healthy.  It is possible to be the reverse - healthy without being fit, but possibly more difficult.  

Because of bodily changes, we have to work harder in middle age to be healthy. Changes in lifestyle have to take place.  And the aim is to be healthy, not just fit. 

Being Healthy

1.  Eat Better.   It is impossible to exercise away a bad diet.  And in this age of processed, sugared, salt laden fast food, the average diet is really bad.  All the abuse of youth we imposed on our body needs to be fixed.  This is perhaps the most difficult of all habits to change, but is the most important for health.  Eating right in fact is something all should start doing from young.  There are a lot of fad diets to follow. But I have come to realise that its no fun to exclude food groups or to withdraw from communal participation in meals.  So the rule I will follow is "less of this and more of that".  Eat less in total. Eat less red meat, less fat, less fried. More protein, more fiber, more steamed and boiled.  Eat less sugar, eat more savoury.  Drink more water and less alcohol. Awareness of these options are a good starting point. 

2.  Be Quiet.  I am a fan of meditation.  But for those intimidated by this, just 15 minutes being still and quiet should be a daily routine.  Free from devices, free from thoughts, a time to find balance in life.   This is really good for mental health.

3.  Sleep Well.  Sleep is crucial for overall well being.  I was never a fan of wearables, until a lady friend who lost at least 5kg in 2025, told me that it was a game changer for her.  She has a Whoop.  She watches her steps, her heartrate and her sleep and it worked wonders for her.  I got one as a gift from my son in December, and I have been sleeping better ever since.   Simply because I monitor it.  

4.  Exercise.  There are three forms of exercise, and some of us like some above the rest.  But all three are important, and we have to do all three.  

a.   Cardio.  We all need to elevate our heart rates to remain healthy.   I love to run and have re-introduced this three times a week for 30 minutes.   

b.   Flexibility.  This is tough for me.  I have been notoriously inflexible from young.  I find Yoga torture.  But I will need to dedicate 15 minutes a day to stretches to keep limbs loose.  I am learning to do this while waiting or in the office.  I will try to do this every day.  

c.   Resistance Training.  This to me is the most challenging. I dislike going to the gym, but I must admit that given that as we advance in age, we are susceptible to sarcopenia, this is no longer optional.  Lean muscle also has the benefit of keeping us active, as it does protect our joints.  After a year of personal training, I have managed to resume running with minimal pain.  I am grateful for this.  I will do this three times a week for 30 minutes.

Two Rules to Force the Change

Go for incremental small step changes.  To form habits, it is wise to take small steps.  In particular habits we find challenging.  The most challenging for me are a good diet and resistance training.  So change in small steps. For example, for this month, I will try to start most meals with a large portion of vegetables.  This should fill me up and make me eat less of everything else.  I try to keep my exercise sessions to 30 minutes, maybe 20 minutes when on the road. 30 minutes is doable.   It was also nice to read the recent Nature article (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00237-0) that a little exercise can actually deliver huge health benefits. Bite sized portions are certainly better than none at all. 

Consistency.   Consistency is very important in cultivating habits.  I like the rule that consistency means having one but not two "cheat events".  You can have a cheat meal but not two. You can have a cheat exercise day but not two. This is a mild way of easing habits in.  Knowing when and why you struggle with habits is also important. My routine, for example, is always thrown off when I am travelling. I have to make special effort to keep myself honest when I do. 

Semaglutide.  

A last word.  With semaglutide and its derivatives, weight loss has been made easier.  But there is a downside. 13% of weight loss from semaglutide come from lean muscle loss, which compounds the problem.  Also, the data is clear.  Most semaglutide users put back all the weight when they stop using GLP1.  So semaglutide is not a path to permanent weight loss or better health. Try it if you don't believe me. Natural changes to combat ageing are far better. 

Every year, I try a new habit. In 2025, I clocked 10000 steps a day as a habit.  This year, I am back to running and want to see if I can do a half or a full marathon before the end of the year.  I want to increase my lean muscle mass.  And I eventually want to touch my toes from a standing position.   

My Books of 2025

Looking back at my reading list, 2025 was an underwhelming year.  I did not read any stand-out books to recommend, and for some reason, I took the challenge to read some really thick books, and some of them I struggled to finish.  I also did not chance across really good quality fiction, which was also disappointing.  Like many reading lists, the books that I read this year were not necessarily published in 2025.  They come from across time.  To improve the quality of this list, I have chosen to include my best 3 non-fiction and fiction from 2024/25.

Fiction

Politics on the Edge, Rory Stewart (2024).  This is a political memoire from an Ex Conservative Cabinet Minister who fought the leadership campaign to save the Conservative Party, which eventually swung right, elected Boris Johnson, which led to Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak being PM, and a total defeat for the Conservative Party in the 2024 General Election.   I have followed British Politics since the time I was in University and did Political Science.  I share many of Rory's observations, and benefit from understanding the key question we all would like answered - why the British Parliamentary system may not elect the best leaders for the country.  

Say Nothing, Patrick Radden Keefe (2018).  This is a masterpiece of investigative journalism produced by an American on the Troubles in Northern Ireland.  Keefe tells the story of the abduction of Jean McConville by paramilitary groups, to the conviction of the infamous Dolours sisters who bombed London. Anyone wanting to understand why the divisions in Northern Ireland was/is so acute needs to read this.  The injustice and ineptitude of the British Army and Government, and crimes committed by both sides remain major contributory factors.  A TV Series of the same name was released in 2024 on FX.  This is completely based on the book.  The production is one of the highest rated on Rotten Tomatoes. It was nominated for and won a series of awards.  

Elon Musk, Walter Isaacson (2023).  Walter Isaacson is an award-winning biographer, and his work on Elon Musk is detailed and well researched.  Love him or hate him, Elon Musk is an outlier and a maverick, and because of his tenacity has achieved things that few can even dream of, including building the only private venture that has successfully sent a reusable space craft to space in his bid to colonise Mars.   This book tells his story from multiple angles - his life in South Africa, his many relationships with women, his many children, his adventures with Pay Pal, Tesla and Space X amongst others.  This was published before Musk threw his backing for Donald Trump in the 2024 Presidential Election, so his political adventures remain a missing hole.  There will no doubt be a few more chapters to be written in a future Musk biography.  

Fiction

The Shadow of War, Jeff Shaara (2024).  Writing on events more than half a century ago, Jeff Shaara, a prize-winning author of historical fiction spins a plausible story of events leading up to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. The characters are all based on history.  It focuses on Kennedy and Khrushchev, who are caught in a dynamic that drove both the USA and USSR to the brink of nuclear war.  It also shows the leadership that allowed level headedness to prevail, so that both nations could avoid Armageddon.  This is a must read for politicians, military leaders, strategists, and foreign policy practitioners.   

The Women, Kristin Hannah (2024).  This was my first time reading a Kristin Hannah book and it was magnificent.  This story is about an idealistic young woman from the establishment, who chooses to do her duty and head off to 1960s Vietnam in the service of her country.  She volunteers to be a combat nurse on the front line and eventually gets sucked in to go beyond her tour of duty. In spite of the sacrifices, the women involved struggle to both get recognition from their peers in uniform, and from civilians back home.  Like the men, she returns home to an ungrateful America. The rights of this book has been bought by Warner Brothers and anticipate this to be in theaters before too long.  

We Solve Murders, Richard Osman (2024).  BBC personality Richard Osman has reinvented himself as an author and this is his fifth book.  His first, Thursday Murder Club, has been made into a Netflix movie starring Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren and Ben Kingsley.   This will not win Pulitzer Prizes, but Osman has a knack of writing.  I love his work.  This is breezy story about a private investigation agency with a young lady who offers protection written with British humour  Its totally fun.  

Best Movies of 2025

I watched over 100 movies/series in 2025.  While most were entertaining, these were the three that were the top for me.   

The first was the 2024 award-winning television drama series “Shogun”. Based on the 1975 James Clavell novel, this TV remake was created by husband-and-wife pair Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo.  It was perfect.  Shogun relates the story of a British sailor, John Blackthorne, who in desperation seeks refuge in Edo Japan, and who gets entangled in the power play that is taking place amongst the Daimos following the death of the Taiko.  1600 Japan is no place for the faint hearted.  The movie is shot in both English and Japanese.  The cinematography, the screenplay and the story telling, and the acting was gripping.  I found myself hooked and given that I did not previously read the book, consumed the series in four sittings.  It was a masterpiece.  This critically acclaimed series won 14 awards at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards, setting the record as the most awarded single season of television in Emmy history.  It also received four Golden Globe Awards for Best Television Series (Drama), Best Actor in a Television Series (Hiroyuki Sanada), Best Supporting Actor on Television (Tadanobu Asano) and Best Actress in a Television Series Drama (Anna Sawai).   

The second was coincidentally also a Japanese Adult themed television series called "Blue Eyed Samurai", also set in the Edo period.   It was also coincidentally, created by a husband-and-wife team of Michael Green and Amber Noizumi,  This tracks the fortune of a mixed raced warrior, Mizu, who seeks vengeance against four white men, one of whom is her father, who illegally remained in the Tokugawa shogunate after the closing of Japan's borders.  Across the series, the viewer starts to develop an attachment to Mizu, given the discrimination she has sustained being born a child of mixed race.  The series developed such critical acclaim, the Netflix has commissioned a second season which will be put out in 2026.  This fully animated series won a series of awards, including Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program and Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation.

The third and final production was a slightly quirky Mike Flanagan movie called "Life of Chuck".  This
is based on the 2020 Stephen King book, and is done in three acts, all of which could function as a standalone story, but always featuring a guy called Chuck. Because of its quirky and deep philosophical nature, it works for some, and not for others.  Nevertheless, most on Rotten Tomatoes gave it a very positive showing, and The Boston Globe, USA Today and The Washington Post named this the "Best Movie of 2025".    

Sa Pa - a Northern Getaway

Vietnam is a mountainous country, and when the French colonized it, it promptly went about building mountain retreats to allow the elites to escape the humid tropical climes that predominates most of the country.  Sa Pa is the best-known mountain getaway in the North, with Dalat being the one in the South.  I have asked my Vietnamese friends which was better.  The reply was "it depends", clearly conveying that there are differences in the offering.  Having been to Dalat in earlier in the year, I made the long journey to Sa Pa at year end - this time with the family - with a desire to answer that question for myself over the two gems of Vietnam.  

In general, in terms of tourist infrastructure, Sa Pa is far less developed.  This is somewhat linked to its history. Throughout the bloody conflicts that Vietnam has had in the 20th century, the hill resort of Dalat in the south remained an oasis of peace.  The base infrastructure, including the airport, the railway station, the golf courses and villas, remained intact.  The location was always used by the powers that be as a retreat.  Sa Pa in contrast was completely destroyed twice.  The first was during the First Indochina War which pitted the Viet Minh against the French, and the second during the brief Sino-Vietnamese war in 1979, when Sa Pa was part of the area that was invaded by the Chinese.  Sa Pa was abandoned completely until the 1990s when the Vietnamese government agreed to have it developed as a tourist resort again.  There were reportedly only 40 hotel rooms at that time.  Today, Sa Pa has thousands of hotel rooms with new ones being added all the time.  But it still has a lot of catching up to do. The nearest golf course is in Lao Cai.  Dalat already has three golf courses.  It is also not surprising that the population of Dalat (400K) is more than four times that of Sa Pa (90K). 

Sa Pa is also more remote than Dalat.  It takes about 45 minutes to get to Dalat by flight from Ho Chi Minh City.  But the only way to access Sa Pa is by road.  Hanoi is 300km away.  There are two options.  The first is to take a train from Hanoi to the nearest large town from Sa Pa called Lao Cai.  This is the border town adjacent to the Chinese city of Hekou, Yunnan Province - I stopped by to just enjoy the view of the border.  From here, you have to hop on a vehicle to get to Sa Pa, which can cost as low as USD2 using a bus, and around USD20 for a taxi.   

The alternative is to catch a bus or a car direct from Hanoi. I had expected a difficult journey.  But the trip was actually pleasantly smooth, for once you are out of Hanoi, it's a highway all the way till Lao Cai.  A friend of mine took a sleeper bus which I thought was a good option.  This cost about USD18 each way.  But he did not quite like it.  As he also travelled with his family, he felt that everyone was separated into their own compartment and there was no interaction along the way.  He also felt uncomfortably having to lie down all the way.  As such, I chose the more expensive option of chartering a van which could take 8 people and allowed us to chat and listen to music together.  This cost around USD400 return, or around USD25 per person each way.  The benefit of this is that the vehicle will pick you from anywhere in Hanoi and drop you anywhere in Sapa at a time of your choosing.   So that saves the hassle of more transfers.

There was also the question as to whether an overnighter was worthwhile.  I think not.  Firstly, the five-hour journey is too short for one to have a good night sleep.  Furthermore, you will have to step off the vehicle on the two rest stops along the way - I think this was more for the driver than for the passengers.  So, the interrupted nap is not worth it.  Secondly, the scenery along the way is worth it.    For some portion, the road hugs a giant lake and the Red River.  This lends to views of terraces and farmland.  Lastly, arriving in the afternoon allows you to check in the hotel immediately, instead of being stranded for a number of hours.  

The second main difference is the climate.  Both Sa Pa and Dalat sit around 1500m above sea level, with Sa Pa being slightly cooler in winter as it is 1700km to the north.  But the main difference is geographical.  Sa Pa sits in a valley between two high ranges and the landscape forces clouds to be trapped within the city.  And this can be really thick fog, with visibility reduced down to 20 to 30m.    Google says that Sa Pa is foggy 137 days a year, with highest prevalence during the winter months.  In fact, I smiled when I saw a landmark in Sa Pa declaring it to be the "City of Fog".  In the five days I was there in December, the fog did not lift until the last day.  Some regard the fogginess as the "charm" of Sa Pa, which is true to an extent.  But it is nice to have sunlight bathe the city as well.  

The third main difference is the people.  Sa Pa is in an indigenous area of the country, with most of the people there from the ethnic Hmong, Dao, Tay and Giay tribes.   This is very noticeable.  This influences the food, which is more atypical.   It also influences their dressing.  Indigenous people are generally smaller than the average Vietnamese, less cosmopolitan, but certainly very polite.  One of the main tourist attractions in Sa Pa is an indigenous area called "Cat Cat Village" which is seated on a valley with waterfalls on both ends.  Completely commercialized, but still worth a visit.  It is one of the most instagrammed place in Sa Pa.   

The last is that Sa Pa is more adventure seeking while Dalat is more chill, although there is no doubt you can get both experiences in either place.  Many of the attractions in Sa Pa involve climbing to high places and breaking out of the cloud base in Sa Pa so that you see clear blue skies.  The major one is Fansipan, which is a transliteration of Phan Si Phan, the highest peak in Indochina standing at 3147m (10326 feet).  For most, the adventure includes taking the longest tri-lined cable car in the world at 6.3km, and the highest elevation distance between stations - 1410m.  It also includes 600 step climb to the peak from the cable car station, which at that altitude, requires some degree of fitness.  (Tip: skip the funicular ride from town and go straight to the cable car station by taxi.  Also skip the funicular ride at the top which will cost you USD6.  The total cost for the Cable Car ride is USD35 per person for the round trip.)  There is also an option to embark on a 2-3 day trek to climb from the base to the peak.  This includes an overnight stay in a barren hut.  Some people do this.  

The second is Rong May Glass Bridge which is 2300m over sea level.    This is a man-made construction at the edge of a cliff 300m over the valley floor.  It actually sits opposite Fansipan - you can see it clearly from here.  This is the second longest glass bridge in the world stretching over 600m long, and people go there for the thrill of both getting the feeling of being above the clouds, and for doing thrill activities including doing a flying fox at height, crossing a rope bridge at height, or sitting on a swing into the beyond.  Its USD20 or so for an entry, and about USD6 for every other activity.   Rong May is around 16km outside Sa Pa, but it brings you pass the O Quy Ho pass which is beautiful and has waterfalls and other vantage points.  I went out here on motorbike, but taking the taxi should not be a problem.  

Granted that Dalat also has its share of peaks, and daredevil activities, and Sa Pa would also have chill activities, in general, I would say that, by and large Dalat is better known for its cafes, its restaurants, its flower gardens and vegetable farms, while Sa Pa more for mountain climbs and views.  

Today, both have a reasonable tourist infrastructure, with many hotels, resorts and restaurants.  You are able to get around both with taxis and hired cars which remain very affordable.  And there are surely many more interesting things to do.  Its one of the special places in the world to be.  

Should Gavin Lee be Singapore’s Next National Coach?

Singapore’s dazzling run to the Asian Cup has resulted in calls for Gavin Lee to be made the permanent Head Coach for the Singapore National Team.

The decision lies with the FAS, and is the singular most important decision that it has to make.    Appointing a manager on the basis of recent results is always tempting (eg Ole Gunnar Solksjaer).  But the more important question is to ask what is the mandate – ie what is to be achieved in what period of time and with what resources.  At the core, the FAS must be clear what is the project desired and then turn to the right man for the job. 

The Singapore National Team that played Hong Kong was not one that was formed overnight.  The names of Izwan Mahbud, Shah Shahiran, Ryhan Stewart, Harhys Stewart, Glenn Kweh, Ilhan Fandi, Amirul Adli, Akram Azman and Jordan Emavime were not regulars in the National Team at the start of this cycle.  They are all certainly regulars now.   Safuwan Baharudin came back into the National Team after a long absence because of medical reasons.  Throw in also the name Kyoga Nakamura who finally became a Singaporean.  Throw in Jacob Mahler who featured before, but has only just recovered from a horrendous injury.  In short, the National Team has undergone nothing short of a transformation.  This was the project given to Tsutomo Ogura at the start of the cycle. 

At the end of the last World Cup campaign, the Singapore National Team finished with one of the oldest squads ever, an average age of 29, certainly the highest in ASEAN.   A clear mandate was given to Ogura to aggressively bring in younger players.  The previous squad had reached the end of the cycle.  We had the confidence that Ogura could do this because he did this when he was in Tokyo Verdy.  Their team in Year 1 was very different from the one in Year 2 in J2.  In Year 2, Verdy won promotion. 

Blooding young players is painful.  They have to be fielded even if they are not 100% ready. They take minutes away from more experienced players.  In friendlies, there will be times where there is wholesale substitutions, disrupting the flow of the game.   To help the coach do this, we removed the obsession with FIFA Ranking points. The unsaid words were “It is ok to use friendlies to develop players.”  Ogura grabbed this with two hands.  It was very usual to see Ogura play a weak squad at the start of friendlies and then change it up in the second half.  He ceded an entire window playing international matches in favour of a training camp in Japan.  He was criticised for this.   Some of the losses in friendlies were tough to take, especially a home loss to Nepal.  He was criticised for this too.  But if we are to be consistent, this is part of the process. 

We told him we judged him on the teams’ performance in tournaments.  He took Singapore to the semi-finals of the AFF, and when he left earlier this year, Singapore was top of the Asian Cup Group.   In the process, a new Singapore team emerged.   

When the new FAS leadership stuck with Gavin, it was an endorsement for the continuity of this project.  Gavin had worked with Ogura for more than a year.  They spoke highly of each other and were of the same mind.  Gavin was familiar with the squad and them with him.  He chose to keep the same squad till the end of the qualifying phase.  The foundation for this campaign was put by Ogura, the finishing touches by Gavin. Credit to both, especially to Gavin and the FAS in laying the base for him to do so well in the last few months.

But what is the mandate if Gavin is to be the coach for the next phase?  In the next 14 months, there are two tournaments.  The AFF takes place in the middle of 2026.  This is now officially a FIFA tournament with all players will be released.  This will be a far stronger tournament and Gavin probably deserves to bring the team to the AFF with a target of equalling or surpassing what has been done in 2024. 

But it is the AFC Asian Championship in Jan 2027 that worries me.  In qualifying for the first time, Singapore will struggle no matter who is the coach.  We are the lowest ranked team to qualify for the Asian Cup.   Our opponents in the Group phase will all be in the top 100 given the seeding pots.   Singapore will do well to secure a point or score a goal in Saudi Arabia.   I do not want Gavin destroyed because of this. 

Gavin is a young coach with lots of promise. As a local, he gets Singapore completely. He cannot be set up to fail.  So, if he is to be appointed, he must be protected.  He must be given a clear set of expectations and Gavin should only take the job if he feels that the expectations are within his capability to deliver.  At the age of 35, there is no shame for him to say that he has plenty of time to continue to hone his art, and possibly to learn much more from someone who has something to teach him.  There will also be another cycle of renewal at the end of the Asian Cup in 2027.  And perhaps at that time, Gavin may be an even better coach for Singapore.

Is the $2m Bonus a Good for Sport

        When the Singapore Football Team created history by beating Hong Kong on their own turf on the 18th of November 2025, Forrest Li, the President of the FAS, announced that the bonus for the entire first team and staff would be tripled.  A few days later, he announced that the team would receive a $2m pay out for making it to the Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia 2027.  This was the single biggest pay out for football players ever.  In side conversations, people asked if this money came from the FAS or from Forrest’s own pocket.  I knew the answer from the start.  The amount is almost 15% of the budget of the FAS.  The amount paid out in fact surpasses what an SPL club receives in grants for an entire season.  It had to come from his own pocket.  Even the President of the FAS has to follow procedure in the use of the Association funds.  

On 7th December 2025, reporters Sazali Abdul Aziz and Kimberly Kwek from the Straits Times wrote a “Big Question” article: Is Forrest Li’s $2m bonus for the Lions good or bad for Sport?  

Let me say one thing at the start.  More funding in any sport is a positive thing.  It is even more crucial in an ultra-competitive sport like football.  Football globally receives more funding than possibly all the other sports combined, and the countries around Singapore outspend us by a significant factor bar countries like Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia.  Funding in football has gone into sharpening every single bit of advantage that can be eked out – facilities, programs, sports science and diet, structure and organisation, pay etc.  More money will help Singapore compete. 

Motivation and Money in Sport

But the Big question asked is if spending $2m on bonus for the players was a good or bad thing.  I will not address the other question of whether this is the best use of additional money in football.  I will instead focus on this question: Is a huge bonus a big motivation for players to perform on the field?

Although the link between incentive pay and performance is not definitive in behavioural economics, in football, there is a general acceptance that “pay for performance” is important.  At the club level, the contract of footballers are always written in ways to spur performance.  Players have individual bespoke contracts based on appearance, goals scored or conceded, minutes played and so on.  They are paid when targets are met.  But there are also bonus pools allocated to team performance – win bonuses, progression in cup tournaments, league placements, and trophies won as some examples.  Some contracts are also multiyear. A player may be rewarded if the team wins promotion within three years, reflective of a longer-term project. 

But at the national level, things are very different.  In each FIFA window, FIFA compels clubs to release their players for international duty with zero compensation for the club.  The National Association are not expected to pay players, although many do.  But it is always done at a fraction of what their primary clubs do.  While players can turn down the national call up, most do so because of reasons other than remuneration. There are multiple reasons for this.  The clearest one is that wearing of the national jersey is for most players the pinnacle of a football playing career.  Representing the country in the highest possible reward.  There is also a sense of duty.  The fan base expects the best player to turn up.  Imagine the backlash to the personal standing of a player would get if he refuses to turn up for the national team on the basis that he is not adequately compensated. It is also clear that international football is a stage to perform.  An excellent performance by a player on the international stage increases the value of the player significantly. 

For many years during my time in the FAS, Chinese Taipei ranked above Singapore in the FIFA Rankings.  I asked the then President of the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA) how they rewarded their players.  The then President was very clear that the CTFA was an underfunded organisation and was not in a position to dish money out.   But this did not represent a problem.  CTFA paid players US500 per game, which is a miniscule amount.  Apart from pride, playing for the national team was the pathway to the Chinese Super League (CSL).  No CSL club scout watched local Taiwanese football.  But they all watched the Chinese Taipei National Team.  Getting picked should be enough motivation for the players to perform.  

Limited bonus actually is the norm for most countries around our ranking.  As an example, Hong Kong also offered a very limited bonus of HK$1m for the team to beat Singapore and qualify for the Asian Cup.  This is less than 10% of the $2m eventually paid by Forrest to the Singapore team.   Recent SEA Games bonuses offered by Thailand and Vietnam were even less in the order of magnitude.  So the $2m paid out is generous indeed.  Those who say this is unsustainable are correct.  So it must be clear that this is not the norm.  

But it is not every day that Singapore qualifies for the Asian Cup.  So this is a one off.  And if it is so, in my book, it is ok.  The way that the FAS did it was correct.  They announced a standard bonus at a sustainable level before the game - $6000 per player for a win, and $40000 for qualification.  The special bonus was on top and was completely of the prerogative of the donor.  In fact, if any Singaporean wants to give a special bonus, this is completely their prerogative.  Erick Thohir, the President of PSSI in Indonesia, is said to favour this same protocol, giving special bonuses after the game.  As another example, it was widely reported that Hassan Sunny was the recipient of “donations” from Chinese citizens after his goalkeeping heroics in the Singapore goal allowed China to advance to the next round of the world cup at the expense of Thailand.    It was unexpected, and it was a one off on the back of a heroic performance.  Who are we to say that what Chinese citizens did was wrong?

Hariss Harun put the role of bonuses best in his comments to David Lee from the ST, a day before the match against Hong Kong.  Hariss referred to bonuses as incentives and nothing more. “Of course, it can motivate you in a certain way, but in sport and in international football, its so much more than that when you are playing for the national team, because of what it means to everyone in Singapore…. the bonus is not the foremost thing in our heads – we are just fully focused on the game itself.”  

Hariss has got it spot on.  A bonus is no doubt important to make the players feel appreciated and will always be a positive thing.  But this cannot be the primary reason for the player wanting to play and perform for the National Team.  

My Books of 2021

Its been another year of joyful reading and at the close of the year, I list the best books I have read.  These books are not necessarily published this year but given the volume that I go through and the criteria I use to select the books, there is a good chance that some of these will appeal to you.  Admittedly, I only read popular books, as there is nothing worse than picking up a book, investing time in it, and then deciding whether to finish the book or put it down.  As such, the base criteria is that all books I read have a 4 or more rating on Goodreads or is something that comes highly recommended by a fellow reader.  Sometimes even this fails as we all have our moods and inclinations.  But by and large, this gets me by.

Of the 84 books I have read this year, these are my Top 5 Fiction.  

The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman (2020)  A story of a set of septuagenarians, living in a luxury retirement home in Kent, who set about solving murder mysteries.  The police sometimes gets in their way, but they cleverly work around them.  Part comedy, part serious.  Written by BBC personality Richard Osman.  His follow up book, "The Man who Died Twice", outsold this debut novel, and is reputed to be even better.  I will get to this in 2022.  

Anxious People - Fredrik Backman (2019).  A comedic story of a bank robbery turned into a hostage crisis set in Sweden. Only thing is that the bank robber never wanted to be one, and is an even worse hostage taker.  The victims end up developing a relationship with each other, and ends up helping the hostage taker.  They devise a novel way to blindside the police, so as to let everyone go home free of any trouble. Including the bank robber.   

The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas (1846).  I never read this book in my younger days, and I finally had to pleasure of understanding why it is hailed as a classic.  This story is set in 19th Century France, and is a story of betrayal, heartbreak and revenge.  The fact that it remains readable almost two centuries on, is testament to the story telling powers of Alexandre Dumas and that human nature does not change. I can hear Antoine de Carbonnel telling me to read "The Three Musketeers".  Perhaps in 2022.
 

Dune - Frank Herbert (1965).  I picked up this book in anticipation of the movie and it did not disappoint.  Herbert must be credited for building a whole new universe in his head around the political themes of control and power.  I found myself referring to fan sites to make sense of the landscape, machines and weapons that were introduced.  These eventually came alive in the movie.  And the movie is at best half way through the book only.   

The Black and White Club : Illuminology - Peter Bergeron (2021) Written by a classmate of mine, this is a high pace thriller about law enforcement agents hunting down a criminal organization masquerading as a religious one in the South.  It reads very much like a Tom Clancy novel.  I finished this in three days which makes it very much a page turner.  It hardly seems fair given that he worked on the book for over a year. 

My Top 5 Non-Fiction are as follows.  

A Promised Land - Barrack Obama (2020).  Whatever your political leanings, it is useful to read the memoirs of the ex President of the United States.  It is a story of decision making under stress, and of the horse trading that takes place in Washington.  Obviously, not all the warts are disclosed, but it is sufficient for one to understand the challenges of being the most powerful man on the planet.    

Being Mortal - Atul Gawande (2014).  Probably the best book I have read this year.  It is about growing old and dying and how this has changed over the last 100 years.  It is also about the choices we make in our final years, the quality of life when old, and how to die with dignity. This book has won multiple awards, and the people I have recommended it to have universally said they were moved by it. 

About Face - David H Hackworth (1989).  This is the best war memoir to be published about the war in Vietnam.  I would say that this is compulsory reading for all folks in uniform to learn about leadership, soldiering and how organizations can become dysfunctional if integrity is compromised.   I felt sorry for Hackworth as he is one of the good guys that had to leave, having been forced out by Westmoreland.  

The Bomber Mafia - Malcolm Gladwell (2021).  Gladwell does not write bad books.  This one is deadly interesting as he revisits World War II and the topic of bombing.  Two schools of thought - precision bombing vs carpet bombing - competed for dominance.  This had tragic consequences for crewmen and civilians alike. This book emerged from the podcast "Revisionist History" that Gladwell hosts.  You are sure to learn something new from this book.

Humankind : A Hopeful History  - Rutger Bregman (2019).  This is a truly delightful book written by a young Dutch sociologist and historian.  The common view of human nature is that humans are intrinsically selfish and brutish. Without an overarching superstructure called the state, we would end up killing each other. Bregman spends the whole book calling this into question and relates stories that show this may actually not be the case.  And if so, perhaps we are better of organizing  ourselves differently.  Interesting!  

Many other books came close, but these were the ones that moved me.  I hope that they do that for you too. 

What I learnt about CPF Life

CPF Life is a black box.  It is a financial annuity plan, but there is no term sheet to really explain the workings of it.  I asked friends and very few of them were capable of answering basic questions of the scheme. Websites are no big help either.  In one recent article written by NTUC Income, it concludes that doing a quick search online “may leave some even more confused”.  I have come to believe that if this product was offered by any other financial institution in Singapore, it would be taken to task by MAS for mis-selling.  But because this is a compulsory government scheme and it is guaranteed by government, one can make a logical assumption that the scheme is not only fair, but far more “efficient”.  It has the largest pool of subscribers, avoids adverse selection and since there is no middle man or distribution agent, it must be cheaper to run, and should be the “best” in the market.  But I was curious to understand more.  I thus made two separate trips to speak to CPF officers to try and make some sense of it.  I got partial insights.

The intentions of CPF Life are both virtuous and correct.  Singapore, by and large, is a society that insists that the financial needs for life is a personal responsibility, even in retirement.  The state should not and cannot be relied on to meet each individual citizen’s basic needs. So one should save for it.  CPF Life is akin to the progressive idea of a UBS – Universal Basic Salary – only that it is personally funded from savings that is made compulsory pre-retirement.  After 65, CPF Life allows every citizen to get an amount in his golden years, no matter how small, to get by.  This does not exclude society helping out the poor.  As a mechanism, the Government and CPF Life should help those that cannot even reach the Basic Retirement Sum (BRS), given that this amount is far too small to live on. 

CPF Life has multiple scenarios to cater to different people in different circumstances, which leads to confusion.  For this entry, I use my own position to give an insight into how the scheme works.  On my 55^th birthday, a Retirement Account (RA) will be set up to lock away a tidy sum of money for my later years.  To fund this, CPF will first empty my Special Account to zero and then withdraw as much as it needs to from my Ordinary Account till the RA reaches the Full Retirement Sum (FRS) amount. The Medisave Account (MA) remains untouched. As of today, the FRS Amount is $186,000.  All this happens automatically on my birthday.  From 55 up to the age of 65, I can choose to top up my Retirement Account to the Enhanced Retirement Sum (ERS) at any time.  This is capped at 1.5x the FRS.  So in this example, as my FRS is $186,000, the ERS at 2021 is $279,000, a top up of an additional $93,000 at maximum.  

The RA earns a high risk free rate of 4+% interest (its 4+% as there are different tiers of interest payments) for the ten years between 55 and 65.  This is substantially higher than anything you can find elsewhere in the market.  As an illustration, the FRS amount of $186,000 would grow to become $278,000, while the ERS amount of $279,000 would grow to $417,000 - over ten years. But remember this is money that you cannot touch.  You certainly never see it back in a lump sum.  You only see it coming back in the form of enhanced monthly payments after 65.  So the question is, is it worth topping up? 

To answer this question, I calculated what the payback period is.  I relied on the CPF calculator found on the CPF website.  Under FRS I will receive $1530/month.  Under ERS I will receive $2230/month.  So for an initial additional outlay of $93,000 on my 55^th birthday I stand to receive an additional $700/month from my 65^th birthday onwards for life.  If I calculate a straight payback period, I will get the entire $93000 back in 93000/700 = 133 months, or about 11 years or at 76 years of age.  But perhaps it is more correct to not use $93,000 but $139,000 as the starting amount, which is $93,000 + Interest accrued at age 65.  Now my payback period is longer.  It is now 198 months or 16.5 years.  I will break even at 81.5 years of age.  Now if I take the final step and discount the stream of payments from 65 onwards, using 2% as the discount rate ($1 today is not the same as $1 when I am 80 years old), I will only attain the Present Value of $139,000 in 20 years or at 85 years of age. In short, my payback period is at life expectancy.

These numbers are all back of the envelope, but they are not far off.  This exercise shows a little of how the CPF Life scheme is run.  There is no free lunch in this annuity scheme (except during the initial period where an enhanced interest rate of 4% accrues to the RA).  For the money that is transferred to the fund manager (termed as the Lifelong Income Fund), payback will be around life expectancy, which in Singapore is today 83.5, and tomorrow possibly 85 or 86. As breakeven is attained at life expectancy, the fund needs to find “extra” money to pay the annuity for those who live longer than life expectancy. [If one passes before life expectancy, CPF Life will return the "unused" portion of the RA, although the calculation of this is not disclosed.] This must come from two ways.  First, it must come from the fund retaining a portion of the initial premium as a “fee” for joining the scheme at 65.  This is fair, and I suspect this is under 5% of the initial amount, although once again, I have been unsuccessful to learn what this amount exactly is.  Second, it must come from the fund manager beating the discount rate of 2% which I have assumed in this example.  Given that a sizeable amount of money that is locked up for a long duration, this should not be a problem for the fund manager even when investing in safe assets.  The amount should be sufficient to offset those centenarians amongst us, and pay for the overheads for running the scheme.

So back to the question. Is it worth topping up?  The RA is a forced and safe savings plan.  For those who are bad with money – the spendthrift, the gamblers, those susceptible to the duplicitous charms of foreign or local women or men, those completely reluctant or unable to make risky investments – the act of locking up the extra cash in the RA is not a bad one.  It will come back to you in one way or another over time, in a fair way.  But for those who fall outside this category, it may be worth thinking of how to build a personal RA outside the CPF.  With your personal RA, you can decide to draw an annuity or adjust the capital base at any time.  And this also means that the sum can grow even after a certain age.  It is entirely flexible.  So if you have excess cash, form two RAs.  Treat CPF Life as your fixed base, and your personal RA as your flexible base.