You will live longer than you think

Singaporeans are the world’s third longest-living people, with a life expectancy of 83.1 years. Only the Japanese (83.7 years) and Swiss (83.4 years) stick around by just a little longer.

Figures from the Department of Statistics last year reveal that life expectancy in Singapore has gone up by 3.3 years between 2003 and 2013. This is a leap of 18 per cent from the 2.8 years between 1990 and 2002.

For us, living longer also means living healthier. The World Health Organization ranks Singaporeans’ healthy life expectancy at 73.9 years, again just slightly behind Japan (74.9 years), and ahead of South Korea (73.2 years).

It helps that Singapore has worked hard to become the region’s medical hub, and residents can expect access to reliable medical care.

The wide availability of fitness and sports programmes has also drawn many towards a healthy lifestyle. An ActiveSG Masters Club launched last year to encourage those above the age of 40 to exercise, with exercise options such as aqua spinning.

By staying healthy, we can hope to avert increased health expenditure here, which is expected to hit 10 times higher over the next 15 years.