Powering Retirement: A Shared Path to Prosperity
Powering Retirement: A Shared Path to Prosperity
Recently, I asked our house help in Malaysia how she imagined her retirement. At 40, she supports her elderly mother and 11-year-old daughter back in Indonesia. She owns a home but has no other income once she returns. Her savings sit in her sister’s account with little interest—and no real financial plan.
Her story got me researching mutual funds in Indonesia. Turns out, the market’s strong—12% annualized returns, zero capital gains. She was excited. The next step: open a bank account and start a SIP when she returns home later this year (after 6 years).
This isn’t unique. In India, >80% of the workforce is in the informal sector. No EPF, insurance, gratuity. Many lack access to financial tools or even basic financial literacy.
Yet these individuals help power our careers and lives. What happens when they can’t work anymore?
We can each influence 2–3 people around us. Many are already helping domestic workers set up SIPs and PPFs.
If India’s 130M+ LinkedIn users did the same, we could uplift hundreds of millions. That’s shared prosperity.
I’ll close with a quote from Earl Nightingale that guides me:
“Prosperity is founded upon a law of mutual exchange… Any person who contributes to prosperity must in turn prosper him/herself. Sometimes the return will not come from those you serve, but it must come to you from someplace, for that is the law”.
