我的退休生活

    学hea真不容易，但hea的感觉是蛮好的。全无压力地生活，相对以往每分每秒都拉得崩崩紧的工作节奏，真是天渊之别。

    在不出门的日子，虽然每天仍然是大清早便起床，立即开着电视机，看财经新闻，但心情已很不同了。

    以往工作的时候，要随时准备一旦有事件发生，本着自己鼓吹和坚信的 “宏观审慎管理制度”，于早上七时半在传媒朋友昵称为“志刚讲场”的国金二期大堂前，和媒体公开见面提供分析。现在遇上突发事件则只是私下评估，思考下一 步的发展，纯粹满足自己的专业兴趣。之后便是和太太一起吃早餐，然后便开车到球会打高球、做运动和阅读报章。完成这“例行公事”后回到家里已经是早上11 时，才开计算机看电邮开始“工作”。

    看来我已经找到退休生活中，hea和工作之间的平衡。各占一半应该是最理想的。我曾有言在先，不打算到私人机构当全职工作，这个决定是对的。退休当然想hea，但hea太多，脑袋会生锈。幸好，在“报国”及“讲学”的工作以外，再找事情去填满我用于工作的一半生活时间，并没有任何困难。

    事实上，困难的反而是选择和邀请太多，难以取舍。但我已决定，作出选择的重要考虑，是工作性质能够给予我机会，保持对金融和相关范围的专业兴趣，为国家、为香港在金融领域中作出贡献。
 

    事实上，自去年12月接受的中国金融学会执行副会长的岗位，再加上快开始在中大的全球经济及金融研究所做一些金融学术研究和授课，预计已占我计划用于工作的时间七七八八了。所以，我非常抱歉，要婉拒很多盛情和吸引的邀请。在三月底冷河期过后，我只能在余下不多的时间做一些非执行或顾问的工作，在宏观或微观层面都好，也发挥一下在风险管理和管治上的专长，相信这样也是对社会的一种贡献，但希望不会影响我将余下一半生活时间放于hea的计划吧！

任志刚

 

It is not easy to learn how to “hea”, but the “hea” feeling is certainly a good one. No pressure, no schedule to observe, no responsibility, it is just fantastic. Instead of constantly stretching your life to the limit like a rubber band about to break, you stretch your muscles that have been aching because you have been inactive for too long. What a contrast!

I still get up early in the morning, turn on the TV and watch the news on financial developments overnight, but with an entirely different state of mind. Before retirement I would make an assessment of whether there was a need, in accordance with the macro prudential approach to managing monetary and financial stability that I preached, for me to provide my views and analyses at 7.30 am to the likely congregation of financial reporters at 2 IFC after significant developments have taken place overnight. Now, I do the same mental analysis and, for my own professional satisfaction, quietly predict what is likely to happen next. I then have breakfast with my wife at home, and head off to the Club, either to play a round of golf or to do exercise, or both, and read the newspapers. By the time I finish with this nice routine and return home, it would be around 11 am. It is then that I would turn on the computer, read e-mails and start working.

I think I have got my balance (half-half) and priority right between “hea” and work. The earlier decision not to accept any full time work in the private sector is also right. But I am acutely aware of the possibility that if you “hea” too much your brain could well stop functioning properly. Fortunately, filling up the half time to be devoted to work does not appear to be difficult. The difficulty, instead, has been to handle all the kind offers. I have decided to give priority to work arrangements that enable me to sustain my professional interest in financial and related matters so that I can continue to contribute to the financial developments in China.

Between being the Executive Vice President of the China Society for Finance and Banking and the forthcoming academic work at the Institute of Global Economy and Finance, the majority of the time I intend to spend working after retirement will have been taken up.

Regrettably, therefore, I have to turn down many kind and attractive offers. Whatever working time that I have left, I would probably, after the expiry of the sanitization period (end of March), take on some non-executive or consultancy work relating to governance and risk management at both the macro or the micro levels so that I can also apply my skills in these areas productively and for the benefit of society. Hopefully this would not eat into my “hea” time.

Joseph Yam