That’s just the tip of the iceberg of Yusuf Hashim’s unwavering belief and advice to the young and those young-at-heart, for Yusuf is living a life many dream of.

A life that would make many an Instagrammer-traveller envious for the breathtaking locations he’s ventured to.

A self-labelled gypsetter – a portmanteau of gypsy and jetsetter – Yusuf retired at the “tender” age of 53 and has since travelled to over 140 countries, he tells FMT.

Not cocooned in first class cabins, though, but in a refurbished 20-year-old four-wheel drive, while engaging in his “passion turned obsession,” as he calls it, of photography.

He’s driven from Kuala Lumpur to London and back, twice, overland, around the entire South American continent and across the Sahara desert, with the same car loaded with camping equipment and spare parts.

“Of course I prefer hotels, but where there are no hotels, such as in the desert, we camp.”

Ergo, gypsetter: “Someone who loves the luxury of jet setting but doesn’t mind taking the gypsy routes where nobody ever goes,” he says.

The silver-haired shutterbug is 75 years old, a father of four and grandfather to 15, and weeks before the pandemic struck a year ago, he had just returned to Malaysia from his latest trip, of several, to Antarctica.

Which is also where he took his wife for their 50th wedding anniversary.

Retire earlier, live longer

Not that travelling is the only retirement activity, says the Perak-born Royal Military College alumnus and former oil and gas industry veteran.

Yusuf believes all of us should retire “as early as possible, because there is an inverse relationship between the age at which you retire and the time that you die,” he adds, citing a Boeing study.

The Boeing study had revealed that those who retired at the age of 65, had, on average, lived for 18 months or less, while those who retired in their 50s lived long into their 80s.

The study has since been questioned and in one instance, shelved as urban legend by a commentator.

Several unrelated academic studies do, however, suggest that for every year a person continues working after the recommended retirement age of 55, they’ll lose two years of life span.

‘Spend your children’s inheritance money’

Still, it seems Yusuf wasn’t hesitant to take the first step in his remarkable 22-year journey of criss-crossing continents by car, giving free photography workshops in Antarctica or hiking to the base camp of Monte Fitz Roy in Patagonia, on the border between Argentina and Chile, in this case, at the sprightly age of 70.

But he wants to get across several messages, too, similar to those in his talk to bankers and investors at the EPF seminar several years ago on making your money grow, but more importantly, reimagining retirement.

One of those messages is that one should work hard, save (“accumulate capital and postpone consumption”) and come retirement, spend the money one had put aside as inheritance for the children.

“It’s not your money until you spend it,” he says.

The smallest percentage of your life

The average lifespan of the Malaysian male, he says, all things considered, is 76 years. Some may live longer, and there will be those who die earlier, he qualifies.

“You spend 23 years of your life in pursuit of a degree.”

Thereafter, you enter the workforce, and work until either 55 or 65, depending on inclination or circumstances.

That leaves, by his estimation, a paltry 11 or 21 years to enjoy retirement, but it’s still the smallest percentage of the pie chart of your life.

“After you have completed your parental duties, put your kids through college, and built a small portfolio of savings and investments to fund your retirement, you must consciously terminate the work phase of your life, and start spending your children’s inheritance,” he says.

“If you are a workaholic and you continue working in your seventies, you are simply earning more money that you will never be able to spend,” he adds, unless the workaholic stops working only when incapacitated by illness or physical disabilities that come with ageing.

“Hence,” he concludes, “your money is actually not your money if you die before spending it. Otherwise, your children will spend it and the taxman will take it.”

And how do his children feel about dad spending their inheritance? He roars with laughter. “There’s nothing they can do about it!”

Shedding prejudices

Aside from broadening one’s horizons and forming a deeper appreciation for other cultures, Yusuf is keen to drive home a key take-away of travelling extensively.

“When you travel, you realise how small and beautiful the planet is.

“The best thing you discover is that no matter the colour of a person’s skin, the gods they worship, where they live or the languages they speak, all human beings want the same thing: food, shelter, security, protection, love and happiness, exactly the same as what you and I want.”

Travelling, Yusuf believes, helps a person shed their bigotry and racism.

And if anyone assumed the wild-haired wanderer look was a result of the pandemic grounding this septuagenarian adventure junkie, to the point of his fans calling him Gandalf, he laughs in explanation.

“I thought money spent for travelling would be better than money spent on haircuts.”

See Yusuf’s incredible photos and his travel tales on his Facebook page.