Planning for Retirement

When I got close to age 65, I faced the question of what to do. Should I keep working, go part time, or stop working altogether? A daunting question after a great 40-year career with CLAC in Ontario and Alberta.

If I quit working altogether, what would I do then? After all, CLAC had been my life. And if I stopped working, would my wife and I have enough income to enjoy life for potentially 25 or so years?

We had many questions, but not a lot of answers. So we decided to sit down with a friend who specializes in retirement planning. He asked some very timely and pointed questions about how we planned to fill our days in any given month, and how much money was involved in those plans.

That started a very worthwhile process that has benefited us to this day, 11 years later.

As a result of those discussions, I decided to leave CLAC totally, which also meant that a younger generation would have room to progress and put their stamp on what CLAC would look like going forward. I determined that since I loved gardening and landscaping, I would market myself to new home builders.

That plan never came about. An organization that I was familiar with approached me to draw on my skill set, resulting in a three-year, two-days-per-week stint with them.

In hindsight, it was a great way to transition into full retirement. But the opportunity only came along because I had established a good network of contacts before I retired.

My wife and I also came to the conclusion that we were house rich and cash poor. So we decided to downsize, which freed up cash, reduced the amount of work we had to do around the house, and eliminated potential costly repairs and upgrades down the road.

Since retirement, we have travelled extensively. We do work that suits our lifestyle and gives us time to volunteer in many ways. We work a lot without pay and enjoy every day we have been given.

Are you approaching age 65? Our advice: establish a network of contacts to draw on before you retire, plan your retirement, and revise as necessary. Retirement is a new way of living, and it does not develop by itself.