Christine Overall retired from Queen’s University in 2016 and is caring for her husband, who lives in a nearby long-term care facility.Ashley Fraser/The Globe and Mail
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“I retired at the end of 2016 at age 66 after a career in academia,” says Christine Overall, 76, from Ottawa in the latest Tales from the Golden Age. “I was a professor of philosophy at Queen’s University in Kingston. Teaching and dealing with the academic bureaucracy were becoming stressful, and I wanted to spend more time with my children and grandchildren.”
Some people say academics never retire, and that was true of Ms. Overall. “Philosophy is one of the great loves of my life, so I haven’t given it up,” she says. “I’m still writing and researching, but my output isn’t as high as it was, partly because so much of my time and energy now is taken up with caregiving for my husband, Ted, who has Lewy body dementia and Parkinsonism.”
The couple had a vision of retirement together – that they would continue what they had been doing pre-retirement, just incorporating the best bits, such as travel and pursuing their interests, says Ms. Overall. “I would go on writing, and he would continue engaging with the arts, mostly by volunteering with various arts organizations. Unfortunately, his health started to deteriorate, and extensive travel is no longer possible.”
In March, 2024, the couple moved from their condo in Kingston to a retirement residence in Ottawa, so that she could get some support – meals, housekeeping, medical backup if necessary – and be closer to one of their children. “I never imagined we’d be living in a place like this in our 70s, but it was a relief to know that if there were a crisis, somebody would be around to help.”
Ms. Overall worries about money in retirement – after having to move her husband into a long-term facility, she’s now paying for two separate homes. And, longevity runs in her family: her mother is almost 99, so Ms. Overall knows she needs to make sure she has enough as she ages.
Read the full article here.
Are you a Canadian retiree interested in discussing what life is like now that you’ve stopped working? The Globe is looking for people to participate in its Tales from the Golden Age feature, which examines the personal and financial realities of retirement. If you’re interested in being interviewed for this feature and agree to use your full name and have a photo taken, please e-mail us at: goldenageglobe@gmail.com. Please include a few details about how you saved and invested for retirement and what your life is like now.
Can Lucas, 59, and Reena, 57, afford a $250,000 down payment for a duplex for their kids?
Lucas is 59 years old and makes $220,000 a year in sales. His wife, Reena, is 57 and makes $85,000 a year in research. They plan to retire next year and want to help their two children, both in their mid-20s, with housing.
Lucas and Reena have a mortgage-free home in a Western province and a rental unit with a mortgage that generates positive cash flow.
They wonder if it makes sense to pony up $250,000 for a down payment on a duplex for their children to live in. The children would then pay rent to Lucas and Reena.
Lucas and Reena both have work pensions, not indexed to inflation, and substantial savings. They also wonder how best to draw down Lucas’s big holding in his company’s stock.
Their retirement spending goal is $100,000 a year after tax, some of which would go to travelling more than they do now.
For this Financial Facelift, Kaitlyn Douglas, a certified financial planner and investment adviser at Wellington-Altus Private Wealth in Winnipeg, looks at Lucas’s and Reena’s situation. Ms. Douglas also holds the chartered financial analyst designation.
Get some free financial advice from The Globe and Mail by e-mailing finfacelift@gmail.com to be part of our Financial Facelift series. You don’t have to share your real name and our photographers will obscure your identity in one of our trademark Financial Facelift photos. Here are some recent facelifts for you to read. We’re especially keen to hear from Canadians worried about how the trade war with the U.S. will impact their ability to retire. Have you changed your investment strategy? Your retirement timeline? Your travel plans? Hopefully our advice can help you weather these stormy times and ensure a secure financial future.
Did you know your pension funds are underperforming?
Last year wasn’t a great one for Canada’s major pension funds, writes John Rapley. Of the four big ones, three – the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan – all underperformed their benchmarks.
They’re hardly losing money, he adds. All three delivered percentage increases in their assets in the high single digits, retaining their status among the world’s best-managed pension funds. However, flush as they always are with new contributions, they have to deliver high returns if they’re to guarantee current contributors the same future benefits that present beneficiaries now receive. And while their long-term returns are such that they can absorb a year or two of subpar performance, the risk is that this slump may not be a one-off.
Apparent points of vulnerability lurk in each of them, he notes, particularly the CPP.
Read the full article here.
John Rapley is a contributing columnist for The Globe and Mail. He is an author and academic whose books include Why Empires Fall and Twilight of the Money Gods.
In case you missed it
Time to sell U.S. property? Read this before you list it
The Trump administration’s tariff war and threats to make Canada the U.S.’s 51st state have some Canadians considering selling their U.S. property. Advisers say rising property values and a lower Canadian dollar compared with the U.S. greenback are making the decision to sell even more attractive, writes Globe contributing editor Brenda Bouw.
“People are saying, ‘I have a pretty good gain on my property and the currency is working in my favour, so maybe now’s the time to sell,’” says Darren Coleman, senior portfolio manager with Portage Cross Border Wealth Management at Raymond James Ltd. in Oakville, Ont.
He says the rising cost of living, including travel expenses and higher insurance premiums in hurricane- and fire-prone areas across the U.S. sunbelt, have also made owning real estate south of the border more expensive.
“Some clients say, ‘I have U.S.-dollar expenses against my Canadian-dollar income. Owning this place is getting harder,’” Mr. Coleman says.
Furthermore, some older baby boomers aren’t planning to pass the property on to the next generation, deciding to unload the asset instead.
Regardless of the reason, Mr. Coleman says there are tax effects that Canadians who are non-U.S. persons need to keep in mind before listing their U.S. real estate.
Read the full article here.
Hoping to cash out, a wave of retiring cottage owners face a buyer’s market
For decades, Susan Van Norman‘s family cottage in Muskoka, Ont., was a cherished summer retreat, writes retirement reporter Meera Raman.
Her parents built the cottage in 1973, and it was later inherited by Ms. Van Norman and her sister, Christine Ransom. It has been a gathering place for their three kids and seven grandchildren, who have spent long summer days fishing off the dock and have etched each person’s height and age on a measuring stick in the small kitchen.
But at 71, Ms. Van Norman is retired and no longer able to shoulder the burden of maintaining it. The next generation isn’t in a position to take it on either. After a harsh winter made the upkeep feel especially daunting, she and her sister decided it was time to let the property go.
Ms. Van Norman plans to list the property within the next month, hoping for $800,000 to $850,000, but she’s anticipating she may need to drop the price closer to $750,000 to make a sale before the season ends in October.
Ms. Van Norman is part of a wave of retirees looking to off-load recreational properties, but they’re running headlong into a challenging market for sellers.
Read the full article here.
Retirement Q & A
Q: My spouse and I are in our mid-50s and hoping to retire in about 10 years. We’ve been saving diligently, but we’re not sure if we’re on track. Our combined annual income is $150,000, we have $800,000 in our RRSPs, $100,000 in TFSAs, and our house is worth about $600,000 with $200,000 left on the mortgage. Do we have enough money to retire comfortably, or should we be ramping up our savings?
We asked Angela Fennelow, a financial planner with Sun Life, and CEO of Fennelow Financial Solutions Inc., BBA, CFP®, CHS™, to answer this one.
A: It really depends on what comfortable living in retirement means to you, and how much income you will need to meet your lifestyle and living expenses.
Having positive cash flow in retirement years when you are no longer earning income is key. Now is a great time to spend some time thinking about what you want your lifestyle to be; will you need the same level of annual income you have now to be able to pay your bills and do the things you enjoy doing? Do you want to live in your current home in retirement? Do you want to travel, play more golf, buy a boat or RV for fun?
Once you have your desired retirement income determined, you can take a closer look at your current situation with your adviser to see where you are in relation to your income goal, and if you need to save more.
The amount you have already saved is a solid foundation, and you have 10 years to continue to save and for that money to grow! If it is affordable to keep saving between now and your last day of work, you can consider amping up and using your TFSAs to grow this source of tax-free income in retirement. The more you have available in retirement, the more flexibility you have.
Interested in more stories about retirement? Sixty Five aims to inspire Canadians to live their best lives, confidently and securely. Read more here and sign up for our weekly Retirement newsletter.
