Feb 25: Best from the blogosphere

February 25, 2019

A look at the best of the Internet, from an SPP point of view

What if they threw a retirement party, but no one came?

If 70 is the new 60, then it’s possible that the new retirement may be not retiring.

According to Statistics Canada figures quoted in the Globe and Mail, more than half of senior-age men (that’s age 65) were working in 2015, a whopping 53.5 per cent. What’s more, 22.9 per cent of 65-year-old men were working full time.

For women, 38.8 per cent were working after age 65 in 2015, “almost twice the level in 1995,” the Globe reports.

What’s going on?

The story quotes Nora Spinks of the Vanier Institute as saying retirees working into their 70s and 80s “are rewriting what is retirement, and we now refer to it as `career redefinement,’” she explains. She notes that when baby boomers were born, life expectancy was only about age 63. “Fast forward to 2018 and your life expectancy is another 15-20 years,” she says.

Is “career redefinement” simply code for not having enough savings?

Well, maybe. Bill VanGorder, a retired non-profit executive who is back at work after 90 days of retirement, says that his savings, along with those of his wife (neither, the Globe says, had pensions) were negatively affected by the market downturn of 2008. But his new career with a pole-walking venture was made possible, he tells the Globe, due to “the couple’s good health and his desire to build a business based on strong consumer demand for pole walking as a form of low-impact exercise.”

VanGorder calls the retirement at 60-65 idea “an old-fashioned myth,” and asks “why would you want to spend the last quarter of your life doing nothing?”

So it wasn’t about the money. The Globe article, citing data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, notes that “only 37 per cent of women and 41 per cent of men said that financial considerations were a factor in their decision” to keep working after age 65.

Perhaps working after age 65 is more about “a person’s state of health and a desire to feel useful and connected to others,” the article muses.

Maybe in 10 years or so, the Globe will run an article about the trend of people retiring in their 80s. One assumes that even those working late into their lives will eventually stop. Save with SPP’s grandfather worked until 75, as did our father-in-law.

If you are planning to keep working until your 70s or 80s, the SPP can be a great resource. You can delay your SPP pension until December of the year you turn 71, rather than collecting it at an earlier age. And starting your pension later normally means you will receive a larger pension than if you had started it early.

Written by Martin Biefer

Martin Biefer is Senior Pension Writer at Avery & Kerr Communications in Nepean, Ontario. After a 35-year career as a reporter, editor and pension communicator, Martin is enjoying life as a freelance writer. He’s a mediocre golfer and beginner line dancer who enjoys classic rock and sports, especially football. He and his wife Laura live with their Shelties, Duncan, Phoebe and their cat, Toobins. You can follow him on Twitter – his handle is @AveryKerr22

Bill VanGorder, Globe and Mail, Nora Spinks, Statistics Canada, Vanier Institute

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