Oct. 16: Retire Younger Canada

October 16, 2025

Retirement planning in a novel format: Retire Younger Canada

Russell Roy’s Retire Younger Canada not only offers solid information on how to take control of your finances (and your life), but is a well-told, gritty novelized life story of fictional engineer Sam Jackson. We follow Sam’s life from his very early retirement at 48 until his death, in his 70s.

The author begins by telling us that he is “just a regular working Joe Schmoe who hated his job enough to be motivated to investigate and understand what I needed to do to retire early.”

As Sam prepares to clear out his desk at work, he gives a younger co-worker some important lessons “I learned as a kid,” specifically, “delayed gratification,” or learning to “save and plan,” the “impact of children on personal finances,” the importance of getting a higher education and “you get out what you put in, so work hard.”

Later, in a post-retirement party discussion, his wife Cindy remarks that many people don’t really enjoy their jobs, adding “I think that the people who truly enjoyed their jobs were the ones who chose to work for themselves.” This discussion led to thinking around the value of trying to retire as early as possible so that you can enjoy life after work in good health.

In retirement, Sam tells us, you get “freedom on so many levels. Freedom from work anxiety. You know I already feel freer to speak my mind… it feels like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.”

Thinking about how he was able to retire at 48, Sam recalls that “as a young, bona fide working citizen, Sam saved a down payment and bought a house. This was the first, and most important and key financial decision he made.”

In a section about living off savings (decumulation) Sam talks about the ideas of spending four per cent (or 3.5 per cent) of your nest egg each year, with the goal of not outliving your money. He discusses the “bucket” plan where your nest egg is divided into “a cash bucket for the short term… a bonds bucket for the intermediate term and maybe stocks bucket for the long term.”

He goes into detail on how to track your income and expenses via a spreadsheet, and factoring in any upcoming big expenses. A second spreadsheet should track the progress of your investments, and a third, the “big picture” or grand total of all savings and investments.

He talks about the dangers of high investment fees. “You know, here in Canada, mutual funds will take an average of 2.2 per cent of your cash each year just to manage your money,” he explains to a young friend. Even if the indexes double, the annual fees eat up much of your growth, he explains. Instead, Sam reveals, he and his wife switched out of mutual funds into a portfolio of stocks – the Canadian ones eligible for the dividend tax credit – and fixed income, which he describes as “loan(ing) the money you save to others…. (so that) the money (interest) will slowly flow to you. The work of others will go into your pocket.”

He later goes on to explain that you need to be aware of the tax consequences of every type of income you will be receiving in retirement, so that you can plan to opt for a route that offers the least taxation possible.

In looking at his parents’ and in-laws’ finances, Sam noticed the risk of risk aversion had put them in the highest income tax bracket, since nearly all of their income came in the form of interest. Being anxious about investment risk, Sam observes, is a common trait. “It seems fear, more than anything, cripples people as they get older. They are afraid of more and more so they do less and less.”

“That is just another reason to retire early and live life now,” Cindy responds.

“Every day is Sunday in retirement,” the book notes, but without the dread of returning to work Monday.

The book concludes with this bit of advice.

“One parting thought. Few of us can afford the savings it would take to live forever. Retirement isn’t necessarily the end of anything. What it really is, is the freedom to make the best of the last years of your life on your own terms. Get after your bucket list, live your life to the fullest, and have fun.”

This is a very unique, creative, story-telling approach to the topic. It’s a highly recommended addition to anyone’s retirement library.

The Saskatchewan Pension Plan is a voluntary, defined contribution plan that is open to any Canadian with registered retirement savings plan room. If you don’t have a workplace retirement plan, SPP may be just the ticket for you. You decide how much you want to save, and SPP does the rest, investing your hard-saved loonies in a low-cost, professionally managed pooled fund. At retirement, your income options include a lifetime monthly annuity payment or the more flexible Variable Benefit.

Check out SPP today!

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Retire Younger Canada, Russell Roy

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