This former financial advisor overcame some ‘dark days’ early in retirement.
Plus, five tips to fight distractions and stay focused

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John Kerr, 72, of Stittsville, Ont., retired in January 2016 at 64 after working for 41 years as a financial advisor in the investment industry. “Although I loved working with my clients and team, I grew tired of the increasing paperwork and stress,” says Kerr, in this Tales from the Golden Age article. “I felt four decades was a good run.”
Retirement for Kerr was very difficult at first. Just before his retirement, his wife of almost 30 years announced that she wanted to separate and, 10 months later, she filed for divorce. “My retirement plan didn’t include getting divorced and the reduced income that comes with that. So, my first year of retirement was spent just surviving with the help of weekly Christian counselling and friends.”
Kerr believes the two biggest concerns for seniors are loneliness and outliving their money. “Retired people also need something meaningful to do with their time,” he says. “I need to stay busy. I’m a schedule guy.” Kerr spends most of his time in retirement volunteering and helping others, which he says meets his socialization needs. He also provides free financial counselling to refugees and other people with low incomes and volunteers twice a week at the nearby Mission Thrift Store.
“I also walk my beloved 12-year-old dog Charlie, an Australian shepherd and husky mix, three to four times daily,” Kerr says. “He has been my rock and helped me through the dark days. He’s also a major source of exercise for me, along with a weekly aquafit class.”
Kerr was fortunate to meet a widow at my church, and they were married in 2020.
“I hired a career counsellor to help me come up with a retirement plan, which included transferring my business and shifting from a demanding job where I worked 50 to 60 hours a week to a more relaxing lifestyle.”
Kerr’s advice to others approaching retirement is to figure out how to transition. “If possible, transition gradually by taking one or two days a week off work,” he says. “You also need emotional companionship, which you can find through family and friends.
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: [email protected]. Please include a few details about how you saved and invested for retirement and what your life is like now.
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Mark and Leah have had some setbacks over the years.
Midway through his professional career, Mark decided to go back to university to get his PhD. Before he could practise in his new field, he suffered a life-threatening illness.
Now, at the age of 69, Mark is retired.
Leah, 67, is also a professional, earning $175,000 a year. She is still working to build up their savings and pay off the remaining mortgage – about $92,800 – on their small-town southern Ontario home. They also have an $8,500 line of credit taken out to pay for a new roof.
Leah is hoping to finally retire in two years. When she does, she will be entitled to defined benefit pensions, two that are indexed to inflation, from her current and previous employers. The three pensions add up to $48,000 a year.
Mark and Leah have two adult children who are financially independent.
Leah and Mark’s main questions are three: Should they tap Leah’s registered retirement savings plan to pay off the remaining mortgage? Should she withdraw the allowable 50 per cent from her locked-in retirement accounts once they are converted to life income funds? Most importantly, how much can they sustainably spend in retirement?
In this Financial Facelift, Hannah McVean, a certified financial planner at Objective Financial Partners Inc. in Markham, Ont., looks at Mark and Leah’s situation.
A milestone moment in retirement savings comes when your mortgage is paid off, writes personal finance columnist Rob Carrick in this Opinion article.
Repurposing mortgage payments as contributions to registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs) or tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs) can fill a lot of unused room in a hurry. But do you really need to redirect 100 per cent of your mortgage costs to retire comfortably? And, if you do, what’s the benefit in dollar terms?
Answers to these and other infinite money questions are available from financial planners using specialized software available just to them. These software are the essence of financial planning. They help answer client questions based on math and expertise, not on gut feelings, rules of thumb or current events. It also highlights the wide world of financial decision-making beyond what investments you own.
Still not sure what a planner or adviser can do for you beyond investments? Read on.
Sign up for the Carrick on Money personal finance newsletter here.
Have you ever tried to focus on writing an e-mail and instead you pick up your phone to mindlessly scroll through social media? Or do you miss the days you were a voracious reader and now can’t sit still for long enough to enjoy a good book?
If that resonates with you, you’re not alone, writes staff editor Prajakta Dhopade in this Life article. This feeling of constant distractibility is what Johann Hari, a U.K.-based journalist and author of Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again, calls an “attention crisis,” which he believes is a societal problem.
“Focus is our superpower,” he says, and when your ability to pay attention deteriorates, so does your capacity to achieve. “You feel worse about yourself because you actually are less competent.”
But brain researchers are divided on whether our actual cognitive capabilities have shrunk or if our attention is much more divided than it once was, because of information overload, says Faria Sana, a cognitive scientist and professor of psychology at Athabasca University.
With more research to be done, it’s hard to prove the former, but the latter is still concerning, Dhopade adds. When attention is divided, information is less likely to be encoded and stored effectively in your brain for later, says Sana: “So, if you’re having trouble focusing, you’re also going to have trouble retrieving the information later.”
What can you do about your propensity to lose focus?
Find research-backed tips to help you be a little less prone to distraction here.
“I was determined to live it up this summer,” writes Report on Business reporter Salmaan Farooqui in this Personal Finance article. “In that, I succeeded: There weren’t many shows, patio sessions or vacations that I turned down.”
But, he adds, after a couple of unexpectedly pricey train tickets in Europe, a few too many concerts and routine misjudgments of the U.S.-Canadian dollar exchange rate, he was left with a worse credit hangover than he expected.
“My balance last month came in at more than $4,000. Not terrible, but not great,” says Farooqui.
Then, this month, he received his first credit card interest charge in a long time. “It was for around $80 – the most I’ve ever been charged because I usually pay most, if not all, of my balance each month.”
Credit cards have some of the worst interest rates – generally around 21 per cent a year, notes Farooqui. So, he immediately moved his balance to a line of credit for an 8.69 per cent annual rate while he pays it off.
But it left him wondering: What’s the most efficient move when you start paying a bit of interest on your credit card? Did you save the most money possible?
Read more about Farooqui’s strategies and solutions here.
Q: I’m in my late-50s and thinking about retirement but my partner is not as financially engaged. How do I bring him into the decision-making about our retirement?
We asked Sonia Van Cauwenberghe, Senior Portfolio Manager, Private Investment Counsel, Scotia Wealth Management. Sonia has received training as part of The Scotiabank Women Initiative to help women clients manage their wealth.
A: It’s quite common that in the division of household duties, one partner ends up overseeing the finances including investments, insurance, credit, property tax, etc. As Canadians live longer and not always in great health, you may have to consider that at some point in your partnership, it could narrow down to a single person looking after the finances. As such, it is important that both partners have a basic level of awareness of their financial plan to help envision life in retirement.
There are many deterrents that may keep one partner from engaging. When considering the breadth of information and complexity in a financial plan, it can be overwhelming to learn about finances, investments, insurance, taxes, estate plans – especially later in life. Budgeting is a great way to get your partner involved with the household finances as it is a simple and tangible concept. For example, how your household income from CPP, OAS and a company pension is, or is not, enough to cover monthly bills of groceries, utilities, gas, annual property taxes and any discretionary spending like vacations. Engaging in the budgeting also gives each partner a voice in lifestyle choices. Budgeting together allows your partner to see what is coming in and out of your accounts and to get comfortable with the financial projections for retirement and how much you have for discretionary income. This in turn gives both partners a voice for what the discretionary spending will be used for.
Many people are worrying about money and whether they will have enough in retirement. It’s also beneficial to review your financial plan together and discuss how you want to live in retirement in case your goals have changed. Do you want to spend all your wealth in life or is it important you leave something to a friend or family member or charity? What are your own personal goals for long-term care needs? What will bring you joy or enhance your quality of life? A financial advisor can help you establish your plan and net worth projection by evaluating what you are spending, saving, earning from other sources like investments, and the impact of inflation. By working through budgeting, and doing constant monitoring of plan progress, you can make informed decisions about your retirement, together.
Have a question about money or lifestyle topics for seniors? E-mail us at [email protected] and we will find experts and answer your questions in future newsletters. Interested in more stories about retirement? Sixty Five aims to inspire Canadians to live their best lives, confidently and securely. Sign up for our weekly Retirement newsletter.