Retirement

If I don’t think I’ll have enough money to live comfortably in my old age, I have a retirement plan B – move in with one of my kids!

I looked into the various provincial plans and found that, for the most part, seniors do have complete or partial drug coverage. All the provinces have very different plans.

I have spent the last several weeks caring for my elderly parents to get them organized for their move to an assisted living apartment.

The idea of retirement as a universal reward for a lifetime of hard work is relatively recent. Just a couple of generations ago it was assumed that you would work until you were physically incapable of doing so.

My brother and I have spent several months investigating various senior care facilities and retirement communities for our parents. They are in their mid to late 80’s.

The problem that many people face is that they don’t know if they have the resources to be able to retire at 55, or even at the standard retirement age of 65.

Defined benefit pensions have been in decline over the past two decades in favour of the defined contribution plan, where plan membership has doubled over the same time period.