How do you intend to retire?
Unless you go back in time, retirement no longer means stopping all forms of work from the factory job – retirement means different things to different people.
While there remains a formal definition of retirement (in that there is the action of leaving one’s job or ceasing to work) retirement has many flavours these days. The traditional definition has evolved and no longer fits what people are doing and seeking.
As I approach retirement from my own career at the end of March 2026, I wondered how you intend to retire.
How do you intend to retire?
The rise of standardized work during the 20th century coupled with an abundance of industrialized or corporate jobs gave rise to pension plans as a key employee attraction and retention benefit. So, you worked hard for 30-35 years and then you retired with your pension as part of the long-term total compensation model – a model that remains in place to today.
Defined benefit (DB) pensions give retirees fixed lifelong monthly payments based on salary and a years of service formula. Some DB plans even offer a degree of indexing to fight inflation. But all DB plans represent a premium form of dependable retirement income that is not subject to financial market drama – since the financial risk is on the employer and not on the employee or retiree.
But times are a changing…
The long retreat of DB employee benefits has been well documented, shifts have occurred in the employer-employee dynamic involving unions along with shifts in the job market to industries where a DB pension is simply just not offered.
Canada’s retirement income system is often described as having three pillars, although variations exist.
The first pillar provides benefits based on age and years of residence in Canada: so it includes the Old Age Security (OAS) pension, the Guaranteed Income Supplement ((GIS), if that applies to you for lower income folks), the Allowance and the Age Credit. This first pillar is funded largely through general tax revenues.
The second pillar consists of mandatory earnings‑related programs so you can put the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and, in Quebec, the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) in that bucket. These are public pensions, funded by mandatory contributions from workers and employers, as well as income from investments made with these contributions.
And finally the third pillar is composed of the aforementioned workplace pension or as the workplace employee compensation model continues to shift, it could be a Group RRSP or another form of employee compensation as well. “Private” retirement income planning may also include your own assets: RRSPs, TFSAs, LIRAs and any non-registered investments.
Source: Government of Canada.
I share this information for context when it comes to the following types of retirement you might pursue – how you intend to retire. Your path to retirement could be one or more of these types below.
1. Traditional Retirement
I define this as follows: you work for decades on end uninterrupted and you stop working for good. During this period of time, you might have contributed to a DB or Defined Contribution (DC) pension plan or not at all.
If you had a pension, the automatic savings nature of any workplace pension would be very good for most people: this “forced savings approach” is a huge benefit unto itself – pay yourself first ala The Wealthy Barber.
If you had a pension (the golden handcuffs idea) and depending on the type of pension you have, pension income gets paid out in different ways at retirement. Some plans cannot start before a certain age while others can be accessed earlier. Depending on your retirement income goals this flexibility (or lack of flexibility) is an important consideration in your financial plan – one I’ve struggled with myself.
There are many benefits to traditional retirement by remaining with one key employer for decades on end (i.e., work stability; the guaranteed pension income for life; don’t have to take too much personal investment risk; could be other workplace retirement benefits like health benefits, travel benefits or life insurance benefits) but traditional retirement also seems to come at a personal cost of trading your life energy for employer time for many decades.
The traditional path to retirement may not work for many people these days. It did not work for me.
2. Semi-Retirement
I define this as follows: you want to pursue some form of life-work balance.
This was in fact something important for my wife and I to try out in 2024 and 2025 – so we did.
My wife toggled back and forth between full-time and part-time work up until her retirement in October 2025.
I continue to enjoy my part-time role at work (until the end of March 2026): I wanted to remain with my employer for a bit, still contribute, just in a reduced capacity.
After I retire from my current career, I might still work (gasp!) but only a few days per week or a few days per month. We shall see.
I will continue to blog here for another year or so too and this site doesn’t make minimum wage – I enjoy running it. 🙂
Semi-retirement is not about income but it may include some small financial compensation for doing something you really enjoy/want to pursue – trading your time or energy for some income.
This path and related definition of retirement has always appealed to me and much moreso than just early retirement and not working again.
3. Early Retirement
Some bloggers or FinFluencers might express this is a “better way” to retire but when you really think about it – nobody in their 30s or 40s really retires early and never works again. I haven’t met one of them yet.
They continue to work for some income and many do so on their passion projects. Nothing wrong with that of course, being an entrepreneur, you just need to be honest with folks vs. selling some dream as you hustle a book or a podcast or something else to support your lifestyle.
In Your Money or Your Life, author Vicki Robin equates ample savings (and investments) with freedom. This means you have the freedom “to leave your job if the boss is intolerable or the benefits have just been yanked.” With sufficient savings (and investments) you have the opportunity to transform your life, including achieving financial independence if you want to.
Robin likens financially independent thinking to cartography – you need to create your own map. Your map will depict the delta between your life today and the one you want to lead. The results of financially independent thinking will allow you to step back from your assumptions and emotions about money and observe them objectively.
The concepts related to early retirement are not new but certainly lots of modern social media marketing have propelled this thinking into a new discussions and forums.
I’m a big fan of financial independence, just not any retire early part of FIRE marketing.
4. Mini-Retirements
Popularized by Tim Ferriss’ 2007 bestseller, The 4-Hour Workweek, Ferriss proposes you redistribute your retirement over many decades. Other books and articles have suggested the same over the years.
In this form of retirement you work in bursts or stints. For example, you might work for a few years and then take a few years off work only to work yet again.
When it comes to mini-retirements, I’ve considered this approach but quickly dismissed it since I was always more focused on my crossover point and becoming financially independent vs. needing to work to fund periodic time off only to work again…
We realized our crossover point in 2024.
In doing so, that allowed us to start shifting both of our workplace schedules to part-time as part of a transition to retirement sooner than most.
How do you intend to retire?
The answer to this question is very personal and quite subjective.
Which type of retirement is right for you?
“It depends” is the common personal finance answer to pretty much everything but it’s so true.
Traditional retirement never appealled to me nor did any sort of mini-retirement either. So, I guess I’ve opted for the semi-retirement path and if you want to suggest that I’m an early retiree well that’s probably somewhat correct too.
Your financial planning and retirement income planning will depend on many personal factors but the ingredients to any retirement or some form of financial independence are pretty generic:
- Spend less than you make and invest the difference: This obvious expert advice really never goes out of style. A high, consistent savings rate is a get wealthy eventually path to retirement.
- Kill all high interest debt and remove all debt from you life when you can: Debt management comes in the form of removing ongoing credit card debt, killing off high interest loans, and managing any other consumer debt well. If you are always paying other people first it will be hard to get ahead in life.
- Educate yourself / gain financial literacy over time: Another obvious truth but it’s critical to educate yourself so you develop a better understanding of not only how to manage your finances but also the motivations of others around you. Otherwise, you will pay other people lots of money to do your financial thinking for you.
Whether you are in the early days of your financial journey, preparing for retirement, or successfully in retirement, I would be happy to learn what is working for you. How do you intend to retire? How did you retire?
Leave a comment below. I look forward to your engagement.
Yours in happy planning and celebrations for what lies ahead in 2026.
Happy New Year!
Mark
Source: Carl Richards, Behavior Gap.
Well, I’m just a bit short of age 70, and I retired at a bit short of age 56. But I didn’t really retire, I continued to work at a part-time job until last year (just a bit short of age 69), one day a week in the winter and two days a week in the summer. So now I’m retired.
I have a company DB pension plan, partially indexed. I took my OAS at age 65, and later this year I’ll take my CPP at age 70.
One thing I did was have very little debt; I paid both my mortgages off in six years, which helped me keep my money, not the banks. And I only had one short car loan, but I never had a new vehicle – ever; I drove old clunkers. I have credit cards, but they are paid off every month.
Congrats, John – you sound very pragmatic. I hope to work part-time/enjoy some seasonal work at some point later this year. We shall see. Until then, I will consider myself retired at end of March 2026 in my early 50s.
We have also paid off our mortgage a few years ago and we paid cash for our newer car. No debt is great, isn’t it??
Best wishes for 2026.
Mark
To add to my story, I’m married, and my wife worked for around 15 years in total. She stayed home after we had our second daughter; now we have three. She ended up on CPP disability around age 55. I always tried not to overspend, but I still took family holidays, even if they were lower-cost ones; they were always enjoyable. Now I also have six grandchildren, ages 17 to 1 year.
My health is reasonably good, although about eight years ago I had a heart attack, which resulted in a 6 X heart bypass. But I’m good now.
Anyhow, I also want to wish you a great 2026.
You sound very disciplined, John. Kudos to your approach. I hope you continue to have good health and also financial success in 2026.
Health is wealth.
Cheers,
Mark
Edging up on 9 years this Spring in my FIWOOT since I left my full time work and traditional career at 43 years old back in 2017. Thanks to blogs like yours and the other influential FI websites. I learned so much on how stepping away from work was possible and that I could accomplish so much more and do so much more if I just did things differently. Save big, avoid debt, spend wisely and enjoy life.
Also….I really wish the HR department drilled home how important or almost made it mandatory for employees to participate in their group RRSP plans. I missed out on a bunch of years early in my career as I was just not informed and didn’t understand what those matching employer rrsp could add up to. With my last employer before I retired I was doing 10% withhold and getting a 6% match on every dollar.
Chris, AMAZING. 🙂
Semi-retired here for the last year and moving into some form of full retirement in three months – we’ll see where that life takes me.
Yes, Group RRSPs are important considerations for sure especially when there is employer matching involved. We all make investing mistakes. The expoerts make investing mistakes. I’ve just tried to make less mistakes as I age.
Best wishes to you and your family for 2026 and your business as well.
Mark
Retired since 2018 with DB pension, RRIF (4) CPP (2), OAS (1) and small non reg account. Prior to stepping away I created a simple spread sheet that would show where income might come from in five year blocks. Since my partner is five years older, they would start OAS earlier and it was interesting to see how the income pockets stacked up.
I also spent some time from the perspective of survivor benefits and how each income pocket might be affected if one of us passed.. How would my pension be impacted should I pass for example.
We did a little bit of part time work (1-2 days each per month) but found it wasn’t really necessary.
My epiphany came when I realized that managing debt was more important for my mental health than eliminating debt. If I had to wait to be debt free to retire then it would never happen. I don’t care about carrying low interest debt as what matters is the consistency and security of my monthly cash flow. My cash flow is more secure then most people with a T4 job.
I also realized that if I could afford my debt while working, I could afford my debt not working, if I can replace a high percentage of net income. That is an incredibly freeing. What we have now is financial independence and we will never have to worry about interruptions to our cash flow. I am very grateful for how things have worked out.
That’s excellent, Gruff.
I have the same thing – I will likely share that this year: how much / where income will come from in five-year blocks.
Too young for CPP and OAS right now, another 13 years to go.
You were wise to figure out what worked for you, and stick to it I believe. I know for me/us, we didn’t want any debt so we made that a priority. Everyone is different, but it seems you have lived within your means.
Assuming our portfolio can grow/continue to grow more than 5% annualized, we will remain financially independent in that cashflow > expenses. 2024 and 2025 were HUGE investing years for us so it will be interesting to see what is next!!
Best wishes to you for 2026 and stay in touch.
Mark
Hi Mark, at what age are you taking CPP and OAS?
Default is age 65 for both, in 13 years or so, but might defer CPP to age 70 if the portfolio does well and I/we can spend more from both RRSPs/RRIFs in our 60s. I’ve assumed 5% annualized returns for the coming decades with 3% inflation – so rather conservative just in case.
Thoughts?
Mark
Lol! We are nearing semi retirement so, researching more and more!! Many things have also changed in our RE portfolio, we will be in touch!
Great stuff! Happy to support you anytime!
I will be sharing my own report in the coming weeks. This was my last update.
https://www.myownadvisor.ca/financial-independence-budget/
Cheers!
Mark
Hey Mark,
We have two possible retirement timelines at this point. I recently learned the firm I contract from won a bid and I will be working almost full time starting in April (some hours before then). That engagement will last the remainder of the year. They also expect to get 1-2 other wins that I’ll be involved in, so looks like I’ll be close to full time for all of 2026. My wife will hit her unreduced pension next December (by the school break). She has said in the past, as long as she has a “good” class she would likely finish the school year, so June 2027. I think it’s likely I could get work to around the same timeframe – maybe longer. I don’t plan to work a day past my 60th birthday in October 2027, but if I were on a really exciting project I could see modifying that goal.
My wife says when she retires – that will be it. Unlike many other retired teachers she has absolutely no desire to supply teach. As for me, if there were some short term projects (say, 6-8 weeks) that I could do once or twice a year I might be interested in doing that – especially if they are in the off season for fishing!
We just surpassed $78k in go forward dividends. To think that as of January 2024 we were only at $51,600 – incredible growth over two years. When combined with my wife’s DB pension (she was part time most of her career so it’s not what a “regular” teacher’s pension is) we should be well prepared financially when the time comes. Looks more and more like my $84k dividend target is achievable even though we have been taking our non-registered dividends as cash while I was waiting for more work.
Congrats to you and your wife in achieving your goals – amazing. I’m excited for 2026 and what lies beyond!
James
Very well done, James…. re: “…We just surpassed $78k in go forward dividends.”
That’s quite a bit and should provide a VERY comfortable retirement to say the least if your wife has any decent DB teacher’s pension plan.
Congrats on your success to date and stay in touch during 2026!
Happy New Year!
Mark
Happy new year. Continue the great work. Your hindsight is consistently insightful and always relevant.
Hi,
Haven’t posted in awhile. Retired Oct 1 @ 59. Small DB plan plus my own 40 years of savings. All registered accounts filled. Registered account withdrawals (not the TFSA) starting next week. Raised by depression era parents so I’m a saver, probably saved too much, but I’m loving the security that comes with substantial financial assets. Haven’t missed out on anything. Was fortunate to attend conferences while employed every 6 months to nice locations. Might look for a part time job come spring, such as a shuttle driver (40 years behind a desk was too much sitting); been doing 2 hours of cardio per day since retired (used to bike to work). Happy new year everyone and thanks for this website Mark, love all the info on it.
CJ
Nice to hear from you, CJ.
Congrats on your retirement this past October. Well done.
I wouldn’t mind being a driver at some point myself. We shall see. Need to keep moving in retirement for sure!
I appreciate your kind words and wish you and your family a great 2026. Happy New Year!
Mark
I guess we fit in 1,2 and 3. I retired early (56) due to circumstances but the Mrs. still works FT will maybe PT in a few years. We intend to retire early(ish).
Yes you can retire way earlier but that requires a plan, some big choices and favorable circumstances. It matters if you are couple y/n, have no/fewer kids (>$200K a piece), consider geo arbitrage (COL in Spain is 26% less), very high saving rates). It gets way more attention than it deserves, we are talking about maybe 1% of Canadians? To me retirement is an outcome not the goal. FI is the only $$ goal we should focus one regardless of age or circumstance.
Our retirement picture:
– currently we live of one salary and partial investment income (~50%)
– ~ 2 years once my DB (valued @ ~$400K) kicks in it will allow the Mrs. to work PT still only using ~50% of our investment income
– ~5-7 years, maybe more PT or full retirement depending on how and where things go.
So it a long gradual process for us, we have a roadmap that is clear enough but not set in stone. Also not a big fan of just flicking the switch.
I agree with you, Ben.
FI is the goal – if you want to work after that, well, go for it – all good. 🙂
Happy New Year to you and your family.
Mark
When you say that you’ll perhaps continue to blog here for another year or so, will you keep the website up if you stop blogging regularly? You have so much great material here from over the years that it feels invaluable for people coming up behind you who want to sift through the information 🙂
Ya, hopefully for a few more years as long as I enjoy it. 🙂
Happy New Year and best wishes for 2026!
Mark
From time to time I have erroneously stated that I had “retired early”. While in fact, I retired when I attained my maximum pensionable service time, in combination with age 55 to avoid any age related reductions. So in essence, I got to the 35/55 stage and pulled the plug from employment. But even that doesn’t accurately portray my retirement as I technically “farmed” from ’94 to ’20 with the land/orchard leased out since I stopped physically “farming”.
So it turned out that almost none of what I had sort of planned as a yoot came to fruition. It was just an evolving path of changing circumstances and reactions.
Having said that, having numerous options available as time passed was an enormous plus and I can’t imagine being put in a position where there was no optionable path available.
Great stuff, Lloyd. Sounds like you’ve had a fulfilling retirement to date overall. 🙂
Stay in touch in 2026 – and Happy New Year to you!
Mark
Hey Mark – I guess I would fall in the #1 category. No defined-benefit pension plan in my case – I had to build up my “pension” based on diligent savings, along with taking advantage of employee-match defined-contribution RRSP/RPP employee plans. In my case, I had a 36-year career in tech – and although I never “technically” changed companies, I navigated through 3 different acquisitions – going from a small 50 person software company to a 100K+ person company. My plan saw me on track to retire by 62-63 but an early retirement program that was offered allowed me to retire at 59 – just 3 months shy of my 60th birthday. Still figuring out retirement – but I’m filling the days with a combination of cycling/golf in the spring/summer and hockey/pickleball in the fall/winter. Travel (mainly to Italy) along with some volunteering, continued “financial literacy” reading (which I enjoy), and social gatherings with family/friends round out the busy days. All the best to you in 2026 and beyond!
Great stuff, Mikey!
Good on you to take that early retirement program – that can help. 🙂
Sounds like me…some sports, travel, likely some volunteer work and more in my future!
Happy New Year and stay in touch,
Mark
Retired from career after 30+ years, March 2024, at the age of 59. I work part-time as a Motorcycle Safety Foundation Rider Coach, 40 classes per year = 80 days of work per year. Seasonal work April – November.
The finances all worked out as plan.
Only challange so far has been keeping busy during the December -February period.
Amazing, Floyd. I like learning from folks like you. I will consider seasonal work myself in 2026. We shall see!
I hope to travel for a few weeks every winter starting next year, so that should keep us busy. 🙂
Best wishes for 2026!
Mark
Hi Mark, can you please comment if 70 years old couples in using the strategy in selling all their dividends earning stocks in their non registered accounts and use the funds to buy corporate class etf like hxs and hxt that will eliminate all the dividend income and to earn capital gain instead? As both couples have a large non registered portfolio and both have large rrif that need to be melted down over the next 15 -20 years or tge rrift will be subjected to 50% tax if both couples die. The toxic dividend income from non registered accounts will cause the oas partially or completely clawed back if the couples bring in a large rrif withdrawal plus their deferred to 70 yr old cpp and oas. As the couples already withdrew large amountvof rrif from 65 to 70 yrs old before bringing in cpp and oas. Do you see what potential risks that using hxs and hst in removing the toxic dividends or you will recommend any other methods. Thank
Hi Kong,
I can’t offer direct advice, but I can say I know a few DIY investors that own swap-based assets in non-reg. like HXS, HXT, etc. for capital gains focused vs. any dividends or distributions at all.
Just a different way of focusing on your wealth goals.
If you have a very large non-reg. account (i.e., > $1M) then focus on growth vs. dividends can make sense due to the potential sum of RRSP/RRIF income + CPP income + OAS income = potential OAS clawbacks.
Dividends in non-reg. aren’t always “toxic” since it depends on your income needs and need to balance off taxation.
Some investors with just (small) few other income sources, with large non-reg. portfolios, pay almost $0 in tax. They have structured their portfolio to be VERY tax efficient since you can earn $50k or so per person via non-reg. dividends with no major other income sources and pay zero to little taxation. So, “it depends”.
Generally speaking, when you get to age 65 or so and you haven’t considered withdrawing from RRSP/RRIF yet, you should, given tax headaches.
Have you seen this post?
https://www.myownadvisor.ca/watch-out-for-rrsp-and-rrif-taxation/
I welcome your thoughts!
All the best in 2026 to you and family,
Mark
I think the “toxic” moniker for dividends refers to the effect that 38% grossed up dividends have on your OAS clawback. So let’s suppose you have $100k dividend income stream, that is $138k income for OAS clawback purposes. I can understand why some people would consider that toxic but my current investment decisions include dividend paying stocks and if that affects my future OAS, so be it.
Yes, the gross up is just a form of tax equilization per se….but certainly I believe anyone earning over $100k per person from their portfolio does not need any Old Age Security income – thoughts?
All said, OAS clawbacks are a great income/tax problem to have!
Happy New Year!
Mark
Probably consider it a blend of 1&2 here with all 3 ingredients you listed utilized ~ nearly12 yrs ago full retirement, partner retired 13.5 yrs ago.
Age 22-45 employed w/ same company w/small DC pension for 10 yrs
Age 46-50 self employed PT entrepreneur-business sold, no pension
Age 50-55 phase down easy career w/ last half PT, no pension
Age 55 traditional fully retired mostly self funded, plus partner with modest DC pension started 2 yrs earlier
Work pension, 2X OAS portion, 2X CPP (future), investment cash flow
Its been a good balance for us. Lived well, saved enough, retired at a good time and haven’t looked back since. Fortunate.
Thanks for those details, very much appreciated.
I hope I can do the same, re: “…good balance for us.”
Continued success and health into 2026!
Mark
Anytime! Thank you.
Best wishes for success to you and your spouse in 2026.
Happy New Year and good luck for a prosperous ’26 to to all others on here.
And to you…stay in touch often next year!
Mark
You bet