Lucky?

After a few days of struggling through some awful headaches, fatigue and nausea, I recovered enough to get outside and enjoy a beautiful sunset by the beach with some friends.

This was our view.

As we left to return back to our coaches, my friend made a comment along these lines: we must have done something right to enjoy this kind of life in retirement.

Did we do something right or were we lucky?

I do not have the data for the United States but I suspect it is similar to the Canadian data.

The number of seniors in Canada is growing in absolute terms and as a proportion of the population. In 1986, there were twice as many children under the age of 15 as there were adults over the age of 65.

By 2018, adults over the age of 65 outnumbered children under the age of 15. The projection is for a dramatic growth of seniors over the next two decades.

At the same time that Canada’s population is ageing, most seniors are poorly prepared for retirement. Roughly 6 million working Canadians belong to a workplace pension plan. And roughly 13 million working Canadians do not.

Put another way, 65 percent of employed Canadians have to set money aside for retirement.

Those 13 million working Canadians must have some pretty serious savings. After all, it takes about a million to produce an annual income of $50,000. Two million or so for an annual income of $100,000.

Curious to know the median family savings for Canadians entering retirement without a workplace pension plan?

It is not a million dollars.

It is not five hundred thousand dollars.

It is not two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

It is not one hundred thousand dollars.

It is three thousand dollars.

Three thousand dollars.

Half of working Canadians entering retirement without a workplace pension plan will do so with only three thousand dollars.

We did not get lucky in terms of saving money for our retirement lifestyle. We planned for our retirement lifestyle.

Perhaps we were lucky in terms of education and career opportunities.

Certainly we were blessed to be born in a country where we had a chance to build a good life for ourselves and for our family.

Very fortunate and truly thankful to be able to live well in retirement.