Marion Stewart is working two part-time jobs, although she is past the traditional retirement age. One of her jobs is at The Lively Olive in Collingwood, Ont.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
This story is part of the Working in Retirement series that looks at people who, for various reasons, choose to remain active past the traditional retirement age in today's job market. Read other stories about Jim, Janet, Henry and Sharon.
Marion Stewart never had a retirement plan. She says she didn't need one.
As a designated commercial real estate appraiser, the former Montrealer had amassed a tidy fortune developing real estate projects with her husband, David Hughes.
The plan was to retire early, without debt. For awhile, it looked as though the plan would work.
"We were self-employed and we had massive amounts of money," recalls Ms. Stewart, who will admit only to being older than 65. "We had capital and we did not think we needed a pension plan as we had a lot of equity in our property development."
At the time, she drove a Lexus and lived in a large custom-built house on the Niagara Escarpment overlooking Georgian Bay, near Collingwood, Ont., surrounded by lush gardens. She and her husband loved to travel and they owned a sailboat they planned to take to the open waters after they retired, enabling them to visit places they had dreamed of but hadn't yet had the time to see.
Then the 2008 recession hit, and the dream became a nightmare.
Their life savings were wrapped up in a real estate development in Ontario which was to support them through their retirement. It hit a snag and they eventually lost their property equity. They had no RRSPs. At the same time, Mr. Hughes was diagnosed with cancer. When he died in November of 2010, Ms. Stewart was left without a safety net.
"Finances were excellent before that time," Ms. Stewart says. "But then my husband went through a whole year of cancer treatment and we lost the development and everything stopped. We had no problem with retirement before that," she continues. "We were going to be the Freedom 55 retirees. But a financial crisis compounded with illness changed all that."
After her husband died, she put her home on the market; it took more than three years to sell and during that time, Ms. Stewart had no incoming cash and yet was responsible for paying the insurance, heating and electricity. After paying off her mortage and assorted bills, she just broke even. She had no debt but she knew then that she had to get a job.
But her options were limited. She could not go back to being an appraiser, she says.
"I went into real estate development 15 years ago and I had retired my designation," Ms. Stewart explains. "And once you do that it's almost impossible to go back."
For two years she tried her hand at several jobs in Toronto – including as an office administrator in a real estate firm where she earned considerably less than she used to when working for herself. There were other compromises. She was the oldest in the room, surrounded by twentysomethings who seemed oblivious to her value as a seasoned real estate professional. It was, she says diplomatically, a learning experience:
"You don't have any status. You are at the beginning again. You know things but you learn to keep your mouth shut."
When she found that she and Toronto weren't a good fit, she returned to the Collingwood area where the friendships she had invested in when at the top of her world proved to be better than any retirement plan.
Some of her old friends took her in, providing her with a roof over her head and the peace of mind to figure out how to navigate her future. "I am barely keeping the wolf from my door," Ms. Stewart says. But she is not complaining.
Beginning again has its advantages. It is a new start. At least that is how Ms. Stewart chooses to see it.
"I am not a lonely soul," she emphasizes. "I am recreating myself and I find it a challenge. But it is fun. There are new ways of doing things. You just have to be open to trying."
Today, Ms. Stewart holds down two jobs – at a new startup called WhatsUpHut, an online information source serving Wasaga Beach, Collingwood and Blue Mountains – "the way of the future in digital advertising," as Ms. Stewart describes it – and a local foodie boutique called the Lively Olive, on Collingwood's Hurontario Street.
She divides her time between both businesses, earning little more than minimum wage, in addition to Old Age Security.
Seniors who hold down a job out of necessity – or jobs, as in the case of Ms. Stewart – are not unusual.
Nora Spinks, CEO of the Vanier Institute of the Family, a national research and public education organization founded by former governor-general Georges Vanier and his wife Pauline in 1965, is seeing more insolvencies in the 65-plus age group.
Seniors were 17 times more likely to become insolvent in 2010 than they were in 1990, the Vanier Institute's Current State of Canadian Family Finances: 2011–2012 report said.
Ms. Spinks says seniors can find themselves at financial risk for three reasons:
1) They have not planned – they did not have a pension, did not understand their pension, or thought they would receive more than they actually do;
2) They retire with debt or acquire additional debt after retirement as a result of supporting adult children or grandchildren, or need to replace appliances they thought would outlast them, or repair homes;
3) They live longer than they had planned or have experienced an unanticipated setback, like the market downturn of 2008-2009, an illness, injury or a death of a partner.
Canadians are living almost 20 years longer than when the retirement age of 65 was set in 1965 with the passing of Canada Pension Plan legislation. Today, many will need to work longer to fund a longer lifespan. They've been aided by the elimination of the mandatory retirement age as a way of giving older employees the opportunity to keep on working should they desire.
"More seniors work after retirement because they can, and want to. Many work into their 60s, 70s or even their 80s," Ms. Spinks says.
For Ms. Stewart, working past age 65 is what is allowing her to make the most of a difficult situation.
"By working I do not have to focus on survival," she says. "I can pay my bills and I know where every penny is and that is crucial. You have to know where every penny is because at my age you don't have a fall-back plan."