The former professor's pension plan was provided by the unexpected death of her mother

In stories from the golden age, the pensioners talk about their expenses, savings and whether life was expected after work. For further articles in this series, Click here.

Julia Johnson, 72, Edmonton

I retired in July 2020 at the age of 67, after a career as a computer scientist and mainly worked as a professor at various universities in Canada and in the USA. She died a few months later.

Retirement was initially difficult. I had exhausted a life in which I would take care of my mother for about five years. Her death was unexpected. Without my own children and without spouses, it would have been sufficient to fill my days. But suddenly I had no mother and no job.

I was able to stay busy in retirement. I have been clean and sober for more than 30 years and have now been actively involved in the anonymous organization of alcoholics, including editor of the newsletter Central Office from Edmonton. I found a lot of friends through the organization. It is a community.

I also spend a lot of time outside and have joined several outdoor clubs. A river runs through the city of Edmonton with deep gorges, where I like to hike. I also have a membership in the gym. I am in a much better physical form than I worked.

I'm not worried about retirement money. I have a university pension. I started my advantages for the pension plans in Canada after retirement. After I had turned 70, I received my achievements at the age of age. However, a large part of this is withdrawn due to my other pensions and other income, including my registered pension income funds.

I have modest investments in my self -directed investment account and after some initial bad equity decisions, my investments are slowly increasing.

I also live more modestly than before, especially after I bought a house with my sister in Edmonton in August 2023. I had previously lost money for real estate in Edmonton and on some of the properties that I sold in Ontario. But after almost five years of grief and emotional turbulence, I started making better financial decisions.

I'm not going to retire much. I traveled extensively to work in Asia and Europe and visited my sister in Australia, where she lived for about five years. I enjoy cooking my whole meal from scratch and spending time with my sister and family. She has four adult children and it is fun to keep up with her career in science, in law, in nutrition and in psychiatric social work.

I am grateful to be financially able to contribute to organizations and causes that do useful work, such as: They ring what makes sense for me.

My advice to others who consider retirement is to avoid unexpected events such as pandemic or emotional problems in connection with relationships due to the pressure from the family. Please make sure that your head is straight when you make such a significant decision about life.

As Brenda Bouw said

This interview was processed and compressed.

Are you a Canadian pensioner who is interested in discussing how life is now when you stop working? The Globe is looking for people who take part in his stories from the Golden Age feature that examines the personal and financial realities of retirement. If you are interested in being interviewed for this function and agreeing to use your full name and take a photo, please send us an email to: goldenagegeglobe@gmail.com. Please indicate some details about how you retired and invested and what your life is now.