“I retired in July, 2020, at 67, after a career as a computer scientist, working mostly as a professor at different universities across Canada and the U.S.,” says Julia Johnson, 72, of Edmonton, in this Tales From the Golden Age article. “I took an exit sabbatical before officially retiring so I could care for my mother, who had cancer. She died a few months later.”

Retirement was difficult at first, she says. “I had mapped out a life in which I would care for my mother for about five years. Her death was unexpected. With no children of my own and no spouse, looking after my mother would have been enough to fill my days. But suddenly I had no mother and no job.”

Even so, Ms. Johnson says she’s been able to stay occupied in retirement. “I’ve been clean and sober for more than 30 years and am now actively involved in the Alcoholics Anonymous organization, including as editor of its Edmonton central office newsletter.” She has found many friends through the organization; it is a fellowship, she adds.

Ms. Johnson spends a lot of time outside and is a member of several outdoor clubs. She also enjoys hiking and keeps a gym membership. “I am in way better physical shape than when I was working.”

She doesn’t worry about money in retirement, with a university pension, her Canada Pension Plan benefits upon retirement and Old Age Security benefits after turning 70; however, much of it, she adds, is clawed back because of other pensions and income, including her registered retirement income fund.

“I also live more modestly than I used to, especially after buying a house with my sister in Edmonton in August, 2023. She has four adult children, and it’s fun keeping up with their careers in academia, law, nutrition and psychiatric social work.”

Read the full article here.

Are you a Canadian retiree interested in discussing what life is like now that you’ve stopped working? The Globe is looking for people to participate in its Tales from the Golden Age feature, which examines the personal and financial realities of retirement. If you’re interested in being interviewed for this feature and agree to use your full name and have a photo taken, please e-mail us at: goldenageglobe@gmail.com. Please include a few details about how you saved and invested for retirement and what your life is like now. For more articles in this series, click here.

At age 60, Aaron and Jasmine are getting ready for Aaron’s retirement and preparing to “transition to a different lifestyle,” he writes in an e-mail. Aaron, an executive, will leave behind a $340,000 annual salary. Jasmine, a retired professional, works occasionally for their jointly-held professional corporation.


They are splitting Aaron’s $110,000 pension income from a previous employer.


Aaron plans to retire at age 65 with a target after-tax income of $150,000 a year, but he’d like to retire earlier if possible. He would continue doing some consulting work for the foreseeable future.


Their Greater Toronto Area house is valued at $1.8-million.


Short term, their goals are to support their daughter through university, upgrade their house and winter in a warmer climate until they are 75 years old. Longer term, they want to help their daughter buy her first home.

Can Aaron retire earlier than 65 and still meet their targets “in the most tax-advantaged manner?” he asks. He has two other, smaller pensions from previous employers that will pay a combined $30,000 a year.

“To age in place in our home, what type of insurance and extended health care benefits need to be in place?” he asks. How much can the couple afford to give their daughter to buy a first home?

For this Financial Facelift, Warren MacKenzie, an independent financial planner in Toronto, looks at Aaron and Jasmine’s situation. Mr. MacKenzie is a chartered professional accountant (CPA).

Get some free financial advice from The Globe and Mail by emailing finfacelift@gmail.com to be part of our Financial Facelift series. You don’t have to share your real name and our photographers will obscure your identity in one of our trademark Financial Facelift photos. Here are some recent facelifts for you to read. We’re especially keen to hear from Canadians worried about how the trade war with the U.S. will impact their ability to retire. Have you changed your investment strategy? Your retirement timeline? Your travel plans? Hopefully our advice can help you weather these stormy times and ensure a secure financial future.

About 18 months ago, Maria Wu received a call that left her shaken, writes reporter Anna Hui. Ms. Wu’s mother-in-law, who is in her 70s, had been on the receiving end of a so-called “grandparent scam” – a call from an anonymous number, with a voice that sounded like her son’s claiming to need a large sum of cash for an emergency.


Luckily, Ms. Wu’s older relative was skeptical. She called her son and then, after confirming the whole thing had been a fake, the police. Still, the incident was unsettling enough to prompt Ms. Wu’s family to discuss how to best protect their loved ones from the seemingly endless list of scams targeting seniors by text, phone and online.

It’s been a challenge. “It’s hard to give them all of the different scenarios of what to look out for,” said 42-year-old Ms. Wu, who lives in Calgary. With her own parents, who are both in their late 70s, she’s tried to address the broad spectrum of disinformation online, including fake news, hoaxes and outright fraud.

The challenge of helping older loved ones navigate the online world safely can become a significant source of stress and anxiety − on all sides.

Read the full article here.

Getting enough protein is essential for preserving muscle mass, supporting bone health and maintaining a strong immune system as we age, writes Leslie Beck.


Growing research, though, suggests that in addition to how much protein we consume each day, the type of protein we eat – animal versus plant – influences healthy aging too.


Now, findings from a global study add to mounting evidence that eating more protein from plants – and less from animals – adds healthy years to one’s lifespan.


Here’s a look at the latest research, plus protein- and nutrient-packed plant foods to add to your diet every day.

Leslie Beck, a Toronto-based private practice dietitian, is director of food and nutrition at Medcan.

“Last week my wife Carolyn travelled to our cottage and discovered trouble,” writes Tim Cestnick in this Tax Matters column.

It turns out that Cestnick’s cottage neighbour was having trouble with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). His story is a reminder of how the principal residence exemption can be complicated.


Cestnick’s neighbour has owned the cottage next door since 2005. The property is about 0.8 hectares in size. He also owns a vacant lot adjacent to his cottage that is about 0.5 hectares. The vacant property and his cottage used to be one lot, but he severed the properties five years ago.

He then sold the vacant lot in 2022 and reported this on his tax return. He claimed the principal residence exemption (PRE) on the sale so that it was tax-free. Or so he thought. CRA has challenged the PRE on the basis that the land doesn’t qualify for the exemption, and they want him to pay about $100,000 in taxes on a capital gain of $375,000.


To find out more about the rules of PRE, the tax law limits, the nuances of selling and the tax implications, read the full article here.

This week, we turn to The Globe’s Investor Clinic and John Heinzl, to answer this one.

Q: I have a tax-free savings account at CIBC and another at Bank of Nova Scotia. In 2024, I made a withdrawal from the TFSA at CIBC. Can I add this amount to my contribution room and use it for investment purposes at Scotia?


A: Yes. When you make a TFSA withdrawal, the amount is added to your TFSA contribution room on Jan. 1 of the year following the withdrawal.

This additional contribution room is not tied to the account from which you made the withdrawal; you can use it to make a contribution to any TFSA account in your name.
For example, if you withdrew $5,000 from your CIBC TFSA in 2024, on Jan. 1 your total TFSA contribution limit would have increased by $5,000, plus the additional $7,000 of room available to all TFSA holders for 2025. If you had any unused contribution room from previous years, you would include it in your 2025 contribution limit as well.

And how can you determine how much TFSA contribution room you have?
I strongly recommend that you keep accurate records of your TFSA contributions and withdrawals so that you will know exactly how much contribution room you have available.


If you have registered with the Canada Revenue Agency’s “My Account” service, you can check your TFSA contribution limit online at any time. But you need to be extremely careful with CRA’s TFSA figures, because they are often out of date.
For example, my CRA account shows that I have $14,000 of contribution room for 2025. But this figure doesn’t include the $7,000 TFSA contribution I made in early January of this year. Nor does it include the $7,000 contribution I made in January, 2024. That’s because financial institutions are not required to report the previous year’s TFSA transaction to the CRA until the last day of February each year. So my available TFSA contribution room is actually zero, not $14,000.


If you accidentally contribute too much to your TFSA – which can easily happen if you rely on the CRA’s data – you will face a penalty tax of 1 per cent per month on the excess amount until it’s removed. The best way to avoid overcontributions is to keep accurate records of your TFSA contributions and withdrawals.