Photo Credit: Radical Botany Last month marked my 10th year of retirement – a decade of smelling the flowers. And the feeling has been very good still – the absence of alarm clocks; the freedom to go to the movies and shopping without the crowds; going to bed late at night without worrying about getting up early in the morning; and, sometimes, savouring the art of doing nothing if I feel like it. Believe me: Retirement life has been busy. Working out, consuming news, learning Spanish, reading endless good books, spending time with close friends both online and in person, grooming, enjoying new ..read more

Photo Credit: dreamstime.com According to a September 2021 poll by Campaign Research, 96 percent of Ontario seniors over age 55 currently plan to remain in their own homes for as long as possible. The Globe and Mail reported that many Canadians watched with panic as long-term care residents bore the brunt of the pandemic, with thousands dying and many forced to isolate for months. “The pandemic has created an opportunity to rethink a number of different approaches to ageing,” says Dr. Samir Sinha, director of Health Policy Research and co-chair of Ryerson University’s National Institute on Age ..read more

Photo Credit: townandcountrymag.com Music has helped me and many others a lot during the pandemic lockdowns. In fact, the influence of music on the brain and body has been a steadily growing field of research for decades. It has long been proven that music can trigger feelings of happiness; it is used in various forms of therapy; and it can slow down the heart rate. While we were seeking solace in music throughout the past 18 months of the pandemic, two iconic musicians were either making or putting the final touches to their new music during the COVID-19 lockdowns to nurture our souls. I was ..read more

Photo Credit: CBC.ca It’s now less than one week prior to Elections Day in Canada, and if you’re still struggling to decide which party to vote for, I would suggest that you stop going through all your usual top issues such as the economy, healthcare and climate change and comparing the parties’ platforms on various policies that might matter to you. Clear the clutter both on your desk and in your head and ask yourself this question: Do you want the pandemic to drag on indefinitely so that unvaccinated individuals would continue to generate new variants that would lead to more lockdowns and ov ..read more

Almost all Canadian boomers – five million in total – will turn 65 or older and become senior citizens in this decade, except for those born in 1965. Historically, older Canadians find a way to vote. In 2019, voters aged 65 to 74 had the highest participation rate, with 79.1 per cent casting a ballot, making seniors an attractive voting cohort for campaigning parties. The federal party leaders vying for votes on September 20 have all included policies designed to court seniors in their respective platforms. Let’s take a look at those from the top three major parties. Liberals The Liberals pro ..read more

Photo Credit: CBC New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds four in five Canadians saying the pandemic fundamentally altered the way they view the long-term-care (LTC) industry. Almost half of Canadians (47 percent) now say they will do everything in their power to avoid entering LTC themselves, and to keep close family members out. One in five (22 percent) said they’ll start saving for such a plan, while more than twice that number say they “dread” the thought of living in LTC (44 percent). If the industry is to be improved, three-quarters of Canadians say either significant ch ..read more

Photo Credit: Wall Street Journal The Globe and Mail recently reported that retirements in Canada are likely to surge after pandemic-era slowdown. A new report from RBC Economics says it expects a renewed increase in retirements in the second half of this year as Canada works to get past the pandemic. According to senior economist Andrew Agopsowicz in the report, the number of retirements fell about 20 percent last year compared with the 12 months ended February 2020. He says the dip was likely a result of uncertainty about retirement savings as the pandemic arrived. Mr. Agopsowicz says recent ..read more

Photo Credit: Forbes.com According to The New York Times, boomers are bringing back the Roaring Twenties, reviving the party scene across the U.S. With over 70 percent of Americans 65 and older fully vaccinated, they are attending house parties, venturing to bars, hosting wine socials and having sleepovers. Stuck indoors at home for much of the last year, they are basking in their new-found freedom, as if on a spring break. As Canada speeds up on its COVID-19 vaccination, the older age groups such as boomers and seniors who have been receiving priority for both first and second doses of vaccin ..read more

Photo Credit: CNN.com With all eyes on the recent Bill-and-Melinda-Gates divorce after 27 years of marriage, there is increasing recognition of the rise of “grey divorce,” a term used to describe older couples calling the quits. According to CNN, the divorce rate for Americans 50 and over has doubled since 1990. In Canada, while divorce rates among younger adults fell by about 30 percent in the last decade, divorce rates for older people have increased slightly through the 1990s and 2000s. The Vanier Institute of the Family, a national research and education organization that conducts research ..read more

Photo Credit: Forbes.com There are two trends of retirement planning patterns resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. For the affluent group, there is a rush to retire in a new epiphany of you-only-live-once (YOLO) mindset. For others, the pandemic has delayed retirement plans by at least two to five years. According to Bloomberg, about 2.7 million Americans aged 55 or older are contemplating retirement years earlier than they had imagined because of the pandemic, government data show. They are more likely to be white, a group that typically has a larger amount of accumulated wealth, and many ci ..read more