An interview for the Saskatchewan Pension Plan
First, let me note that Podcast Episode # 6, Transition into Retirement, dealing with the often scary first few years of retirement, is now available. Our guest is retirement coach Jon Glass, and I wish his services had been available when I “graduated from full-time work” ten years ago, as I would certainly have engaged him. (In fact, I deal with my personal experience in the interview below.) Retirement coaching is a pretty recent service, and I expect it will expand rapidly. Listen to Jon (http://donezra.com/podcasts/ ) and you’ll understand why.
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Earlier this year I was interviewed by Martin Biefer, a veteran reporter on pensions, for the Saskatchewan Pension Plan, the formation of which (in 1986) I remember with great pleasure. Martin set me some questions, and I responded. I liked the questions very much: thoughtful, insightful, practical. Fortunately Martin liked the responses too! And so the interview was published on their website on January 30, 2020.
These are the questions Martin posed:
- You talk about the “u-curve” and how 70-year-olds are as happy as 20-year-olds, which is a great analogy. What are some of the reasons why retired folks are so happy?
- We love the casino analogy and the advice about investing (safety and growth). Why do you think so many people think they know enough about investing to do it by themselves without professional advice? Is there anything that could be done to help improve general investing knowledge?
- We get more research, like the recent research carried out by the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan and Abacus Data that suggests that folks are afraid to retire, largely because they fear they can’t afford it. Is this because everyone has so much debt they can’t imagine living on less money? Are there other reasons driving this?
- What’s the best thing you have experienced – maybe the nicest change – now that you are in Life 2?
- Why do you think it is so hard for working folks to visualize what it will be like to be retired?
- What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about retirement?
For my answers, here’s a link to the published interview: https://www.savewithspp.com/2020/01/30/life-after-retirement-doesnt-need-to-be-scary-says-life-two-author-don-ezra/
I hope you enjoy it!
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I have written about retirement planning before and some of that material also relates to topics or issues that are being discussed here. Where relevant I draw on material from three sources: The Retirement Plan Solution (co-authored with Bob Collie and Matt Smith, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2009), my foreword to Someday Rich (by Timothy Noonan and Matt Smith, also published by Wiley, 2012), and my occasional column The Art of Investment in the FT Money supplement of The Financial Times, published in the UK. I am grateful to the other authors and to The Financial Times for permission to use the material here.