Peter Kozak is a chartered accountant, but he's also a car buff, boater, cyclist and occasional guitar player.
The active 63-year-old Richmondite will devote more time to these and other passions when he retires.
But rather than dropping out of the workforce in two years, Kozak plans to scale back his hours and continue working at the Richmond accounting firm where he's a partner.
For Kozak, who became a CA in 1977 and started his own practice in 1980, it's about balance - keeping his mind, body and social life active while maintaining cash flow to finance an active lifestyle.
"It fills some gaps," he said of his decision to keep working. "A lot of people retire and they don't know what the hell to do with themselves."
That's not a problem for the father of three, who also plans to do more travelling with wife, Terry, and take his '69 Camaro to a few car shows. But Kozak said continuing his work at Kozak Thomas Luck helps keep his mind sharp. "When you work hard to get where you are, you could lose that real quickly by just walking away," he said. "I've seen that too many times."
Kozak is on the leading edge of a wave of baby boomers who are opting to delay retirement. The trend is most pronounced in B.C., where 25 per cent of workers plan to stay in the workforce beyond the age of 65, according to a Conference Board of Canada survey released earlier this year. Nationally, the number was 21 per cent.
As for Freedom 55, the potential embedded in that phrase seems to be a distant memory for many Canadians. The average retirement age declined steadily from 65 in 1976 to 61 in 1998, but is back on the upswing, according to the Conference Board report. In 2010, the average age was expected to inch above 62 years.
When asked why they are working beyond the age of 65, an equal number of retirees polled by TD Waterhouse - 56 per cent - cited finances and social interaction as the main reason. Half of respondents said they find it personally fulfilling.
The 2008 financial crisis and stock market dive complicated the quest for retirement, particularly for those who had the misfortune of fleeing the market near the bottom before it rebounded.
While investment losses are often cited as a reason why boomers plan to keep working past the age of 65, those stock market gyrations affect the wealthiest 10 per cent of retirees the most, according to Kevin Milligan, associate professor of economics at the University of B.C. That's because the majority of Canadian retirees get most of their income from defined-contribution pension plans.
"For the bottom half of the retirement population, only a trivial amount of their retirement income comes from investments," Milligan said in a phone interview.
Canadian tax policy acts as a disincentive for some of the seniors who are most likely to need extra income after the age of 65, Milligan pointed out. For example, those who receive the Guaranteed Income Supplement - a third of all Canadian seniors - have a $3,500 annual exemption, but get much of their income beyond that clawed back.
"Someone who looks like they're going to be in the bottom one-third of seniors with respect to income, they might actually want to work a few more years to save a bit more money so they can find an adequate retirement income," he said. "To penalize them for that seems like an odd move."
Canada has not followed the lead of other countries, including the U.S., on the issue of moving the retirement age higher as life expectancies increase, Milligan said. South of the border, the social security retirement age is moving incrementally to 67 for those born in 1938 or later.
Thirty-one per cent of B.C. retirees are worried they will outlive their savings and four in 10 are concerned they don't have enough money to do what they want, according to the TD online survey conducted by Environics.
Kozak isn't worried about running out of money, but acknowledges he could have started saving for retirement earlier. The couple, whose youngest daughter lives at home, will likely downsize in the next four or five years, he said.
His advice to younger workers? Start contributing to registered retirement savings plans and tax-free savings accounts as soon as possible.
"You need to start putting it away, especially living here," he said. "I probably started a bit late, looking back on it now."
Part of the key to Kozak financing his retirement is a balanced, stay-the-course portfolio that includes dividendpaying stocks.
"If you've got a company that's paying dividends, chances are you've got a pretty good company, but even then there's no guarantees," he said.
Having a trusted adviser is also crucial both for managing investments and avoiding "information overload," he said.
"There's a lot of confusion out there as to which way the economy is going, and that confusion can lead to confusion in your investing."
