Mary Cudney retired a decade ago from a financial career and has since been travelling, painting and taking online courses.Nick Iwanyshyn/The Globe and Mail
In Tales from the Golden Age, retirees talk about their spending, savings and whether life after work is what they expected. For more articles in this series, click here.
Mary Cudney, 73, St. Catharines, Ont.
I officially retired in July, 2014 at 62 after working for more than three decades as a financial associate at Toronto-Dominion Bank. I gave financial literacy seminars to elementary and high school students. I had planned on retiring at 63, but then my husband was diagnosed with colon cancer and I went on medical leave. After a few months, I decided to retire. He died a year and two months after the diagnosis.
Once I started to recover from the loss of my husband and the grief wasn’t tearing me apart, I got out more, including travelling to places such as Mexico (where I went swimming with dolphins) and Peru (specifically Machu Picchu) as well as Barcelona, Spain.
In 2017, I accepted a request to house a charitable volunteer from Serbia for a year. Dunja was an amazing young woman who was perfect for me, and I was perfect for her, too. She had prayed for a home with a single woman and animals, and for a place where she could wash her own clothes. I was a widow with a dog and two cats, and was more than willing to let her do her own wash. I didn’t need the compensation I received to house her and spent all of it on her. I also visited her family in Serbia a couple of years later.
I also hired a life coach who helped me fulfil my dream of visiting Paris to see the Louvre. She said, ‘Set a date or you will never go,’ so I went in September, 2019.
When I’m not travelling, I spend a lot of time taking online courses about writing and spirituality. I’m working on creating a school program to teach young kids to save and then spend and give, which includes a book and a song. I also got back into painting – after taking lessons in 2005 – and have displayed and sold paintings at an art show. I also have a wall of paintings in my home that I did of my grandchildren.
A few years after my husband passed, I downsized to a small bungalow that’s easier to care for. I have a small mortgage because of some poor financial choices I made earlier in life, but I also have some savings from investments made during my working years, including buying company stock. I also have a small company pension. I took my Canada Pension Plan benefits immediately after retiring and my Old Age Security when I was eligible at 65.
The best financial advice I can give anyone is not to spend more than you earn. Start a saving habit early in life and pay yourself first. Also, don’t be bamboozled by commercials (including social media ads). They are grabbing your hard-earned money by playing with your emotions.
As for retirement, I recommend finding friends you can spend time with and confide in. If you’re widowed, don’t hesitate to join widow groups on Facebook or in person. I connected with one woman in Oregon a few years ago. We talk and paint online every Tuesday morning. We’ve also visited each other in person. How cool is that?
I’ve been striving to find peace and clarity in my life. I wake up grateful for each new day, looking forward to stepping ever closer to more joy and abundance.
As told to Brenda Bouw
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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.