Ian Crysler cycling in a park near his home in Toronto.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail
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In Tales from the Golden Age, retirees talk about their spending, savings and whether life after work is what they expected.
Ian Crysler, 66, Toronto
I retired in 2020 at age 63 after a successful 40-year career as a freelance commercial photographer. I worked for various corporations including many in the education and government sectors. For example, I was the photographer for Ontario Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell from 2016 to 2022.
In early 2020, I got a detached retina. It was the perfect timing – if there’s such a thing with an eye injury. The pandemic lockdowns started soon after, and the photography industry was affected worldwide. My retinal detachment was so severe that it took over a year for me to be able to see almost normally. Still, my eyesight wasn’t the same. So, at age 65, I accepted that I was indeed retired.
I could have tried to continue working, but the reality was that I had started to lose my passion even before my eye injury. Budgets were shrinking, work was being taken in-house, and my clients were also aging and retiring. My retinal detachment was the final straw.
Retirement wasn’t a huge adjustment for me. As a freelancer, I was used to going several days without an assignment. So, I’d meet friends, go out for lunch, go to a gallery, go cycling or to the gym, or help my wife – a children’s author and illustrator – with her business. I still do all these things in retirement without the worries and stress of running my own business. I also spend more time with my daughters – one is in Toronto and one in Vancouver – and with my twin sister, who is also retired and lives in Toronto.
In 2020, I took up fat biking – a mainly winter sport – and often travel to places outside of Toronto to enjoy it. In March, I went to Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., for the Beaver Freezer Marathon for fat biking and placed 6th in the half marathon. I was the oldest participant. I’ve also met many new people doing the sport, which has been great.
My wife and I also like to travel to places that are meaningful to us. For instance, my wife, my sister and I went to Churchill, Man., last November to see polar bears and the Northern Lights, and also because my dad’s first job was as the engineer for the Port of Churchill. My wife and I also went to France before COVID-19 to look at cave paintings and prehistoric art to research a book idea she was working on.
We haven’t had to cut back our expenses since I retired, even with the rising cost of living and market ups and downs. We’ve worked with an accountant and a financial planner since we married in 1981. Our accountant taught us about saving. We put away 10 to 20 per cent of our income and still do. Our financial adviser has grown our money through investing much better than we could have done on our own. Saving and investing have always been important to us, especially since we have our businesses and no company pension to rely on. We also both collect our Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security benefits.
My advice for others considering retirement, or in it, is to learn to make new friends, reignite older friendships, and keep physically active. Also, if you’ve saved enough money for retirement, learn how to spend and enjoy it.
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.
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