How this senior forced herself to slow down in retirement after an intense career

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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. For more articles in this series, click here.

Shelagh Barrington, 73, Toronto.

I retired in 2000 at the age of 48 after a career in finance, most of which was in short-term money market sales and trading. I had planned to get out of the markets fairly early because I felt it was a young person’s career with a lot of socializing and client entertaining.

So, my husband and I went over our finances and determined that I could retire. He worked in IT and retired about five years later, at age 55.

The first year of retirement was an adjustment. I was used to my routines while working. It took me a while to sit still and enjoy the quiet. I would literally force myself to sit for an hour and think. I would have a pen and paper beside me to take notes on what came up.

I was amazed at how my brain started rolling through memories and ideas that I never really gave space for while working. It also helped me relax and feel like I didn’t need to fill every minute of my day. It worked out well because I was calmer when my husband retired.

He’s a lot better at doing nothing, which is a compliment. If we had retired at the same time, it would have been a lot more challenging for both of us.

I do some volunteering in retirement. I’m a gallery guide at the Art Gallery of Ontario and work with the Reena Foundation, which raises funds for people with developmental disabilities.

My husband and I also belong to Friendship Force International, which is a travel and social club. We host travellers from around the world and show them around for a week.

We then visit hosts in other countries and they show us around for a week. My husband and I also travel a lot independently.

We don’t worry about money in retirement. We don’t have kids and we never went into debt other than our mortgage. I also received settlements from the two corporate takeovers I went through during my career, which we invested.

We’ve always had a financial advisor while also managing part of our portfolios ourselves. As we got older, we started giving more of our portfolio to an advisor to manage, so we didn’t have all that responsibility. I still manage a small portfolio of my own, which keeps me involved in the markets.

Having ridden out several past boom-bust markets, we remain confident our conservative growth investment strategy will see us through.

I’m glad I retired when I did. However, as I enter my 25th year of retirement without children or grandchildren to take up our time, I’m seeing the possibility of our worlds shrinking and wondering if we can continue to find things that make us want to get up in the morning.

We’re lucky we have nieces and nephews who seem to enjoy our company, but it’s getting harder to keep up with the younger generations. Also, health concerns are becoming more apparent and we want to remain independent for as long as possible.

My advice to others entering retirement is to find what makes you happy and live within your means, but also don’t be afraid to spend what you have.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Attention retirees! Are you a Canadian retiree interested in discussing what life is like now that you’ve stopped working? The Globe is seeking participants for 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 about how you spend your time. We look forward to sharing your story with our readers.