Kristine Pollard and her husband, Gean Oliveira, sold their home after retiring early and are living as nomads.Supplied
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.
Kristine Pollard, 46, nomad
I retired last year at age 45 after working as a police officer with the City of Toronto. My husband, Gean Oliveira, retired a few months earlier at 51, after running his own IT consulting business. Shortly before we retired, we sold our home, car and almost all of our possessions and packed what was left into two backpacks. We’re living a nomadic life, travelling to different countries for a couple of months, while keeping Canada as our home base. In the past year, we’ve been to Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Mexico.
Time drove our decision to retire early. Both my husband and I had a parent who died relatively young after having just retired in their 60s. My job was also a big factor in my decision to stop working. As a police officer, I often saw people’s lives change in an instant. You never know what the future holds or when your time will be over.
When Gean and I met in 2019, we started following the FIRE [financial independence, retire early] movement. We also don’t have kids, which made it easier to save money. We lived on my salary and invested his income in the markets. We started investing in June, 2020, using a strategy known as the Smith Manoeuvre [a legal tax strategy that effectively makes interest on a residential mortgage tax deductible]. We made it our goal to retire in 2028, when I turned 50 and would be eligible for my full pension, but then our investment strategy started to go better than expected. It got to the point where we realized we could retire in 2024.
We pay attention to the market ups and downs but are confident in our longer-term strategy, so we aren’t too worried. We plan to maintain our current standard of living through geo-arbitrage, which means we can easily move to a lower-cost location to save money when required.
Retirement was a bit difficult at first. It was hard to go from a high-stress, fast-paced job to a lifestyle in which the only thing you need to do in the day is wake up and have a coffee. The challenge has been slowing down, learning to relax and being okay with doing nothing if we want to. We’re also trying to take better care of ourselves, spending more time with family and friends, travelling the world and meeting new people. It has been better than expected. I’m also finding a new passion for researching travel destinations. There are so many places to see and go. It’s exciting and fills up quite a bit of my time.
We are trying to show others that retirement is changing; you don’t necessarily need to wait until you’re 65 or older. We also created a blog and YouTube channel on which we discuss early retirement and show others that it’s possible to leave work sooner and follow your dreams while you’re still young and healthy.
My advice for others heading into retirement is to not only plan your finances but also how you want to spend your time. Having a goal or a purpose in retirement is the key. You need something to occupy a little of that quiet time in life.
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.