LONGEVITY SHOULD BE THE SOLUTION, NOT THE PROBLEM

After being held in check for decades, inflation is once again threatening to erode the purchasing power of Canadians.

According to the Bank of Canada, Canada’s rate of inflation hit an 18year high of 4.7 per cent in the fall of 2021 thanks to higher fuel, food, and housing prices. You don’t have to look far to find the culprit. Pandemic-related supply-chain hiccups and labour deficiencies have resulted in shortages across the board, and there’s nothing like increased demand for limited resources to push up prices.

This is a concern to Canadians in retirement or those planning to hang up their work spurs in the near future. More are asking, do I have enough money to get through my retirement?

The question is encouraging many to re-examine their retirement plans, and an increasing number are finding their portfolios wanting. Part of the problem is that many of those portfolios were not designed to address inflation or provide sufficient income to last for the kind of extended retirements Canadians could enjoy.

Until now.

The Longevity Pension Fund by Purpose solves the outliving-your-savings problem by offering a truly unique investment structure that delivers monthly payments for as long as you live, no exceptions*. It does so by combining design concepts of a defined-benefit pension plan with the flexibility of a mutual fund. Like with a pension plan, investors get income for life*. But as a mutual fund, they can redeem any or all of the capital invested at any time less the distributions they’ve received, giving the freedom to adjust to life’s little surprises.

To help combat inflation, the fund is designed so that payments are likely to increase over time. This is possible because as the number of investors in the original investing pool declines (some will pass away, while others will redeem their capital), those who remain in the fund benefit from mortality credits. When members die, their estate receives either any remaining unpaid capital or the net asset value if lower.

The amount of income generated depends on how much is originally invested. At today’s distribution levels yielding 6.21% for people currently aged 65-67, an investment of $100,000 will provide an initial monthly income of about $518 (or $6,210/year), an investment of $500,000 will provide about $2,590 a month (or $31,050/ year). And again, that’s for life. (While distribution levels are expected to rise over time, they are not guaranteed and can rise or fall depending on market conditions and experienced mortality.)

The Longevity Pension Fund also addresses the problem market variability by focusing on a conservative investment portfolio and pooling benefits, which minimizes risk. And thanks to a partnership between Purpose Investments and C.A.R.P., members who invest in the Longevity Pension Fund qualify for a 15 per cent reduction on the company’s already low management fees. The late, great Betty White said the way to live a long and happy life was to focus on the positive, and it’s a lot easier to do that if you do not have to worry about money. With the Longevity Pension Fund by Purpose, you don’t.

INVESTORS GET INCOME FOR LIFE

Are we simply condemned to fiddle while the world burns, then? The necessary changes debated at climate-change events like the United Nations’ COP26 in Glasgow, where world leaders hammer out emissions targets, can feel so massive and abstract that our personal actions seem insignificant. Who cares if I fly to Maui for the weekend? Who cares if I buy organic or recycle? It’s policy and collective action that matter.

And yet. Massive change is upon us – whether we want to be climate warriors or not – and that means we, individually, will have to reimagine “the good life.”

While younger generations are (rightly) celebrated for their climate activism, a generation of baby boomers is pioneering this shift in fascinating ways. Five million Canadian boomers will become senior citizens this decade. And as they retire, those millions will leave the capitalist game. No longer will they be tied to an earning-and-spending rat race. Instead, boomers will increasingly live on fixed or reduced incomes. Many will downsize. Spending habits will evolve to meet a slower pace of life. But will they feel lost, then? Purposeless? More likely, boomers will redefine retirement, just as they’ve redefined every other stage of life.

Temporarily, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were all forced to cool our consumer jets. Spending levels crashed, saving levels jumped, and we enjoyed a baking renaissance as we were forced to contemplate quieter pastimes from our respective quarantines. But the bit of change in global carbon emissions was short-lived. Clear skies were smeared again as consumption levels heartily rebounded. So much for the ecological benefits of pandemics.

COVID was a speed bump in the consumption lives of most people. But, for those of us entering retirement, the change will be far more profound – and far more lasting. When boomers retire, they aren’t merely looking for sourdough recipes and puzzles to pass the time; retirees have the chance to redefine life’s central meaning and purpose.

While researching my book, I encountered three arenas where that new meaning and purpose can be discovered. And, to my surprise, all three options can come alive during retirement.

CRAFT

Where consumer culture gives us something finished, Craft offers something coming into being.

A quilt. A canoe. A simple walking stick. The value of making things for ourselves has receded in an age of automation. Machines cycle through material at a blistering pace. And yet handmade items have, for millennia, been at the centre of human lives. We can, with a little time and effort, make things for ourselves again; we can enjoy the aura that materials gain when worked on, the value they accrue when we commit ourselves to some small act of creation. We can build labour back into our lives, even after retirement. After all, to strive for endless leisure would be to miss out on the fullness of experience. Work and leisure are complementary; neither end of the scale should be abandoned.

THE SUBLIME

Where consumer culture offers something you can own, the sublime offers something beyond your grasp.

A visit to the seashore. A walk on a mountain trail. A bit of nature may lower heart rates and cortisol levels, and it can be so much more than a bubble bath. Nature can ravish us, bowl us over and dominate the senses. Taking a dose of the sublime – even by standing beneath the stars and contemplating infinity – can remind us that we’re part of an extraordinary universe. Anxieties fall away as we recall our place among myriad miracles. In our cynical times, an encounter with the sublime can sound like a romantic indulgence. But – particularly for the irreligious among us – the natural world’s wonders can be a balm for our little troubles.

CARE

Where consumer culture offers satisfaction, care invites devotion.

A delivered meal. A helping hand. Caring for others can bond us to a lasting and profound community of human concern in a way that the shopping mall never could. All social animals are attentive to each other’s needs and – especially when dementia or some other crisis strikes a loved one – humans learn that we, too, are designed to survive in groups; we survive by sticking together. When we take care of our husbands, our wives, our friends, we have a chance to become our better selves.

These are just a few of the places where life’s worth is measured by doing and not by getting. Once we stop focusing on consumption, these new options appear, offering a richer lived experience. And that’s the great treasure we can all look forward to if we allow the climate crisis to inspire real change: a life fuelled by our fully engaged humanity, and not simply by cheap fossil fuels. In the meantime, retirees are pioneering those possibilities.

Massive change is upon us – whether we want to be climate warriors or not – and that means we, individually, will have to reimagine “the good life”