I know that Sherry Cooper is a “star” economist. When she speaks, people listen. BMO should be proud to have her. She is always good for a headline. In fact, if you ask any media producer in radio or TV who is at the top of their Rolodex on economics (do they still use those clumsy things?) you can be sure her name will be at or near the top of the list.
I am, along with all the other quaking retired-on-investments people, an avid reader of Report on Business. Today I was attracted to a story about how to retire. And of course, there was the author of “The New Retirement: How it will Change Our Future,” the one and only Sherry Cooper. To people like her, retirement is all about the time in your life when you no longer work; the time of life when you go south and spend all your time with other creaky old folks pretending to be engaged by taking courses in self-improvement.
The fact is – she thinks retirement is a semi vegetative state in which you are concerned only about how much things cost and can you afford any of them.
So Report on Business quotes her saying: “generally, retirees want to downsize.That usually means, within Canada, moving to a smaller city or town that is within a 60 to 90 minute drive.”
I am thunderstruck. I know that my wife and I should downsize. We did. We sold our house several years ago and live in a lovely 1730 square foot downtown apartment. “(It’s a condo, but we rent. Who at our age, wants to “own” anything.”)
I should add that we violate what was always a rule for “older folks:” don’t increase your possessions. Don’t buy a lot of stuff. Part of keeping you is to keeping buying “stuff. We buy new stuff to hang on our walls. We buy new art glass. We buy new kitchen stuff so I can cook better.
To hear just like her, retirement is all about crawling into a comfortable cocoon. Does it matter that you have grown up in a major city with great restaurant, theatre, museums, galleries and shopping all within walking distance? Does it matter that it may cost a little more? At the heart of her argument is the notion that your prime interest in retirement is to preserve your money by moving to a small town where there may be – if you’re lucky – one movie theatre and a Pizza Hut.
I will get heat from people who move to the chic places like Port Perry or Port Hope. But that’s another argument.
My biggest complaint is that growing older should be a time when you “pull in your horns” and become obsessed with keeping your capital intact.
And as for that 60 to 90 minute drive – it doesn’t happen. Once you are pleasantly ensconced among other seniors waiting for their next rousing game of lawn bowling, you become more and more immobilized.
And I have even talked about some of those grim little “retirement communities” that developers put together in the middle of nowhere, or within a 20 minute drive of a small town you wouldn’t want to live in.
Sherry – wait until you retire.
(For those who don’t know – I am co-author of the book “Don’t Be Blindsided By Retirement” – which looks at life beyond making sure you have enough money.)
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hey larry, I posted your piece at http://360boom.com today as the feature article . . and I sent a note to Sherry Cooper asking for comment. Cheers, Mark
ReplyDeletehere is Sherry's reply:
Dear Larry,
I agree with your views on retirement whole heartedly. Indeed, the whole premise of my book is that the “New Retirement” is a period of enriched activity—regeneration, growth and momentum. Most retirees of the future will work—some by choice and many more by necessity (and choice). Boomers will not settle for stagnation, dependency and isolation. The mere word ‘retirement’ has a negative connotation to boomers and will no doubt drop from the lexicon of the future—like the words ‘housewife’ and ‘secretary’ and ‘head-of-household.’ The notion that with life expectancy rising to 80+, we would want to live for 20 years or more in purposeless leisure or in a ‘cocoon’, as you suggest I advocate, is untrue and unhealthy. My view is that ageism is diminishing and that most of us will have the opportunity for purposeful and rewarding “work” well into our 80s. Without it, we whither and die. Research shows that older brains are better at synthesis and analysis in an emergency than younger brains, and that it takes nearly a full lifetime for maximal brain function to be achieved. The fact is, 55-year old air traffic controllers are better in an emergency than 30-year old controllers. For certain, economists at 55 are far better than at 30. Paul Volcker is over 80 and still going strong. Regarding the Report on Business article to which you refer, the reporter called and asked the following question: “How can boomers reduce their cost of living in Canada and is it a good time to buy a condo in Florida?” No kidding, that is all I was asked. When I broadened my response to suggest that where one lives is a lifestyle decision, and many would prefer to live in city-centres, the reporter returned to the issue of exurbs and retirement communities. My comments, particularly to media wanting a 10-second sound bite, are taken out of context all the time, and newspaper articles are generally too short and too focussed to deal with nuanced analysis. All that the reporter wanted from me was a few quotes to insert in a piece that was already pretty-much written.
Sincerely,
Sherry
Dr. Sherry Cooper
Executive Vice-President, BMO Financial Group
Chief Economist, BMO Capital Markets