In his practical, clear and helpful book – Everything You Need to Know About Saving for Retirement – author Ben Carlson identifies the problem of low savings rates and offers up a clear approach to get going on saving.

He begins by noting that “four million people (are) reaching retirement age annually in the United States,” and that “the vast majority of them are ill-prepared for this next stage of their financial lives.” Half of those aged 55-61 in the U.S., he writes, have saved less than $21,000 for retirement; half of those aged 50-55 have less than $11,000 in savings.

Yet, retirees can expect to live more than 20 years, on average, in retirement, he notes.

While building wealth is “simple… just live below your means, save the difference, and invest for the long term,” Carlson makes the point that because something is simple does not mean it is easy. “Getting your finances in order is more difficult than it seems because money impacts so many different aspects of your life,” he writes.

Nevertheless, Carlson identifies three things “you need to get right to give yourself a chance at financial independence one day,” specifically:

• “Save at least 10 per cent of your income (preferably 15 to 20 per cent).”
• “Make your saving and investing automatic.”
• “Think and act for the long term.”

“Saving money provides a margin of safety when life inevitably gets in the way of your best-laid plans,” he writes. “The last thing you want to worry about when life throws you a curve ball is money. Money issues amplify stressful situations.”

So, you want to start small, he explains. Small wins. He started with just $50 a month in his first job, and over time “I slowly increased the amount saved. Every time I received a raise, I would bump up my savings rate.”

He gives the example of famed investor Warren Buffett, who at age 60 had a fortune valued at $4 billion, but turned 90 in 2020 with a net worth of $70 billion.

“Real wealth for normal retirement savers comes from a combination of saving, compounding, and sitting on your hands. It takes time and it’s not easy. It could take decades to see extraordinary results,” he explains.

Another tip is to start young, he writes. “Starting at a young age not only helps you take advantage of compound interest, it can also save you stress and financial strain later in life,” he continues. All is not lost, he adds, if you are older, but it will take “some more planning and a higher savings rate.”

Talking about investing, he says you have to be comfortable with risk – what goes up can go down. “If there is an ironclad rule in the world of investing, it’s that risk and reward are always and forever attached at the hip,” he explains.

He suggests that putting your budget on “autopilot,” or automating “as much of your spending and saving as humanly possible” and spending only “what is left over” is an effort that “requires more work up front but the benefits can last a lifetime.”

Near the end of the book, he advocates paying yourself first. “Saving is more important than investing,” he writes. “Pay yourself first is such simple advice, but so few people do this. The best investment decision you can make is setting a high savings rate because it gives you a huge margin of safety.” As well, he concludes, the savings rate is something you have control over.

While this book is intended for a U.S. audience and has chapters on American retirement savings plans and government benefits, the core of the book offers sound advice for any reader – it is highly recommended!

The Saskatchewan Pension Plan allows its members to use an auto-pilot approach. You can set up pre-authorized contributions to SPP from your bank account, so the money goes into your retirement nest egg before you have a chance to spend it. And, as the book suggests, you can up your contributions any time you get a raise. It’s a “set it and forget it” way to build your future retirement security.

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Christine Benz uses an interview approach in her fine book, How to Retire, to really dig into some retirement-related dos and don’t.

And while there are a few sections that focus chiefly on U.S. tax rules, the bulk of the book is still very helpful for a Canadian reader.

The book begins by asking Michael Finke about what people should be thinking about when it’s time to contemplate retirement. Being happy, he explains, is crucial – it’s not just a math problem. “Of course that’s a very important part of living well in retirement – not feeling like money is a barrier to doing the kind of things that actually make us happy,” he begins. “But you also have to develop the skills to figure out how to be happy in a time of leisure, if that’s what you’re doing. And that’s a big question. Is this just a long weekend? Is this just a big vacation? And are you set up to be able to live?”

On how to pick a retirement date, Fritz Gilbert tells Benz “what I encourage people to do is take that last year (of work) and think about all the non-financial aspects of retirement, to make sure you’re emotionally and mentally ready for the transition as well. If you get the financial piece in order, and you’ve spent some time thinking about the non-financial piece, the “when” is going to become fairly obvious between the two of those combined.”

Laura Carstensen talks about the important of keeping up social connections – different than those you had at work. Recalling vacations when she was constantly in touch with the office via her mobile phone, she said you can’t completely disconnect when you retire.

“Going from that to a complete sense of `Nobody wants me. I’m not obliged to do anything,” is just as bad. People think about retirement as a way to break out of that pressure. What we really need is to change the way we work throughout our working lives. But certainly, as you get older and you start to have some ability to work less and to be more flexible in your work, keep in mind that doing some work is good for most people.”

David Blanchett talks about buying annuities, the “a” word. “If you want more guaranteed income, you want to first exhaust your options with respect to (government benefits).” He suggests claiming your government benefits as late as possible so that you get more. “After that, it might be worth considering annuities, given the potential economic benefits, which is something I’ve focused on for most of my career.”

Another important thing for retirees to think about is “spending money meaningfully” suggests financial author Ramit Sethi. You also need to talk about death benefits. “So many of us are afraid to talk about death. I told my wife, “Here are the conditions under which I don’t want to live anymore. Here’s what going to happen one day if I get hit by a bus. Let’s talk about it.

“There’s no virtue in hiding from something that’s going to happen to all of us. We might as well be open about it, When we acknowledge that eh average person like us lives to X age, suddenly we get very honest with ourselves. `Wow, I have a limited time window to actually use this money. What am I going to do with it?’”

Wade Pfau talks about investing strategies for retirees, including the “4 per cent” withdrawal rule, and the danger of “sequence of returns risks,” which is the danger of taking out investment money before the big returns start to hit.

He suggests four steps to mitigate sequence risk – “the first is to spend conservatively. That’s the logic of the four per cent rule.” Alternatively, spend flexibly. “If I can adjust spending along with market performance, that manages the sequence of returns risk because I’m not having to sell as much from a declining portfolio.” Other tactics include mitigating volatility by diversifying into less risky assets, like bonds, and having “buffer assets,” something outside the portfolio that you treat as a temporary spending resource to spend from after market downturns, to help avoid selling from the portfolio at a loss.”

In a chapter on choosing where to live after retirement, Mark Miller notes that “most people don’t move when they retire. That’s a media myth. And when people do move, they generally don’t move very far.” But if you are considering a bigger move, he recommends that you see what the healthcare services in your new area are like, as well as “transportation, walkability, and the like.”

Carolyn McClanahan suggests you need to “make certain your home is aging friendly. If it’s not, then figure out how you’re going to make it aging friendly, or where you’re going to move so you can live at home.”

This is a very well-thought-out book that covers off most aspect of retirement in a factual, friendly way. It’s well worth being an addition to your retirement library.

Annuities are a way to turn some of your retirement savings into a lifetime income stream. The Saskatchewan Pension Plan offers a full range of annuities. Be sure to check out this option when the day comes to convert your savings into retirement income. There’s also the flexibility of the Variable Benefit option to look at!

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In her excellent book The Pink Tax, author Janine Rogan contends that we are living with a financial system that is “designed to keep women broke.” Her book walks us through the situation and offers sage advice and strategies for women to use to fight back.

She defines the Pink Tax as a system where women are paid less for the same work but are expected to pay more for goods and services. “I’ve seen pink-branded calculators, earplugs, kids’ helmets and clothing that cost more – it’s everywhere. Although it may seem like a few dollars and cents don’t make a big difference, it adds up. The Pink Tax costs women $82,000 by the time they are 60, and that figure only includes the things the researchers were measuring.”

Rogan advises us to “demand financial equality,” to “build wealth for self-care,” to “support new moms” and to “vote for your daughters.”

Pay gap: Speaking about the pay gap, Rogan notes that it wasn’t “until 1963 that employers (in the U.S.) were required to pay women equally for jobs that entailed the same skill effort and responsibility.”

Expanding the discussion of the wage gap, Rogan notes that not only are women paid “83 cents on the dollar” versus men, but they are “twice as likely to be in part-time jobs… (and) miss out on advantages such as health benefits or retirement contributions, which full-time positions offer.”

She recalls finding out that a man with equal standing and the same role at her company “was making $13,000 more than I was.” Lower wages mean “less money to save and to invest. The wage gap turns into a savings and investing gap, fuelling the wealth gap.”

Wealth gap: A career-long pay gap translates to a wealth gap, she explains. “Even women in the top one per cent have disproportionately lower incomes than their male counterparts, earing on average $362,000 per year while men in the top one per cent earn $392,000.”

Rogan feels that it is time for women “to take back the fight… to take the power of your money into your own hands so that together we can remedy women’s financial undereducation and all of the other inequities… let’s demolish that gap entirely!”

Noting that only 30 per cent of the world’s wealth is held by women, Rogan suggests that the “travesty on unpaid caregiving work… compounds the wealth gap. Globally, women and girls put in 12.5 billion hours per day of unpaid care work. We would add $12 trillion to the global economy per year if we began paying women and wage minimum wage for their unpaid caregiving work.”

Building wealth for self-care: “Building your wealth is a form of self-care,” writes Rogan. “Building wealth means having a financial cushion to rely on if life takes a turn for the worse.”

She walks us through a way to manage your money by aligning finances with your values.

“My top three values are spending time with the people I love and care about most (my baby and my hubby), exploring the world, and feeling financially secure,” she explains.

“Knowing what’s important to you helps you define where to allocate your money, which is a basic premise of budgeting… a spending plan for your hard-earned dollars,” she continues.

Noting that women face “up to 35,000 decisions” per day, a key to managing financial decisions is to automate things as much as possible, particularly bill payments.

“Because we are paid on the 15^th and 30^th of each month, we set up our money transfers – from chequing to savings, chequing to investing accounts, and chequing to bills – for the 16^th and the first.” Taking basic financial transactions off the constant list will “lighten your mental load,” she suggests.

She uses the same approach to automate savings for large, planned expenses – a monthly contribution to a planned Hawaii trip, another one for the child’s education, for TFSA saving and “long term savings goals, such as retirement.”

Even if you go the automation route, Rogan recommends you set up a “money date” once or twice a month to review your progress on savings and expenditures, a chance to “identify any bills you could potentially lower or subscriptions you could cancel.”

Be sure you and your partner “talk about money early and often,” discuss “your values and spending styles,” and “manage the household finances together.”

At work, she writes, don’t be afraid to ask for a raise – 68 per cent of women don’t.

While there is still much work to do to achieve gender equity, Rogan notes that “we don’t have to look far to find amazing examples of countries advancing gender equality every year.”

“Personally,” she concludes, “I’d like to see us get there in my lifetime.”

Automation is available for members of the Saskatchewan Pension Plan. You can set up pre-authorized contributions to SPP from your bank account, and you can pick the dates to coordinate with your pay dates so you are paying yourself first. You can also automate payments by setting up SPP as a bill, and using online banking. This “set it and forget it” approach is a way to build your retirement nest egg easily and automatically.

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In Live Your Best Retirement, author Ramon Reid begins by expressing concern for those who are not happy in their so-called golden years. The book then provides ways to turn things around for that group.

As he began his own retirement, he noticed “a worrying trend in people who had retired. A lot were lost and unfocussed or even worse – they seemed angry that retirement hadn’t delivered the goods.” Worse, he continues, they didn’t know what to do about it.

He and his wife, on the other hand, had a plan when they retired early. “We (had) a number of key projects in mind, are active physically as keen gardeners, cyclists and kayakers, are emotionally centred with regular meetups with friends and family and are intellectually stimulated as part-time business and management consultants.”

In other words, he writes, “we made purposeful decisions about how we wanted to live our third age.”

Those on the verge of retiring, he advises, don’t “want to drift aimlessly in a sea of indecision” about the years ahead. They instead need to be “prepared for more than one option,” and to be able to “learn fast or adapt.” Having a plan for the years ahead allows you to “look forward to the future with excitement and not look back in grief.”

The book gives dozens of real-life examples of how individuals and couples coped with retirement and its precursor processes, like planning.

The transition to retirement “can be tough,” he writes. “For some retirees, the reality of retirement is a far cry from their expectations and often leads to disillusionment and deep unhappiness.” Further, he continues, a surprising 40 per cent of Americans reverse their decision to retire.

That’s because they don’t have a purpose for retirement. “Finding purpose in life means different things to people. The quest assumes an even greater urgency once you enter the third age of your life,” he writes. “For some, it is about fulfilling a passion; for others, it is unearthing a passion they did not know they had.” He suggests that volunteering in retirement is a “transformative” action for retirees seeing purpose.

In a chapter on personal growth and learning, he notes that “retirement is not the end but the beginning of a new appreciation of the wonders of life.”

“The trick,” he writes, “is teasing out the reward of a hobby, or learning a new skill, even a language, that occupies your mind 100 per cent. Take comfort in the research that shows, time and again, that your growth is achieved by challenging yourself.”

Examples of things to learn in retirement, he writes, include a new language, music, strategic game playing, dancing, acting, cycling and pottery.

“Be curious, be active,” he advises. “You have as much to offer the community as the community has to offer you.”

He concludes his optimistic book by advising retirees to find “like minded others” by joining classes or groups. “Start small and build on your options,” he suggests. “Do something positive at the start of every day.” Be careful what you are eating – cut back on processed foods, sugar and alcohol, he advises.

“Just do it, start doing something, anything, today. Take the first step, the others will follow. Stepping out will become easier each day, just as your confidence and capability does.”

This is a fantastic and motivating book. The move from work to retirement can be jarring and sad if you haven’t thought about what to do with all that time, and while the focus with pre-retirement seems to always be on money, it’s really more important to be active and to try new things, as Ramon Reid says so well.

Changing jobs? Your SPP account is ready to make the move with you. Since you can join SPP as an individual, changing employers doesn’t affect your eligibility to continue contributions – you can keep going on your retirement savings no matter where you’re working. And, once those contributions have been professionally invested in SPP’s low-cost pooled fund, you’ll enjoy – at retirement – options that include a lifetime monthly annuity payment or the more flexible Variable Benefit option.

Get SPP working for you today!

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Retirement is about “much more than money,” authors of Retiring? say

When friends Ted Kaufman and Bruce Hiland compared notes about their transition from work to retirement, they felt there was a book in there. The result, Retiring?, is a great little reference work that provides key things to consider as you transition away from the workplace.

As a starting point, the authors note that “retirement has changed enormously in the last few decades in its duration, the circumstances giving rise to it, and decisions the individual has to make.”

As well, they note that most retirees they spoke to “were unprepared for the profound personal and life changes retirement brings. Addressing these non-financial issues seemed to hold the key to a satisfying and fulfilling retirement, but only financial matters had gotten the necessary attention.”

In short, people “are living longer” and “the onset of age-related health problems has slowed.” So we live longer and are more healthy, yet “a career with a single employer is now virtually unheard of,” and “ageism is alive and well,” with successful people still being shuffled off to retirement because they are deemed to be too old, the authors write.

In retirement, you have to move on from the old reality that your work “defines you,” the authors point out. You will need new social connections. But, retirement will bring change that you can embrace – “you’ll have more choices than ever before,” the authors say.

To set sail on retirement, the authors suggest (worksheets and a quiz are in the book to help you) that you define “what I value” as well as a “never again” list. This useful pros and cons list may help you decide whether or not to retire, or more possibly, when, the authors maintain.

Activities are crucial in retirement – things like “teaching, writing, starting a business, exploring a new talent, or fully developing one you already have, such as art, gardening, or photography.” Having one activity is good. “Two is not uncommon, but three seems to be pushing it. The core idea is to define your anchor so you can fit other interesting, satisfying activities around it, like filling in the smaller stores in the mall,” the authors explain.

In a chapter on relocation after retirement, the authors suggest making a test run before the big move. “Give it a serious tryout before making a decision. The same advice applies to a move back to someplace once familiar but where you haven’t lived for many years. Renting – ideally for a year – offers the most realistic experience against which to test your expectations,” the authors advise.

In the section about physical health and fitness, there is a nice worksheet section that considers such factors as your age, family history, stress level (and sources), chronic issues, and other factors to help you design a suitable health plan.

Be active and watch the drinking, the authors warn. “Exercise. Eat and drink in moderation. Develop a sensible plan, and then stick to it!”

After helpful chapters on mental health and spirituality, the authors conclude this fact-laden, thoughtful book by advising that “the new retirement will bring many changes. The one constant is that those who enjoy a satisfying and meaningful retirement are those who applied their thinking and planning talents to the challenge.”

Living after work is over will still require money. If you are lucky enough to have a retirement program at work, be sure to contribute to the max. If you are saving on your own for retirement, considering partnering up with the Saskatchewan Pension Plan, who have been helping Canadians build retirement security for more than 35 years.

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Take a break from social and don’t keep up with the Joneses: Worry Free Money

Everyone, writes Canadian financial author Shannon Lee Simmons, is worried about money. But her excellent book, Worry Free Money, provides a roadmap to a life where you can enjoy your financial life – and Spend Happy — while living within your means.

She starts by citing a few examples from clients she’s worked with – “there is always something, and we can’t seem to move ahead,” says one. “I’m sick of being broke,” says another. “Why am I falling so far behind,” laments a third.

On paper, she notes, “these people are not actually, numerically `broke.’ But being broke and feeling broke are two different things.”

There’s a way out, she writes:

• Understand the underlying reasons for why you want to overspend.
• Understand what you truly can and cannot afford, without budgeting.
• Spend money on things that make you happy.
• Say no to overspending (and yes to saving).
• Stop comparing yourself to others.

She talks about the risk of the “F*ck-it Moment,” when “you feel as if there’s no point in trying to be financially responsible and you end up overspending.” Examples – “I can never actually afford a vacation, but I need one. F*ck it, life is too short. Swipe.”

In another example, a single mom who can’t afford to buy her son a PlayStation feels forced to do so when his friends come over and mock him for not having one.

Later,she talks about creating Life Checklists as a way of avoiding what she calls “the Inadequacy Influence” (keeping up with the Joneses) which in turn leads to “F*ck It Moment” rash spending. As an example, such a list might include your goals you are proud of – a job with a good pension, and owning property – and your own lifestyle expectation you yourself want to meet – a nice car, a job you like, running a marathon, travelling, getting married, etc.

You then look at the expectations on your checklist to identify goals “you’ve achieved… and where you may feel you are falling behind.” This process helps you to find “the non-negotiable goals, the ones that are truly important to you. Once you know what those goals are, you’ll also recognize the expectations that may not be financially realistic – the boxes that can sabotage your happiness.”

Further on, she talks about having a “Social Media Detox” to prevent yourself from being tempted to overspend on things you may not need. Her rules:

• Two weeks fully off social media. No cheating.
• Unsubscribing from all favourite retailers that currently send notifications to your inbox.
• Deleting credit card information from all apps and online stores.

“Ignorance is bliss when it comes to sales…. Unfollow any lifestyle brands or retailers that trigger you to overspend,” she recommends.

Interestingly, she is not a believer in traditional budgeting.

Budgets usually mean you “track your historical spending, categorize your expenses, forecast your monthly spending, set spending targets based on that historical data and then (you) try to live within those limits.” This approach is “totally unrealistic for modern life… (they) have too many rules and involve far too much work.”

She prefers the Hard Limit – four categories, including Fixed Expenses, Meaningful Savings, Short-Term Savings and Spending Money. There are charts and examples to show how you can move to this simplified, four-bucket approach. She also recommends that you consider putting your spending money in a separate bank account from any saving money, so there is less chance of overspending!

You need to be conscious about how you use your spending money, she adds.

“Your spending money is an investment in how much you enjoy your life. That’s why cutting back can feel so hard and frustrating… if you’re cutting back on the wrong expenses it can feel like you’re divesting from your happiness. It feels like none of the money you earn is for you,” she notes.

This is a great, insightful and well-written book this is thought-provoking and provides easy-to-follow self-help tips. By following the advice, you can be on the road to Happy Spending, she concludes, a place where “no one has to be ashamed about their financial choices.”

If you are saving for your long-term future – retirement – there’s a great resource open to any Canadian with available registered retirement savings plan room. The Saskatchewan Pension Plan has been helping to build secure retirements for Canadians for more than 35 years. Find out how SPP can be your retirement savings partner.

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Holly Trantham’s Beyond Getting By sets out the possibility of developing financial habits and actions that map to your lifestyle goals.

She explains how living well and building wealth have a complex relationship. By having a job “that requires me to examine the systems we live in…. I’m constantly thinking about what actually makes us happy and, by extension, what actually makes me happy. Because the truth is… we’ve all been sold lies about wealth, work and security that are actively making our lives worse.”

As an example, she talks about “shame-based budgeting” advice from other experts that leave the reader “smacked in the face with guilt” about such things as dining out, taking trips, and so on. Instead, your spending habits shouldn’t “come from a place of internalized shame. Budgeting this way makes you believe that you must be broke or poor because you’re lazy, incompetent, or otherwise undeserving of money… (which) makes you feel bad about every single `unnecessary’ expense.”

Her recommended three-point plan is simple yet effective:

• Pay your bills on time.
• Don’t go into debt funding your lifestyle.
• Invest in your long-term financial goals.

Each chapter in this thoughtful book provides a workbook section where you can chart out your own ideas and beliefs and test them against Trantham’s key messages.

In a chapter exploring happiness, Trantham makes the point that rich people aren’t always happy. They spend more time alone than do those with lower income, as well as “26 minutes less per day with family,” the book notes. “Rich people also tend to surround themselves with other rich people,” and become “less interested in engaging with a lower-class person than with an upper-class counterpart” This, she argues, will tend to “corrode your capacity for empathy – a key ingredient to building and maintaining relationships.”

Wealth (without happiness) becomes an addiction, she concludes, like a gambling or shopping addiction.

Instead, she says, we all need to ask ourselves this – “are your current money habits aligned with your personal values and interests?”

As an example, she talks about how she does not have a “car dependent” lifestyle, and can walk most places and use public transportation, but still was a heavy user of ride-sharing services until she thought about it more carefully. “Defaulting to taking a car whenever I was mildly inconvenienced (via Uber or Lyft) was deteriorating my relationship to my community and causing me to live a less active lifestyle along the way.”

And, she notes, this is just one example – think of all the different lifestyle/money categories this sort of analysis can be applied to!

In a chapter that looks at investing, she boils things down to several “most important” considerations:

• Get started as early as you can so your money has ample time to grow.
• Make sure you’re actually investing the money you contribute to (for Canadians, a registered retirement savings plan, pension plan, or Tax Free Savings Account), as the accounts are not themselves investments, they just hold investments.
• Continue contributing to your retirement regularly throughout your earning years.

“Retirement isn’t necessarily an age, it’s an amount of money. Financial independence means having enough money in the bank to stop working if you want to,” she explains. While stock markets have historically given returns in the 10 per cent range, “nothing is guaranteed… therefore, increasing the amount you’re able to invest over time is critical.”

This is especially important advice for women, she notes.

“According to the Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement,`while the poverty rate for all women age 65 and older is 10.6 per cent (or just over one in 10), the poverty rate for single women living alone is almost twice as high at 19 per cent,’” she writes.

There’s a lot of ground covered in this great book.

On shopping, the author reminds us that “retailers do not have sales in order to save you money. They have them so they can earn more, because the more items they sell, even at a discount, the more revenue they’re going to generate overall. A $100 pair of jeans at 40 per cent off isn’t saving you $40, you’re still spending $60 you may not have necessarily spent.”

She takes a look at the idea of “manifesting,” the belief that if you “just visualize and vocalize your goals enough, they will come true.” A more realistic way to think about things is what she calls “facilitation,” a “much more pragmatic and intentional way to put the ideas behind manifestation into practice. It involves the process of visualizing not just the outcome you want, but the process it’s going to take to get there.”

Near the end of the book, Trantham makes the point that we tend to stick with what we are doing – the status quo – instead of making positive changes.

“No matter what the question is, the answer is often to choose the less convenient option,” she writes. “It is easier, in the short term, to stick to the status quo in your home life. But will that allow you to feel seen, respected, and like you’re contributing to an equitable home life in the long run?”

“Will it have been worth it (not speaking up) if things don’t change? Isn’t that a scarier thought that the possibility that they could?”

A very interesting and informative read – highly recommended!

If you’re saving on your own for retirement, the Saskatchewan Pension Plan may be just the ally you’ve been seeking. Amounts you contribute to the plan are invested in a pooled, low-cost and professionally managed fund. When it’s time to retire, your SPP options include the possibility of a lifetime monthly annuity payment or the flexible Variable Benefit.

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Whether or not you’re his fan, Stephen King’s On Writing gives you great insight into the ins and outs of becoming a writer – and a clear, concise overview of the basic tools in the writing toolbox.

He begins the book by saying he wrote it “as an attempt to put down, briefly and simply, how I came to the craft, what I know about it now, and how it’s done. It’s about the day job, it’s about the language.”

As a young boy, his first little stories were based on comic books he liked. His mom loved what  he was doing, but advised him “write one of your own, Stevie. Those Combat Casey funny books are just junk. I bet you could do better.”

On finding what to write about, he notes that “good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere; sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.”

After a tough life – he and his brother were raised by their single mom, and the family moved around a lot before settling in Maine – King found his talent was in writing. He and his older brother even put out a little local newspaper as schoolboys, buying a small copying machine to churn out copies more quickly.

In high school, he edited the school paper but also an underground one, which got him in trouble with the administration. However, the school’s solution was to get King working part-time as a sports reporter for the local paper. Protesting that he didn’t know much about sports, he was told by his editor “these are games people understand when they’re watching them drunk in bar. You’ll learn if you try.”

His editor taught him that “when you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.”

King completed college, got married, had kids, and struggled, teaching English part-time and working at a laundromat. His wife worked at a doughnut shop. But in the background, he began work on the novel Carrie, which eventually became a life-changing monster hit.

King talks about how he feels when he writes.

“You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair – the sense that you can never completely put on the page what’s in your mind and heart,” he notes. “Come to it any way but lightly…. You must not come lightly to the blank page.”

Vocabulary is a top tool in any writer’s tool kit. Don’t dress it up, “looking for long words because you’re maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones. This is like dressing up a household pet in evening clothes.”

Next comes grammar. “One either absorbs the grammatical principles of one’s native language in conversation and in reading or one does not,” he says. “If you don’t know, it’s too late.” He moves on to sentence structures – nouns and verbs – and suggests avoiding passive verbs. You throw something – you don’t say “it was thrown by” someone, he explains.

King sees writers in a large pyramid – the bad ones are at the bottom, the next level contains “competent” writers, a “large and welcoming” group. Next comes a small group of “really good writers,” and at the top, geniuses like “the Shakespeares, the Faulkners, the Yeatses, Shaws, and Eudora Weltys.”

While anyone can achieve good writing by mastering “the fundamentals (vocabulary, grammar, the elements of style),” King maintains that “while it is impossible to make a competent writer out of a bad writer, and while it is equally impossible to make a great writer out of a good one, it is possible, with lots of hard work, dedication, and timely helps, to make a good writer out of a merely competent one.”

If, he continues, “you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.”

Another tip from King is keeping the pedal to the metal. “Once I start work on a project, I don’t stop and I don’t slow down unless I absolutely have to.” He says that otherwise, “characters begin to stale off in my mind – they begin to seem like characters instead of real people.”

He sees stories and novels consisting of three parts: “narrative, which moves the story form point A to point B and finally to point Z; description, which creates a sensory reality for the reader; and dialogue, which brings characters to life through their speech.”

“The key to writing good dialogue is honesty,” he continues. “You need to be ‘honest about the words coming out of your characters’ mouths.”

Length of an article, story or novel is also important. Early on, when he was working on an article, he got a comment that changed his writing forever. “Not bad,” the editor wrote, “but PUFFY. You need to revise for length. Formula: 2^nd draft = 1^st draft minus 10 per cent.”

He concludes the book by encouraging any of us who want to write. “You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will,” he tells us. “Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up.”

This is a terrific book. It’s a great autobiography in and of itself, but as a text on how to write, it’s much more readable and direct and helpful than other books we’ve seen on the topic. Highly recommended.

Writing is something many of us take up in retirement – or perhaps, return to. If you’re saving up for life after work, a great partner is the Saskatchewan Pension Plan. SPP does all the hard work for you, investing your savings in a low-cost, professionally managed pooled fund. When it’s time to dust off the keyboard in retirement, you can choose such options as a lifetime monthly annuity payment or the flexible Variable Benefit option. Check out SPP today!

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It’s always very difficult for those of us who are in the working world to truly envision what retirement will be like. It’s like some sort of alternate universe, or at least, it seems that way.

Life After Work by P. Alexander provides a thought-provoking, detailed, and clear look into how your future could unfold. While it is intended for a U.S. readership, the fundamental concepts in the work are of interest to a broader audience.

Alexander begins by describing retirement “as a juncture in life that beckons with the promise of freedom and newfound adventures,” warning that it “can also stir up a whirlwind of emotions, leaving us grappling with uncertainties and insecurities.”

But, Alexander reassures us, “retirement is not a destination; it’s the beginning of a grand adventure, a blank canvas waiting for you to paint with the vibrant colours of your dreams and desires.” It’s a phase where you “have the privilege of redefining life on your own terms, unburdened by the constraints of a structured workday.”

Alexander stresses the importance of “staying active and fit” in retirement. “One of the most common mistakes that retirees make is to just kick back, relax, and forget about the world,” which, while fun, “can lead to significant cognitive decline.”

Alexander calls staying physically active “vital… and also a potent tool for keeping your mind sharp.” Similarly, keeping up with the housework is “conducive to mental clarity… household chores offer a sense of accomplishment and a visually pleasing environment.” Other recommendations for staying active and fit include “developing a green thumb,” and “refining your eating habits.” Set priorities around family time, which can bring “joy and emotional well-being,” the book advises.

After a chapter on tweaking your wardrobe for your new retirement lifestyle and “look,” the book talks about the importance of having routines in retirement.

“Freedom is great, but it can lose its novelty once you run out of things to do,” warns Alexander. “This is where a routine can serve as a comforting and stabilizing force…. (it) can provide structure, maintain your health and well-being, and ensure you make the most of your time.”

In a chapter discussing retirement goals, such as well-being and health, social connections, and personal growth and learning, Alexander expands on the importance of having a sense of purpose.

“Our sense of agency and utility relies on having a sense of purpose, and that’s something that passion contributes to,” Alexander explains. “Passion gives you a reason to wake up in the morning with enthusiasm and excitement. Retirement can sometimes bring a loss of purpose for those who were deeply committed to their careers. Reigniting old passions or discovering new ones can reignite that sense of direction and fulfillment.”

A later chapter in the book looks at how you can set up your own “bucket list” of “aspirations and experiences you wish to accomplish during your lifetime.” Consider your passions – “activities, experiences or places that have always intrigued you” in setting up a list that you can “devote your energy and time to.”

At the end of a chapter on the importance of developing a social network in retirement (to replace the one you had at work), Alexander writes that “it is always possible to forge meaningful connections in your retirement years… with the right mindset and a dash of proactive spirit, you can have a vibrant social life that enhances your retirement journey.”

There’s a helpful chapter on budgeting – figuring out your sources of retirement income and balancing that out against your expenses. That can help you understand how much you need to save for retirement, Alexander writes.

“The sooner you start saving for retirement, the more time your investments have to grow. Understanding your timeline is crucial for setting realistic goals.”

This fact-laden book is a great read for anyone gearing up for life beyond work.

“Planning can be your essential best friend,” Alexander concludes. “Create a roadmap for your retirement that aligns with your dreams and values. This is the best way to make the most out of the next phase of your life.”

As the book suggests, if you haven’t already started saving for retirement, there’s still time to get rolling. If you’re saving on your own for life after work, consider enlisting the help of the Saskatchewan Pension Plan (www.saskpension.com). SPP has been securing retirement for Canadians for more than 35 years.

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For many of us, running our household money can be a “learn as you go” stumble, as we find out that not paying off credit cards, or spending more than we earn all the time, are bad things.

Victoria Botvinnik’s How To Adult Money offers up insightful information on every phase of the complex world of personal finance. It’s like having a friendly accountant coaching you through.

On credit cards, she writes that “credit cards are a great thing to have if you know how to use them without being used and abused by them.” She warns that credit spending “hurts a lot less… than (to) hand over hard-earned cash,” and that making only the minimum payment each month means “you’re not really paying down the debt much, if at all.”

We should have two credit cards, not a bunch, she adds.

On pension plans at work (such as defined benefit or defined contribution plans), Botvinnik makes the point that if there is an employer match to your pension contributions, it’s definitely worth joining up. “The employer match happens when your employer helps contribute to your retirement. It’s generally done in the following way: you promise to contribute a certain percentage of your salary to this plan and your employer will match it up to a point. This is fantastic and you should take advantage of it as soon as you’re allowed to.”

Looking at accommodation, she raises the interesting point that renting is not always “throwing money away” as some contend. She backs that up with a chart, showing that buying a condo for $350,000 is not necessarily better than renting it for $1,800, because renters don’t pay a down payment, mortgage interest (possibly for up to 30 years), property taxes, legal fees and home inspections (this cost is incurred when you buy and when you sell), maintenance, and condo fees. Renters just pay rent and renter’s insurance.

“In this scenario, as long as the rent was under $2,350, renting is the better option,” she concludes. She says you need to think about whether you plan to stay in your current job and current community for a long time, or not, before buying. If you think you’ll be there for at least 10 years, she says buying can make sense.

She takes a look at the “whys” of debt, which when the book was written, worked out to $1.67 of debt for every dollar Canadians earn.

We go into debt, she explains, for necessities, such as “somewhere to live, a car to get you places, and potentially schooling to get a job.” Fine. But, she notes, there are other causes of debt, such as “eating out and going on expensive vacations” we can’t afford. “Some of these actions may be small but add up over time, like buying lunch every day.”

Getting married or having kids can “create higher than normal expenses for a year or so, which many households handle with debt.” Finally, “legal issues” like not paying taxes or parking tickets “can turn into a real issue if you don’t pay attention or accidentally make a mistake,” she warns.

To get out of debt requires a plan. You can use the “snowball technique,” paying minimum payments on all debts and adding extra to the lowest one. When that’s gone, apply more extra to the next lowest one.

Alternatively, you can target debt with the highest interest first, the “Avalanche technique.” Pick one, and develop a plan, a “timeline for becoming debt free using current budgeted savings per month.”

In a chapter on the 10 per cent rule (spend 90 per cent of what you earn and save the rest), she notes that the “rule of thumb” amount might not be enough for lower income earners, and may be too much for higher-income earners. “If you’re planning to retire on an income similar to the one you have right now, you’ll likely need to save more than 10 per cent. If you’re happy to retire on less than your current income, you’ll need to save less than 10 per cent.”

No matter what your retirement savings number is, the earlier you start, the better, she writes.

The book is filled to the rafters with great information. There’s a section on how to set up a budget, which looks at the “envelope system,” where you put cash aside to cover specific expenses, or the 50/30/20 system, where 50 per cent of your budget is for necessities, 20 per cent is for debt repayment/savings, and “no more than 30 per cent of the cash you take home should be spent on non-essential lifestyle items like eating out, shopping, etc.”

The very detailed investment section helps you determine your appetite for risk, and gives a detailed look at all the various savings vehicles (registered retirement savings plans or RRSPs, TFSAs, non-registered accounts) and investment types (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, and more).

Do you want to be an active investor – picking your own investments? Or passive – someone who buys index-related investments? The book fully explains the pros and cons of each approach.

There’s a summary section near the end of the book, titled Six Months To Being Awesome With Money, that puts it all together for you.

This is a great book, highly recommended, and fully Canadian, that would make a great addition to your financial planning library.

If you don’t have a retirement savings program at work, the Saskatchewan Pension Plan may be the plan for you. Any Canadian with unused RRSP room can join, and you decide how much to contribute – less when you are facing tight times, more when times are better. SPP will invest your contributions in a pooled fund, professionally managed at a low cost. When it’s time to retire, you can collect monthly lifetime SPP annuity payment, or move to our Variable Benefit option, where you decide how much to take out, and when!

Check out SPP today!

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