This column is brought to you by someone who should be retired. At least that is what some surveys are telling me about my decision to be working today.

I say that tongue-in-cheek because a recent poll published by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce found that, on average

generation Z plans to retire at 59, with millennials and gen X targeting the ripe old age of 61. I just scrape into the baby boomer category, and mercifully, that demographic either is retired or plans to retire at 63, my current age.

Just two years to figure this all out — or I could follow the lead of a guy who was part of one of the most successful advertising campaigns in Canadian history.

Alf Goodall, a long-time insurance executive who once worked on London Life’s Freedom 55 campaign, shares two things in common with me: We’re the same age and still working.

For the gen Z group, who may know nothing about this famous campaign, Freedom 55 was an advertising blitz that teased people about calling it quits a decade before they could even get their senior’s discount.

Goodall remembers people walking through the front doors of the insurance company in London, Ont., and asking where they could sign up to retire on the spot. It was never that easy.

“Back then, people did want to retire, but largely because they hated work,” said Goodall. “They wanted to get away from that. They wanted to travel. They wanted to do what they wanted.”

The former London Life vice-president said working is more fluid today, especially in retirement.

And he should know. After London Life was bought, he went on to work for Great-West Lifeco Inc. and later Sun Life Financial, but when he was retired at 57, he knew that wasn’t it. Just months after his exit, he began a whole new career when he bought a landscaping company, which he still owns — something that gives him flexibility over his life.

“That version of retirement is horrible, and first of all, it just takes way too much money,” he said, about retiring at 55.

That doesn’t mean people should ignore retirement planning . The CIBC poll, conducted by Ipsos between Jan. 5 and Jan. 14 based on a sample of 1,500 Canadians aged 18 and over, found that we start saving for retirement at age 30 on average. The poll is accurate to within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Without question, the magic of compounding and the benefits of tax-sheltered accounts will make those retirement goals more attainable if you start saving as early as possible.

But the overwhelming reality is that Canadians are living longer and are going to have to work longer, too.

Parisa Mahboubi, associate director of research with the C.D. Howe Institute, argued in a paper last year that Canada needed to gradually raise the normal retirement age from 65 to 67.

She said the reality is that average retirement ages are on the rise, driven in part by the fact that people get a much smaller allowance from the

Canada Pension Plan at 60 than at 70 and increasingly choose the latter. When to collect is always a bet on longevity, but if you live to 84 and beyond, you will collect more money waiting until 70 to start CPP.

Mahboubi said that the demographic shift to an older population is adding fiscal pressure on the government, and ultimately will lead to a later retirement age, even though Ottawa reversed course on a plan to move the

Old Age Security start to 67 from 65. “The government needs to encourage individuals to stay longer in the labour market,” she said.

The obvious trade-off today is that we live longer and enjoy longer retirements than when life expectancy was just over 76 years old in 1984, when Freedom 55 was unveiled. Men weren’t even reaching 73 back then. Today, combined life expectancy is almost seven years longer.

Other Western democracies are already addressing this reality and raising the retirement age. Denmark will phase in the changes, which will push the age back to 70 years old by 2040.

“Many countries are struggling with this,” said Mahboubi. “Encouraging older workers to stay in the labour market longer is the most effective way to support our economy.”

To be clear, raising the retirement age is just a guidepost, an economic one at that, but it’s not preventing anyone from slowing down or retiring earlier.

“There is a norm and expectation that society creates, when you are passing 60 or closing in on 65, everyone is asking these individuals do you want to retire,” said Mahboubi. “Increasing the normal retirement age can change the expectation.”

Alex Mazer, co-founder and chief executive of Common Wealth Retirement, said it will be tough for anyone outside of the public sector to retire at 61 let alone 59.

“I think most people will find it challenging to get into full retirement by even age 65,” said Mazer, who has called for tax changes that would encourage private employers to create retirement pension plans with support from the government through tax credits.

The reality is a phased approach to retirement probably makes a lot more sense for most people, especially as many are carrying debt into retirement, he said.

“It’s also more realistic from a financial sense. It may make more sense for people to have other sources of income when they retire,” said Mazer.

While young Canadians aim high for retirement, there is also evidence they can see the writing on the wall: a Co-operators Group Ltd. poll found that among those under 35, 49 per cent think it will be financially necessary to work longer and retire later than their parents.

The poll, conducted from 1,500 adult residents between Jan. 6 to 9 and considered accurate to within three percentage points 19 times out of 20, also found one third don’t think they’ll ever be able to financially retire at all.

Is it the worst thing? The same poll indicates something else: 50 per cent of respondents say their ideal job is one with a flexible schedule, and almost the same percentage crave a work-life balance. Another 40 per cent like the idea of micro-retirement with various career breaks interspersed.

Goodall said that’s what Freedom 55 was always about, not just retirement but more control.

“It was about having agency over your life,” he said, adding that younger Canadians are figuring out their own equivalent of Freedom 55.

That control comes with building wealth as it always has, but it probably means working a little longer than your parents did. If you can get it done on your own terms and at your own pace, retirement may be overrated.

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