From retirement to rewirement: Why working past the age of 65 is becoming normal

Retirement is no longer a finish line. It is a multi-year transition that deserves as much thought and planning as the career that comes before it. Photo by Fizkes/Getty Images

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In my early days as an adviser, I worked with a client who had spent more than four decades in a demanding professional role, often working long weeks. His financial plan worked exactly as expected when he finally retired, but what surprised him was everything else.

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Without meetings, deadlines or colleagues, his days suddenly felt unstructured and disorienting. Within a year, he was consulting part time again, not because he needed the income, but because work had always provided something more than a paycheque.

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Stories such as these help explain why retirement is changing. For decades, retirement was seen as a reward for years of hard work. But for many Canadians today, the idea of stopping work at 65 is becoming less common.

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The share of Canadians aged 65 and older participating in the workforce has nearly doubled over the past few decades, reaching roughly 15 per cent in 2023, according to Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey. The trend reflects a clear shift in how Canadians are approaching retirement.

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Retirement no longer follows a predictable path that begins at 65 and settles into decades of leisure. The more relevant question in 2026 isn’t when to retire, but how to step away from work without undermining your finances, health or sense of self.

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Behind the curtain

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Retirement once followed a clear script: work, stop, draw on pensions and savings. That script has become far less predictable.

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Inflation has reshaped household budgets, and more Canadians are entering retirement with mortgages or other forms of debt. Some have never completed a financial plan for retirement and simply don’t know whether their savings are enough to step away with confidence.

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At the same time, housing affordability and education costs are prompting many parents to remain in the workforce longer to help adult children with down payments, private school tuition or child care for grandchildren.

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For others, the decision to keep working has little to do with money. Work can offer structure, routine and social connection. For professionals whose identities have long been tied to their careers, stepping away can feel disorienting. In that sense, retirement is not only a financial shift, but a change in identity and lifestyle.

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The challenge is that most people don’t actually know whether they need to keep working until someone runs the numbers. A formal retirement plan can clarify that quickly.

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Using conservative assumptions that account for inflation, taxes, pensions and future health-care costs while building in a buffer for unexpected expenses allows people to make decisions with greater confidence and align their retirement with the lifestyle they want.

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Retirement or “rewirement”

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If retirement is no longer tied to a fixed age, it also shouldn’t have to be a hard stop. Stepping away from full-time work is often better approached as a gradual transition. Instead of retirement, think of it as “rewirement.”