Recently I wrote a blog post in which I observed that in many ways our 9-year old grandson was practicing being retired during the week he spent with us in August. Of course, it was a tongue-in-cheek comment, a throw-away line. Or was it?!

I’ve written at other times about the strange reality that we spend countless years preparing ourselves to enter the world of work: pre-school, school, post-secondary education and/or training, internships, etc. Then we work for 25-40 years – a long time, sure, although you’d be surprised how quickly it goes by! And then, given the remarkable increase in life expectancy, we actually may have an additional 25-40 years of retirement. Think about it: retire at 55 and live to be 95, retire at 65 and live to be 90. Retirement truly is a second career, and it’s entirely in your hands.

Bizarrely, all we are ever encouraged to…