Podcast: Over 50 and Planning for Retirement

Host Sherrilynne Starkie welcomes Canada’s Money Coach, Judith Cane to episode nine of the 50 Women Over 50 podcast to discuss the idea of retiring.  What will you do and how will you finance it?

Judith has worked in financial services for decades. She’s helped hundreds of clients achieve their financial goals and objectives with her high-energy, straight-talking style.

“I’m extremely hopeful about retirement and the future,” explains Judith, “I’m looking forward to doing some fun things! My advice to women in their 50s is to start planning your retirement now. Set some goals for yourself. Because if you’re stuck working in a mundane job because of the pension plan, life can be a lot better when you’re looking forward to the retirement of your dreams.”

In this interview, Judith explains how, by following her own advice, she and her husband are about to embark on their own retirement filled with travel and adventure.  But not before having had some false starts and facing other sandwich generation concerns.

Listen here:

About Judith Cane:

As Canada’s Money Coach, Judith Cane supports her clients in creating their own bright, debt-free futures.  She specializes in debt management, cash flow solution and financial planning for individuals, families and self-employed professionals.

 

Resources & Contact Information:

• Judith Cane, Canada’s Money Coach
• Enriched Academy
• The Spoon Steeler by Leslie Crew
• Nosy Parker by Leslie Crew
• The Forgotten Home Child by Genevieve Graham 
• Christie Pits Riots
• Maisy Dobbs Mysteries by Jacqueline Windspear

About the 50 Women Over 50 Podcast:

Sherrilynne Starkie started this show as a creative project with the goal of interviewing 50 women past their 50^th birthday to learn how they see the world, what lessons they’ve learned and what advice they have for us all. She’s been blogging and podcasting for 18+ years as part of a successful marketing and communications career and looks forward to learning from the women she will interview.

Subscribe to 50 Women Over 50 wherever you get your podcasts and please share it with your friends.

Machine Generated Transcript

What follows is a machine generated transcript. It may contain errors and is not a substitute for listening to the podcast.

50 Women Over 50 Episode 9

 50 Women Episode 9

[00:00:00] Sherrilynne: Hello, and welcome to episode nine of 50 women over 50 a podcast for women whose personal confidence is born of experience. I’m your host, Sherrilynne Starkie. My goal with this podcast is to interview, 50 interesting women who are over 50 years of age to learn how they see their lives and what they have learned along their way.

Today, I’m welcoming. Judith Cane to the show. Known as Canada’s money coach. Judith has worked in financial services for decades. She’s helped hundreds of clients achieve their financial goals and objectives with her high energy straight talking style. In this interview, Judith explains how by following her own advice, she and her husband are about to embark on the retirement of their dreams, but not before some false starts and facing some other age-related concerns.

 Tell me about living in, in the van. What happened that you decided to get a bigger space?

[00:01:07] Judith: Well, in around 2017, I asked my husband, when do you want to retire? And he said, well, I don’t know. I don’t think we can afford it. And my question to him was, What do you mean?

He said, well, I don’t think we can afford it. I said, how do you know? And he said, what do you mean? And I said, well, if we have no idea what retirement looks like, how do we know if we can afford it or not? Do we want to travel around, cruise around the world all the time? Do we want to live in Mexico six months of the year?

What is it that we want in retirement? And so, I gave him a bunch of book. I knew what I wanted to do, right? I think men are harder to pinpoint what they would, what would it look like for them, right? I gave him a few books to read, and then we started talking about, what would we do in retirement?

And one of the things that we had always talked about was, buying an rv, packing it in, and just traveling North America, visiting North America. And then a friend of ours, a dear friend of our. Was diagnosed with cancer and sadly died within five months of being diagnosed. Wow. And so, we looked at each other, and at this point in time, we were both working virtually.

My husband was the, national Director of Real estate for the Red Cross. He, he, ran all of their facilities across Canada. He worked virtually and I worked virtually with my clients because I got to a point where I didn’t want to go. Eight o’clock at night to see clients, to talk about their money.

It was much easier to do it online. This got us thinking about, well, what if we did it before we retired? why not do it now? What, what possibly could we have to lose selling our house in 2019? Thinking back, we could have sold it and made a lot more money. But anyway, we sold our house.

 And before we did that, we bought an rv. It’s 37 feet and we have three slides, and when the slides are out, there’s 12. It’s 12 feet wide. It’s a beautiful rv. It’s got a kitchen, it’s got a dining area, a living room, a big bedroom, a bathroom, and two front seats where the driver and the passengers sit.

And so, Configured it so that my husband would work in the front, in the passenger seat. He jury rigged a desk and I sat at the dining room table. And he had his back to me, and I sat at the dining room table, and I talked to clients. We did that for about six months, and we got to the East coast and said, there’s no way we can make it across Canada before the snow flies.

And we did not want to go through one of those scary passes through the mountains with snow flying in a 37 foot rv. We decided we would sort of stay put in the Maritimes, and we knew at that point that we couldn’t continue working and living.  It was just too much together., I love my husband, but it was just too much together we found an apartment and we moved in, and of course, COVID hit. And we saw prices even in Sackville going up, right? We realized that it would be cheaper for us to buy a house, the monthly expenses of owning the house, including property taxes and heat and hydro than it was for what we were paying for our apartment.

 We decided to buy a house, which we said we weren’t going to do, we did. Right. But we still have the RV, and we still travel significantly in the nicer weather in the summertime. We’re usually gone a lot of the summer. And now we’re, now we’re getting close to a retirement. My husband retired in June and my last client appointment is December 22nd.

Okay, now we’re talking about what’s next what is. Well, we have a 15 and a half year old dog, we can’t really travel far or by plane because we really can’t leave her with anyone.

 We’re staying put for the time being and we do smaller trips around the area, but our goal is to really travel. We want to, spend some time over in Europe and England and Australia, New Zealand. And so, we’re doing some planning, but it’s very loose right now. Right. And my 88 year old mother is here in Sackville, and I am sort of her main caregiver.

She has lots of friends and activities, but I am the go-to person if she needs help. Yeah. In retirement, this is happening to a lot of people where. You, you, you were the sandwich generation at a certain point. You had I had my son, we had our son, and I also had my mother. this sandwich generation.

And sometimes that doesn’t end. I know for lots of clients of mine, it may not be children, it may be a sibling and a parent, or, the, the responsibilities you have, not everybody can be loose and carefree in retirement. And you have to think about all of these things. Oh

[00:05:36] Sherrilynne: yeah, for sure, for sure.

 I think it’s something to think about when they’re, when they’re making these big plans for their retirement. Try it out short term, right? Try a project, go on a trip and see if you like it before you, take the big plunge and sell your house and, and head out. And, and also the other thing that you’re talking about is the relationships of who you’re living behind. Now I got grandchildren and I, have responsibilities there. Being the grandma and, and helping my daughter also, my mother getting a little bit on in years and so I like to stay close and keep an eye on her and help her out. She’s not disabled or anything, but she

[00:06:11] Judith needs help. Yes, exactly. They just need communication. They need to know you’re there., my mom is, is able bodied, but she does need reminders.

I’d like to go to her doctor’s appointments. The main doctor’s appointments are with her because she doesn’t always hear everything.

[00:06:30] Sherrilynne: tell me, tell me about, let’s, let’s get back to like the 50 over 50 thing. Tell me about your 50th birthday.

[00:06:35] Judith: Well, that was really fun, For my 50th birthday, I think it was early fall, late summer, early fall, we were at, we used to have a, a trailer on a lake and, And we were up there with my son and they, my husband and son presented me with an early birthday present. My birthday’s in November with an early birthday present and it was a binder and I opened up the binder and it was a whole trip to Bermuda, and they had, my son had drawn maps and they had listed a bunch of activities that we would do, and they had the place we were going to stay, and it was just fantastic. They put this whole binder together of what the trip would be and that that was going to be my 50th birthday. And it was wonderful. We ended up going, we had perfect weather in November, which in Bermuda is a bit iffy.

We were actually swimming in the ocean. And of course, all the Bermudians are going, they must be Canadian, cause they certainly wouldn’t swim in the water. But for us it was nice and warm. Yeah. And so that was really, really a special, a special birthday, was to be able to spend it down there and have a great time with my husband and son.

[00:07:39] Sherrilynne: Yeah. And how did you feel in the lead up to the big, the big five O? were you nervous about this milestone or, you

[00:07:47] Judith: know, I think because I was working and my son was, so he would’ve been, what would he have been, 10 then I was really immersed. In that fact, because I had my son late in life. Yeah. Later in life I had him when I was 39.

 I was really immersed in that, and I felt like I had years to go. I, it, it didn’t impact me as much as I thought it would. It certainly didn’t impact me as much as 60 and I just turned 66, so it didn’t impact me nearly as much as 60, 65 and 66 for that matter. 50 was, I think if I had been farther along in life. My son maybe was at university and, we were closer to retirement or something like that. It may have had a different impact because I certainly know that some of my girlfriends went through, a shocking 50, one girlfriend split up with her husband, sold their house, sold their business, and went and worked overseas as an English teacher.

Yeah. For six years, which she, just after her 50th birthday. It was, it was a, a slow, smooth transition., we were in Bermuda on my birthday, it was such a lovely place to be that it didn’t impact me as much as 60 was a big, huge shock.

[00:09:04] Sherrilynne: Let’s talk about that. What was the difference between 50 and 60?

[00:09:07] Judith: Well, for one thing, my father passed away at 72. For some reason in my head, it hit me that I may only have 12 years left. And that all of a sudden was, well, what did I do the last 12 years? That means that I have 12 years left. And look at my mental to-do list.

I mean, we all have these mental things that we want to do, bucket lists, whatever you want to call them and I had all these things that I wanted to do. And some of them were work related. Yeah. Some of the were things that I had wanted to do in my working life that I never achieved. And at 60 I realized that it just wasn’t going to happen.

It was, it just wasn’t going to, they just weren’t going to happen. And that was really hard for me to come to terms with. It took me about six months to, of, I had a business coach, and she was fabulous. We weren’t coaching anymore, but we were friends. And I, I spent some time talking to her saying, I’m shocked that there’s so many things on my list that I would’ve, that I had, that I wanted to do, that I never did.

That was really hard for me. That was probably the hardest of anything that, and thinking that, my dad had passed away 12 years later than 60. Those two things were, were hard. And then 65 is the same thing because, and 66, because now it’s official, right? December 22nd, that’s it.

 I’ve been throwing files out and, papers I’ve done and just my, my whole business life. I can’t seem to give up my website yet. And I should, I should. It, it’s a, it’s a weird feeling, especially when you’re an entrepreneur because it’s not like you went to an office every day and then they had a retirement party and the last day of work you packed up your box and walked out the door, and that was the definitive end of your working life.

 As an entrepreneur, there’s, there’s always little things that you’re doing as you kind of slide out. It’s not a definitive end kind of thing,

[00:11:10] Sherrilynne: that reflects some of the other interviews I’ve been doing. Not a single person has said, I’m handing over the keys and walking away from working life.

Everyone has said. They want to keep working, they want, they might cut down what they’re doing or change things up a little bit. But I haven’t had a single woman saying, yeah, I’m chucking it all in and stepping into a different phase of my life. And yet now you’re on the precipice

[00:11:34] Judith: of that. And I’m actually going to do that.

I am not doing, yes, I, December 22nd, there is going to be a great big, huge bottle of champagne for my husband and me. The good stuff too. and, we are going to drink that champagne. And I am, I am not working anymore as a financial advisor. That’s it. I’m done. Okay.

[00:11:54] Sherrilynne: Mm-hmm. And you’re excited

[00:11:57] Judith: for this? , it’s, it’s bittersweet because the last, of course, the leading up to that I’m finishing with a bunch of clients and, and, seeing how far they’ve come and all the, the goals they’ve achieved, whether it’s, , getting to retirement or buying a cottage or getting their kids through university or, , All the financial things that they’re getting out of debt.

I mean, all those financial things, those are all happening now in a concentrated period of time. I seem to be having these moments of joy Yes. Quite often, which, hasn’t happened. And it’s really neat to know that I’m going into a meeting, that this is the end, and this is what they’ve achieved, and we get to go over that and we get to discuss it and, and people have been saying some really nice things.

 It, it, it’s a great way to go, but I’m definitely ready for December 22nd.

Yeah.

[00:12:47] Sherrilynne: I can’t quite conceive of it for myself yet, but

[00:12:50] Judith: Well, because you’re way younger than me.

That’s why Sherrilynne.

[00:12:52] Sherrilynne: Oh no, I’m not way younger than you. I just cannot conceive of, Of retirement anytime. I know I should be thinking about it, but I just

[00:13:00] Judith: Well, I do tell people that, five years before you think you’re going to retire, that’s the time that you need to have discussions about it because, retirement isn’t just about the money.

In fact, the money is a very small part of what retirement is to you. We just had a, a really well known person here in town, pass away. She and her husband owned the local greenhouses here. Okay. And, I guess they made a decision that this would be their last year, so July, August, they closed their greenhouses.

In September she was diagnosed with cancer, and she just passed away last week. Don’t wait to do things. First of all, don’t wait to do things that you think you want to do. But also start planning on what you think retirement looks like to you., is it traveling? Is it going to Mexico?

 I think before people go into retirement, it’s really good to do some research. If you think you want to downsize your house, start looking at what housing you would like to live in, do you think you could live in an apartment?

That was the one. The other thing we found out was that we were not apartment ready. My husband is a putter, and he would just wander around the apartment or the building and, he’d have nothing to do., What kind of living, what kind of accommodations do you think you could live in? Could you live in a smaller two bedroom house or could you live in an apartment?

There was, there was a couple who had a huge farm, and they just sold the farm and moved into the two bedroom apartment. And they love it. He doesn’t care. He doesn’t milk a cow., if he wants to do that, he goes to his sons who has a farm. Start looking at what you would like to do in retirement, and that takes time.

You can’t just do that overnight and you don’t want to do that overnight. And, do you want to stay in Canada? Do you want to travel? What, what would travel look like and how would you travel? Do you want to, Airbnb it, or would you like to go over to Europe and buy a little caravan or minivan? You need to start looking at that about five years before you do it because you have to be ready so that financially you can decide whether you can afford to do that or not.

You don’t want to get to retirement and think, oh, I, I really want to go down and spend six months in Mexico and find out that you can’t afford it, because then you don’t, there’s no plan.

[00:15:05] Sherrilynne: Right. What are the common issues that women in our cohort face financially when, when we’re starting to think about these things, what, what are the ducks that we need to get in a row financially?

[00:15:17] Judith: Well, it’s funny you asked that question. Years ago when I was doing some research, I found out that 50% of single women over the age of 65 live below the poverty line.  And I don’t think it’s much, I don’t think it’s gotten much better to be honest. , and that’s a result of, of not having a partner, of going through a dev a late life or what they call silver hair divorce.

 And there just isn’t lots of money. You see women going into their sixties and seventies still having to work to support some kind of lifestyle. Housing is brutally expensive. Even renting is very expensive. Yes. And it’s fun to dream about co-housing with friends, but, and there’s been lots of good stories about people who have purchased a house together and are co-housing.

But if you follow those up, some of them haven’t worked out, terrifically. You women really need to focus on saving. Honestly, that is the best advice I could ever give them. Setting your priorities., I, I often tell clients to put a picture of what they think retirement looks like up on their fridge.

, and in their wallet with their credit card or on their computer that, when they’re feeling that they need to do some retail therapy, which isn’t necessarily the best thing to do, they see this vision of what their retirement is going to look like and think. If I spend $200 on an online purchase, is this going to get me to my goal faster of having a, a livable retirement?

And of course, the answer would be no. But it just makes them sit back and think a little bit and maybe empty the cart. the online cart. Saving is to me, and planning, and you don’t have to have a fancy. Software program, you could just do an Excel spreadsheet that says, this is how much my expenses will be when I retire, so this is how much money I need to support that.

Check out what you can get through CPP and OAS., women are, given CPP credits for having children even though they didn’t work during that period. The government is giving women credit financial credits for that. It does increase your CPP. Make sure that you, when you’re looking at, What you’re going to get, what benefit you’re going to get.

Check to see if you have any pensions lying around from a company that you worked at. I have found two clients who, when I asked them about their working history and they told me where they worked, I asked them to go back and check to see if there was any pension and, and they. These two people that I told to do that found small pensions.

I mean, I think one was 150 a month and the other one was maybe $75 a month. But every little bit helps. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s just that that company had lost track of them, but the pension was still there.

[00:17:55] Sherrilynne: I have a question about the CPP. And can you tell me, I know that it’s different for everyone, but in round numbers, how much could a single woman expect to receive on as a CPP when they’re retired?

Well,

[00:18:09] Judith: it, you can’t answer that question because it’s direct directly related to how much money you made. Okay. It’s based on your earnings. If, someone never worked in their life, they would get a small amount of CPP and, and they had children, they would get a small amount of CPP because of that time period.

Okay. But, it’s, it’s really hard to answer that question. Okay. If, if they are divorced now and they never worked. They can apply to share their CPP with their ex spouse. Right. Okay. That’s something that sometimes people don’t know, but it is based on your earnings. The only one that isn’t is o and old age security.

And the old age security is based on residency. If you’re a Canadian and you lived in Canada all your life, then you will get, I think it’s $625 a month. Every month. It’s not a lot of money. And then there is a guaranteed supplement that you will qualify for if you are low income.

 That’s another thing you should start looking at five years before retirement is what money is available to you. And that will help decide if you can actually retire five years. It may that you need to take a part-time job. It may. Mean that you need to work full time, and maybe it means that you should try and find something that has a small, has a pension attached to it, the government, if you could find work with the government, that’s the best pension you can get.

But yes, I, I would say that for, for women, saving your money is, is just the most important thing that you have to do before retirement and

[00:19:50] Sherrilynne: now, Just recently, savings is starting to pay some interest.

[00:19:56] Judith: Yes. I mean, if you look at some of the, the banks online, EQ Bank has probably the best interest rate just on a straight savings accounts.

And, and even the GICs are paying actual real interest. Instead of 1%, they’re paying 5%. We, and, and, and it’s not a lot of money, but again, every dollar counts and, David Bach wrote a book called The Latte Factor, and. Really what it was is saying if you didn’t have a latte every day, if you only had a latte once a week, this is how much money you could save in.

Its snowballs, right? Yeah. Because if you could save $30 a week, then that’s $120 a month, and that’s, $1,500 a year. And it just adds up and every little bit counts. That’s how you should structure your budget, right? Right. If you’re looking

[00:20:43] Sherrilynne: at, if you take that $1,500 on lattes and buy a GIC,

[00:20:48] Judith: you can earn 5% on

[00:20:49] Sherrilynne: it.

Right. And you’re going to get getting 5% on it now. Right. And that’s not nothing. Right. That’s nice

[00:20:54] Judith: little., yeah, I mean, even, even 2% is, is not nothing. Yeah. It is below inflation, but you can’t get interest any, anywhere else. I think, people think that they could go into the stock market, or they could buy an investment property, or they could go into private lending and those are such risky things when all you have is what you have.

Yeah. make sure that you’re talking to someone if you, if you’re talking to someone about your investments, making sure that you’re talking to someone who has your best interest at heart, who, who aren’t just interested in the money that you have. and how much commission they’re going to make.

Yes. And there are some really good investment advisors out there. You might even find one at a bank., they’re sometimes a really good resource if you can find someone that you can work with and hopefully, they stay there. Because sometimes they don’t always stay, but, ask people for advice.

Ask your friends. Stay away from trends too. Oh my gosh. I mean, crypto is the obvious, example. But stay away from trends. Right. Because I always tell people, by the time you and I get a hot tip, Martha’s in jail. Yeah.

[00:21:58] Sherrilynne: Oh, right.

[00:21:59] Judith: hot tips really only work for the advisors. They don’t work for you and me, because we’re so low down on the list that it, it, it’s not a hot tip.

Be really smart with your money. Be risk averse.

[00:22:13] Sherrilynne: Do you think that women are less, I know that I’m leaning into a stereotype here and I’m hoping you’re going to push me back, push back on this, but do you think that women are less comfortable dealing with the minutia of financial management than men?

No. Excellent. I’m glad to

[00:22:36] Judith: hear that. I think that women make really smart financial decisions. They just take longer to do them than men. Okay, men and it’s not that And, and here I am stereotyping women like to do. Their research, they like to talk to their friends, they like to read. If they’re interested, they will do the research and they will take their time to make their decision.

Men in my 35 years of experience will make a more, if you make a, recommendation they’ll agree with it. Women take their time to, to make the change. Interesting.

[00:23:10] Sherrilynne: Changing track here a little bit. Looking back over your own life and where, where were you when you were 30 years old?

What advice would you give to your 30 year

[00:23:19] Judith: old self? Oh my gosh.

Well, let’s see. I think I just started dating my husband. Who was the exact opposite of anybody I had ever dated, or most guys that I had been dating, I should say that they, he was da way different than, than most guys that I had been dating. What would I give my 30 year old? I, I think that I would say, I would’ve finished university.

I never finished university. I might have gone back at 30 and said, I’m going to do this., a lot of people at 20, in when they’re in university, decide they’re going to take time off and they take 10 years off and, or they think they’re going to take a year off and, I might have gone back to university.

 I had the opportunity to buy a house when I was, 25. I should have bought that house. Okay., But here’s the thing about thinking of those changes, I worked in the film industry for about five years in my twenties, and there was a film that I got offered and it was a big Disney film I was in the background. I worked in the, I was in account in the accounting department. Okay. I got the opportunity to work for a big Disney movie, and it was not a great, I mean, it was sort of not the accountant position, I think it was payroll or something. And I decided not to because a producer had offered me a job as the accountant, which was a better job, paid more money.

Right. And if I had gone to that Disney movie, it would mean a completely different trajectory than the one that I was on. However, when I think about those kinds of things, I think about the fact that I would’ve never met my husband. I would’ve never had the wonderful, amazing son that I have.

My life would’ve been completely different., Would I go back and change things? I mean, there’s some bad decisions that I made, and I’m hoping that, if I went back and changed those decisions, it wouldn’t have changed my life dramatically. But you have to be careful about, thinking, well, I wish I’d done that.

[00:25:09] Sherrilynne: Yes, yes, I agree. Because, Everyone who knows me knows I had a disastrous teenage marriage, but gave me two wonderful little girls that have changed my life. I cannot imagine my life without them and grandchildren. And now grandchildren. Yes, that’s right. Mm-hmm. I had to go through that process, I think, to get where I am today.

[00:25:31] Judith: Right. I think what we could offer to other 30 year olds is to really trust your gut instinct. Yeah. And I think we have gotten away from that As humans, we don’t trust our instinct anymore because everything is handed to us, we’re told what to do, when to do it.

We’re now being told what our opinion should be, by all the algorithms and all the social media that we, we’ve forgotten what it’s like to sit back and make those decisions us or listen to our gut, gut and our instinct. And I mean, that’s how we survived that’s right. And if I was to say anything to 30 year olds nowadays, I would say sit back, put down your electronics and just think about things. Make lists blue sky with yourself. Let your imagination go. Trust your gut instinct., feel your, feel yourself, feel your brain.

Feel what you’re thinking about and write that stuff down. Yeah. That’s what I would tell 30 year olds nowadays. Oh, true. So

[00:26:30] Sherrilynne: true. I have found through tough experience whenever I haven’t followed my gut, whenever thought, Something about this doesn’t really feel right. But, hopefully it’ll all turn out all right. I should have listened

[00:26:41] Judith: to my. Yeah. A lot of people, a lot of people are saying that with crypto right now.

[00:26:46] Sherrilynne: Tell me, what are you reading? What are you watching?

[00:26:47] Judith: What, oh, I’m glad. I brought some books with me because I was hoping that you would ask me this question., I have decided that I’m reading Canadian authors. Not that there aren’t some fantastic, authors around the world, but I’m really trying to read Canadian authors and, and in, in particular maritime authors and the one that I found that I just am loving is Leslie Crew, and she wrote The Spoon Steeler, which was on the CBC Canada Reed’s Long List. Okay. Fantastic book if you like Maeve Binchy, it’s in that same sort of genre. Okay. And her newest one is Nosy Parker, and it’s loosely based on her life when she lived in, Leslie lived in Montreal.

And the other one that I’m reading, and I’d never heard of this person before, but she’s a bestselling author. Her name is, Genevieve Graham, and she wrote a book called The Forgotten Home Child. And it was both the British Home Children.

Yes, she’s Canadian. She lives in Toronto, and this one is called Letters Across the Sea, and it is about the Christie Pits riots that were, between the Jewish. It was, it was all the hate directed at the Jewish people in the thirties. And then it morphs into the Second World War and the Japanese, the Canadians who went over to Japan, which is really an underreported story.

And, it’s a great book. It’s called Letters Across the Sea. I would highly recommend it. And then I seem to be loving these wartime novels, first World War and Second World War, and. And I’ve been reading this person, her name is Jacquelyn, and she writes, about Maisy Dobbs, who is a woman, and she goes through the First World War and now is getting into the Second World War.

She’s a private investigator and psychologist and, great novels. I, I really like them. And there’s another one called Charles Dodd, the author is Charles. Dodd, same, same genre. Okay? I’m really enjoying reading these books.

[00:28:44] Sherrilynne: That one sounds, that last one sounds right up my alley. I’ll, I’ll put links to all these in the show notes for our audience so they can find those too.

Thank you for sharing that. Thanks for those recommendations. Yeah. I noticed there’s not a business book among them. Go you.

[00:28:58] Judith: Yes. In fact, I have a bunch of business books that I’m, what I’m going to do is I’m going to donate them to the library here in Sackville.

[00:29:03] Sherrilynne: Are you involved in the community down there in Sackville? Are you

[00:29:07] Judith: hearing, what are you doing? I am, we have a very vital and active farmer’s market here in town.

Our, our little town is, has 5,500 people and then we have about 2,300 university students. And we have a vital and important, center in the community. It’s the farmer’s market, right. I’m involved with them. I’m on the board and we’re right now we’re working hard to create a permanent location for the farmer’s market.

[00:29:31] Sherrilynne: And, what app could you not live without? None

[00:29:35] Judith: of them. None of them. I’ve been deleting apps off my phone like crazy. I’m downsizing my Facebook groups. I’ve deleted, I don’t know, probably 15 apps off my phone.

I don’t use Facebook for work anymore. I used to. I don’t, I close down my business page. I use Facebook to keep in touch with friends. I don’t, oftentimes I’ll get people say, well, I’d really like to connect and it’s usually business related, or work related, or a friend of a friend, and I just don’t accept people anymore on Facebook.  I’m off Twitter. Instagram, I go on Instagram because I, I like to share pictures of the sea glass that I collect or sometimes some of the quilts that I do, cause I’m a quilter. And, I have those two on my phone. But I don’t use apps anymore.

I don’t, I refuse. I don’t even use my banking, a banking app on my phone. If I have to do my banking, I’ll go onto my computer and.

[00:30:32] Sherrilynne: Interesting. Yep. Why is.

[00:30:35] Judith: Again, I think we’re too head in the computer. I mean, I see people going out for dinner. It’s just ridiculous. They’re out for dinner with each other and they’re both on their phones.

[00:30:44] Sherrilynne: Is there anything I haven’t asked you about that you’d like to share with our

[00:30:47] Judith: audience?

I’m extremely hopeful about retirement in the future, and I’m looking forward to, , doing some of the things that we’ve talked about. Start planning your retirement now, because sometimes when you see a light at the end of the tunnel, if you’ve got a job that’s mundane and you’re not keen on, but you have to stay because it’s got a great pension attached to it. If you start looking at retirement and planning for retirement, all of a sudden, you’ve got this, this goal to work towards. Set some goals.

[00:31:12] Sherrilynne: Well, thank you very much for that. And I will have, I was going to say, I was going to have links to, to your socials in the show notes, but I think you probably don’t want me to put links still.

Thank you. You’re the only one who said that, that’s for sure.

[00:31:23] Judith: Yeah. Well, thank you Sherrilynne for asking me. It’s been a pleasure.

[00:31:26] Sherrilynne: And that’s it for episode nine, this has been 50 women over 50. A podcast for women whose personal confidence is born of experience. Thank you to Canada’s money coach Judith Cane for joining me today. We will all benefit from the pragmatic financial advice she shared with us. And have a bunch of great new titles to add to our reading list to boot.

Her advice about setting goals for your retirement is certainly resonated with me. And she’s got me thinking about how I’m going to spend my retirement years. And trying to open my mind up to the possibilities. I’ve put links in the show notes to the books, organizations, and resources that we discussed on today’s show.

But for the first time ever, there’s no links to my guests socials. So, Judith can finally get offline and get on to enjoy her retirement.

I’ve got lots more interviews lined up with some fascinating over 50 women. So don’t miss an episode, subscribe to this podcast now. And if you have a second, please drop me a rating or a review on apple or wherever you get your podcasts.

Let’s connect and create a whole community of wise women over 50 by sharing a link to the show with your friends and connections. See you next time on 50 women over 50. I’m your host, Sherrilynne Starkie.