{"id":685173,"date":"2026-05-21T12:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T12:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/685173\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T12:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T12:56:10","slug":"this-retiree-enjoys-painting-podcasting-and-writing-investment-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/685173\/","title":{"rendered":"This retiree enjoys painting, podcasting and writing investment books"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

After losing money early in retirement with an investment advisor, Ian Duncan MacDonald, 81, learned how to be a successful self-directed investor.Laura Proctor\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

In Tales from the Golden Age, retirees talk about their spending, savings and whether life after work is what they expected. For more articles in this series, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ian Duncan MacDonald, 81, Toronto.<\/p>\n

I retired in January, 2006, at the age of 60. I spent most of my career designing commercial risk systems. My last job was helping to integrate an acquisition of the company I worked for. Once the job was done, they wanted me to retire, and I wanted new challenges. <\/p>\n

At 60, I thought it wasn\u2019t possible to get employment as an executive. Retirement was the logical choice. Also, I was certain I would die before I was 70, like my father and brother did, as I had some health issues. As I thought my retirement would be short, I set out to travel and do interesting things, such as writing books and painting.<\/p>\n

I was supposed to retire with a generous pension indexed to inflation, but when my company was sold, I received a settlement. I gave the money to an investment advisor whose management over three years resulted in a $300,000 loss. I took back what was left and set out to learn how to be a successful self-directed investor. <\/p>\n

With my background in business and designing commercial scoring systems, buying stocks was another form of commercial risk for me. Of the 14,500 stocks in North America, I designed a stock-scoring system to identify the 20 strongest stocks by dividend yield. I invested equally in the 20 and have made very few changes to that portfolio during the past 20 years. <\/p>\n

The portfolio has grown into a substantial sum and continues to grow. I live off its generous dividend income, which also grows each year. I\u2019ve also written seven investment books and three novels, and host a podcast on dividend investing.<\/p>\n

To me, retirement means having no work obligations. I do exactly what I want to do. Another major benefit is getting eight hours of sleep a night \u2013 something I never got when I was working. <\/p>\n

My retirement also includes travelling and spending more quality time with my wife, whom I met in my first year of university in 1964 and married five years later. She keeps me on the straight and narrow. We have three children and two grandchildren. <\/p>\n

My advice to others is to focus on both your health and your finances. Since I retired, I\u2019ve lost 60 pounds with the help of a naturopathic doctor that my wife encouraged me to see to help with my chronic kidney disease. The doctor encouraged me to clean up my diet, and it has worked wonders. I haven\u2019t even had a cold in the past 10 years.<\/p>\n

Also, once your health is under control, make sure you have something meaningful to do in retirement, something you enjoy. Every day, I write and do investment research. I enjoy doing both. It keeps my mind active as I look for new ideas. In between, I may work on a painting or watch a movie on Netflix. <\/p>\n

Another piece of advice for retirees: Move at a steady, leisurely, relaxed pace. There are no deadlines in retirement.<\/p>\n

This interview has been edited and condensed.<\/p>\n

Attention retirees! Are you a Canadian retiree interested in discussing what life is like now that you\u2019ve stopped working? The Globe is seeking participants for its Tales from the Golden Age feature, which examines the personal and financial realities of retirement. If you\u2019re interested in being interviewed for this feature and agree to use your full name and have a photo taken, please e-mail us at: goldenageglobe@gmail.com<\/a>. Please include a few details about how you saved and invested for retirement, and about how you spend your time. We look forward to sharing your story with our readers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: After losing money early in retirement with an investment advisor, Ian Duncan MacDonald,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[91615,21366,64,63,99,186,61229,21363,184,185,330226],"class_list":["post-685173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-advisor-noregwall","tag-appwebview","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-globe-advisor","tag-noastack","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-tftga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}