{"id":20795,"date":"2025-07-24T15:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T15:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/20795\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T15:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T15:16:09","slug":"what-led-this-former-accountant-and-teacher-to-retire-and-move-back-to-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/20795\/","title":{"rendered":"What led this former accountant and teacher to retire and move back to Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Brian Borgford, at home in Calgary, does his own investing focused on dividend-growth stocks.Todd Korol\/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

Brian Borgford, 73, Calgary<\/p>\n

I retired in June, 2014 at age 62 after working for 42 years in accounting, business and teaching. After spending many years as a corporate controller and holding various management positions across Canada, I worked as a business consultant for five years before relocating overseas for the final 12 years to teach business at the post-secondary level. My wife and I have lived in China, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. <\/p>\n

We both saved and invested throughout our careers. Once we felt our portfolios had reached an acceptable level, we decided to return to Canada to retire and spend time with our families (my wife and I are both in our second marriage). My children were getting married and starting their own families.<\/p>\n

Because we were living overseas, the first few weeks of retirement were spent on moving and adjusting to Canadian culture, including basic tasks such as obtaining a driver\u2019s licence, updating our addresses and banking information. The rest of the time was spent reconnecting with our kids and grandkids, as well as extended family and friends. <\/p>\n

We travelled a lot in the early years of our retirement; however, my wife has experienced some health issues that have somewhat slowed those activities. <\/p>\n

I took up writing as a hobby in the latter part of my career, and that has continued to form a major part of my retirement. I have written and self-published dozens of books, mostly biographies, memoirs and fiction. One of my books details my investment strategies and results. I also write an investment blog, which has a couple of hundred readers. <\/p>\n

I was an active runner, cyclist and triathlete from my mid-30s through to retirement. I haven\u2019t done much racing since retiring, but I do stay active and fit. <\/p>\n

During my career, I participated in company pension plans, maximized my RRSPs and invested in non-registered accounts. Initially, I invested through an advisor who put me into mutual funds. The returns were pretty good. However, shortly after retiring, I decided to fire my investment advisor because of poor performance and manage my investments myself. In retrospect, I should have divested of him earlier, which would have given me a larger portfolio. Still, I\u2019m happy with my current financial situation. <\/p>\n

My investment strategy focuses on dividend-growth stocks. These days, I\u2019m living primarily off my dividends. Occasionally, I have minor concerns about financial security in retirement, but I\u2019m confident my investment strategy will continue to provide me with both capital preservation and growth, allowing my wife and me to continue living a comfortable retirement. <\/p>\n

My advice to others approaching retirement is to ensure you are ready and have a plan for your post-work life. I almost retired a year earlier, but I wasn\u2019t entirely sure it was the right move. So, I put in one more year, which proved to be the right decision. Once I retired, I never had to look back. I knew I was done with working. Also, it\u2019s easy to become overcommitted in retirement. Having a plan and sticking to it allows you to make informed decisions about what to accept or reject. Remember, retirement is supposed to be fun!<\/p>\n

As told to Brenda Bouw<\/p>\n

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

Are you a Canadian retiree interested in discussing what life is like now that you\u2019ve stopped working? The Globe is looking for people to participate in 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 what your life is like now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Brian Borgford, at home in Calgary, does his own investing focused on dividend-growth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[5267,1397,45,49,48,133,5266,131,132,17560],"class_list":{"0":"post-20795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-advisor-noregwall","9":"tag-appwebview","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-finance","14":"tag-globe-advisor","15":"tag-personal-finance","16":"tag-personalfinance","17":"tag-tftga"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}