{"id":836309,"date":"2026-07-30T17:07:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T17:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/836309\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T17:07:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T17:07:58","slug":"why-this-former-tech-worker-wrote-a-book-on-health-care-and-estate-planning-in-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/836309\/","title":{"rendered":"Why this former tech worker wrote a book on health care and estate planning in retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Marc S\u00e9guin, 66, at his cottage near Perth, Ont. After retiring in 2019, Mr. S\u00e9guin wrote a book about the importance of planning for aging.Ashley Fraser\/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

Marc S\u00e9guin, 66, Manotick, Ont.<\/p>\n

I retired in 2019 at the age of 59 after a career in technology, specifically business development. When I was working, I used to think I would never retire, as I enjoyed work, or at least I thought I did. <\/p>\n

I was between contracts and decided to take a break. Then, after some time passed, I chose not to take on any more projects. I just wasn\u2019t as excited about the work as I used to be. I concluded that I had retired, at least from a regular career, and never looked back. <\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t sure I could afford to retire when I did. I\u2019ve always been a saver and my wife and I are financially conservative, so we managed to save a lot of money throughout the years, even as a single-income family. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have a workplace pension, but I invested my money throughout the years. It took me almost two years, working with financial advisors, to pull together a retirement plan I could trust. <\/p>\n

I attribute most of my financial confidence to my \u2018three allotment approach,\u2019 which structures a financial plan into three parts: everyday spending, rainy-day protection and estate and legacy planning. This approach motivated me to do something unexpected in retirement: write a book on health care and estate planning entitled Advocacy in Aging. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have a financial planning background \u2013 I\u2019m more of a math and science guy \u2013 but after seeing some family members go through health care and estate planning challenges, it sparked an interest in learning more and helping others navigate this stage of life. <\/p>\n

It turned out to be a great initiative, keeping me intellectually engaged and connected to new communities through a variety of speaking events that followed. It\u2019s very rewarding.<\/p>\n

I also keep busy with a lot of other activities in retirement, including sports such as skiing, golf, cycling and swimming; woodworking; travel; and spending time at the cottage with friends and family. <\/p>\n

I also give advanced care planning workshops for Compassionate Ottawa [a citizen-led organization that uses public health and community development principles to support and empower people during times of serious illness and loss] and I volunteer with the ski patrol at Mont-Tremblant, teaching first aid. I know a lot of retirees say this, but I wonder how I used to find time to work.<\/p>\n

My advice to others heading into retirement is to get a proper financial plan, preferably from an independent financial planner. It will provide you with financial peace of mind and allow you to live fully, obviously within your means. Also, if you can, consider retiring early to take advantage of your healthy years because many of us have no idea how many of those we\u2019ll have left.<\/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: Marc S\u00e9guin, 66, at his cottage near Perth, Ont. After retiring in 2019,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[5267,1397,49,48,5266,84,392,2922,17560],"class_list":["post-836309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-advisor-noregwall","tag-appwebview","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-globe-advisor","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-noastack","tag-tftga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836309","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=836309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}