{"id":156117,"date":"2025-11-27T18:48:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T18:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/156117\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T18:48:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T18:48:13","slug":"this-former-art-teacher-took-up-photography-sculpting-and-juggling-in-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/156117\/","title":{"rendered":"This former art teacher took up photography, sculpting and juggling in retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Doug Lowry, a retired art teacher, started juggling again in retirement, something he hadn’t done since university.Jennifer Roberts\/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

Doug Lowry, 68, Richmond Hill, Ont.<\/p>\n

I retired in 2017 at age 60 after 28 years as a high school art teacher. Sixty was a milestone age for me; not only was it the start of a new decade, but it was also the year my wife and I paid off our mortgage and my defined-benefit pension became fully vested. I could foresee a financially stable future. I also consulted a financial advisor during my final year of employment to confirm our financial situation.<\/p>\n

As parents of a daughter with special needs, we spent 25 years advocating for her and scheduling her life and ours. Once she was placed in a supportive group home in 2011, my wife \u2013 also a teacher \u2013 was able to work full-time and I was able to take on new responsibilities at the school where I worked. I felt fulfilled in my career, but when I entered my 60s, I was ready for a lifestyle change. My wife retired a couple of years after me.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s great about retirement is having so much time to spend with friends and family. (We have another daughter nearby who\u2019s married with two kids \u2013 our grandkids.) I\u2019ve been improving my cooking skills, going to the gym more and becoming more active in local politics. I\u2019m also an artist and have been doing more sculpting, painting and photography. I also started juggling again a few years ago, something I haven\u2019t done since university.<\/p>\n

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

‘My advice to people approaching retirement is to build a community around you,’ Mr. Lowry says.Jennifer Roberts\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t worry about money in retirement. My wife and I live modestly but enjoy rich lives. We made a concerted effort to cut back on our monthly expenses soon after retiring. Owning just one car has reduced monthly expenses significantly. We also have pensions and use a financial advisor to invest in our registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs). I\u2019m a do-it-yourself investor for my daughter\u2019s registered disability savings plan (RDSP). I started receiving my Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security benefits at 65.<\/p>\n

Over the years, we didn\u2019t have the money to contribute to a tax-free savings account (TFSA). However, now that our investments are doing well, we prioritize making monthly TFSA contributions. We have shorter-term financial goals, such as travel and a new car on the list, but are thinking increasingly of our daughters and want them to be part of the long-term legacy plans. <\/p>\n

My advice to people approaching retirement is to build a community around you. When we retire, we say goodbye to our work community. There could be promises to stay in touch, but that doesn\u2019t always happen. We\u2019re active in our neighbourhood and plan to stay put here. The people and the community around us are there for us, and we are there for them. So my advice would be to stay connected. Find people, programs and activities, and be ready to say \u2018yes\u2019 to new experiences.<\/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: Doug Lowry, a retired art teacher, started juggling again in retirement, something he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[7402,697,114,268,8150,85,46,14093,266,267,94368],"class_list":{"0":"post-156117","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-finance","12":"tag-globe-advisor","13":"tag-il","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-noastack","16":"tag-personal-finance","17":"tag-personalfinance","18":"tag-tftga"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}