How this former food industry business owner is finding new identities in retirement. Plus: How to calculate a capital gain on your cottage – and save on taxesSince retiring a little more than a year ago, Tom Mitchell has become more active in the Calgary community, including serving on the board of a local lawn bowling club.Tom Mitchell, 69, retired in April, 2023, after 40 years of running his own manufacturers’ agent firm.
“The challenge with retirement is giving up your identity and finding new ones,” says Mitchell. “After 40 years, I can no longer say I’m a business owner, which was hard to get used to at first.” He also noticed that some former colleagues have stopped talking to him now that he’s retired, which, he adds, has been disappointing. “Maybe they feel they can’t relate to me now, or I let them down by leaving the grind. It’s like I’m dead to them now.
Neither has a defined benefit pension but they do have about $1.3-million in savings and investments. They also have an investment property with a mortgage. Now that mortgage rates have risen, the property is cash-flow negative by about $500 a month. “We will most likely sell it off in 2030,” Matthew writes in an e-mail.
Avrich says he had the academic aptitude of a piece of drywall. “My mother’s strategy for me was not that of her generation – she would not force me to be an accountant, lawyer or dentist.” Her unconventional thinking was to immerse him into the arts early where the rules of academia might be less stringent.
Coming changes to the capital-gains inclusion rate have jolted not just wealthy Canadians, but also people with long-held cottages or a second property owned as an investment. Starting June 25, they will have to pay tax on two-thirds of the capital gain above $250,000; half of gains up to that threshold will be taxable. Currently, the 50-per-cent inclusion rate applies to all capital gains.