At 59, Wayne Taylor has seen the future.

Better yet, he lives it - and expects little to change until he quits his day job in 15 or 16 years.

You could say he practises what he preaches. It's all about planning, says Taylor, who owns Taylor Financial Group and is president of the Canadian Association of Pre-Retirement Planners.

Most weeks, Taylor spends three days at his Edmonton-based business and the other four on a section of land at Smoky Lake, a 90-minute drive northeast of the Alberta capital.

Photo courtesy of Sheila Taylor
Wayne Taylor has seen clients burn out and the pre-retirement expert says people must map out their future life plans.

Living with his wife Sheila, two horses, two dogs and a cat, Taylor calls his country home "paradise.”

True to the philosophy he imparts to clients, the couple had planned the move to a quieter lifestyle for six years, eventually buying their country property in 2002.

But like so many people these days, Taylor isn't retiring. He's just transitioned into a new phase, adjusting his pace by working three "very productive" days a week instead of going six days out of seven.

"I was strongly influenced by many of the clients I saw," Taylor says. "I was seeing clients who burned out and never got a chance to rust out.

"I saw what happened to them health-wise and emotionally, and was determined not to go down that path."

As Baby Boomers retire, it's a lifestyle he and other financial planners say is more than achievable.

Toronto retirement planning consultant Gilles Marceau, of Gilles Marceau and Associates Inc., says people are pleasantly surprised when he discusses their future financial needs.

"Their biggest fear is running out of money (before they die). But most people I see don't need that much. They should be more afraid of running out of good health because that's what can really cost you in retirement."

Marceau consults with senior executives one-on-one and with groups of employees within multinational organizations. Most share a common thread: When he asks men and women to imagine themselves in the future, he gets more blank looks than anything.

So he asks people to draw a 'T' on a piece of paper. On the left-hand side he tells them to write all the things they'd do financially if they won $10 million. On the right side, they write how it would change their lives.

The list is really long on the left financial side, he says. The right side is short.

"They haven't thought about the future. We say, 'OK, now you've accomplished all your financial needs. Draw a new T. Think about what you want to do life-wise.' " It's a critical part of planning for the future, he says. In order to make a decision about your life, you have to be able to write it out. Then you work backward to figure out how much money will be required to support that lifestyle.

Marceau explains that it's typical for many people to mistakenly think the pension plan at work is the retirement plan. They don't factor in all sources of income, such as inheritances, Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security and part-time work, among others.

In fact, they aren't thinking about retirement at all, aren't saving, nor visualizing a life when they leave their full-time jobs.

"What happens is that people don't want to plan because they don't know where to start. It's sitting down and saying, 'What is it I want? What do I have? How am I going to get there?' " Marceau says when he works with executive clients who make in excess of $150,000 a year, they are startled when he works through their finances.

"I tell them that a third of the money they make goes to taxes, a third goes to debt and kids, and a third is what they are living on. So what we have to replace (in retirement) is the $50,000 to $60,000 a year. And they go, 'You're right.' " In Ontario, he has a number of retired clients - with no debt, good health, and kids who have left home - who bring home after-tax retirement income of around $3,500 a month and do very well.

Both Marceau and Taylor agree every situation is different. However, in Alberta, Taylor has clients who are debt-free and healthy, living "quite well" on an annual gross income of $30,000.

"They aren't going to Cancun every year for a holiday, but they are fine," he says. "Someone like me who likes a lot of toys, well, I need a bigger pot of money."

Taylor and Marceau say employers, especially larger ones, are working with pre-retirement planners to help employees make the transition into retirement.

It's both altruistic and good business.

"Employers who give those tools to employees have them for life," Marceau says, both in their full-time careers and afterward when they transition into lifestyles where they still want to work part-time.

These are energetic people who still want to be productive, adds Taylor. "The last thing you want is for an ex-employee to go to a rival."

At the same time, companies are also promoting health and wellness, an often overlooked but critical component for aging workers. Taylor says that of his clients, the majority of those over 55 are nowhere as fit as they should be.

Companies need to provide the opportunity that older employees can be fit, he says. "The employer needs to create this environment where it is easy, and maybe through peer pressure the ball gets moving. And then there's that tipping point where somebody says, 'I'm going to take control of my life now.' " The difficulty is that fitness takes self-discipline, Taylor explains. The same occurs with financial planning, where final details of a plan should be assessed anywhere from five to 15 years before leaving full-time work.

Knowing things such as how much a person needs in RRSPs, in non-RRSP capital (an important issue), how to income split and keep taxes to a minimum can provide individuals with comfortable lifestyles, Taylor says.

Or, as in his case, an existence that borders on one man's paradise.

Web watch: www.retirementplanners.ca

(Mike Dempster can be reached at miked@businessedge.ca)