Retirement doesn’t always go according to plan. Data from a Manulife longevity study found that more than half of early retirees in Canada (56%) were pushed into retirement involuntarily, due to job loss, health issues, or other unexpected events. If you’re within 5 to 10 years of your planned retirement date, that number should get your attention.
Here’s what you should be focusing on right now to protect yourself and build real confidence going into this next chapter.
1. Get a Proper Retirement Plan Done Now, Not Later
The ideal time to build a detailed retirement plan is 5 to 10 years before you want to stop working. That runway gives you time to make meaningful adjustments, not just minor tweaks.
A good plan answers the questions that actually matter: Can you retire when you want to? Where will your income come from each year? How much can you spend sustainably? Are there gaps, like a heavy reliance on RRSPs with little to no TFSA balance? Many people only get a plan done right before retiring and discover they could have stopped working earlier, or that they need to make significant changes. Getting ahead of it by five years or more creates options. Waiting eliminates them.
2. Stress Test for Involuntary Retirement
The Manulife data makes the case for this clearly: more than half of early retirees didn’t choose to retire when they did. So the question worth asking now is, what happens if retirement is forced on you earlier than planned?
What if you lost your job tomorrow? Could you retire immediately, or would you need to keep working? How much longer, and how much more would you need to save to bridge the gap? Run those scenarios in your plan at ages 55, 58, and 60. Include a forced early retirement due to health. Include the possibility of scaling back to part-time rather than stopping entirely. Knowing the answers to these questions in advance turns potential crises into manageable decisions instead of emergencies.
3. Factor in Health and Family Realities
Your health (or your spouse’s) may force a change in your timeline before you’re ready. So might aging parents who increasingly need your time and energy. Scaling back to three or four days a week to provide care is more common than most people expect, and it has real financial implications.
On the other side, adult children in high-cost markets like BC and Ontario are often moving back home or needing financial help with things like down payments. These aren’t edge cases anymore. A flexible plan lets you model these “what if” scenarios and understand the trade-offs clearly. For example, what does working one extra year mean if you reduce your hours now to support family? Running those numbers in advance is much better than figuring it out mid-crisis.
4. Focus on What You Can Actually Control
You can’t control job loss, a health diagnosis, or what your family needs from you. But you can control your planning, and that matters more than most people give it credit for.
A strong retirement plan gives you clarity on your early retirement options, what part-time work could look like and how it changes the picture, tax-efficient ways to help family if needed, and what adjustments to savings or spending are available to you. That kind of clarity doesn’t eliminate uncertainty but it does reduce anxiety significantly and makes better decisions possible.
5. Use This Window to Build Real Flexibility
The next 5 to 10 years aren’t just about saving more. They’re about building a plan that can bend without breaking. That means diversifying across account types (RRSPs, TFSAs, non-registered), optimizing your tax strategy before retirement rather than after, paying down debt where it genuinely makes sense, and having an honest conversation with your employer about phased retirement options if that interests you.
The goal isn’t just hitting a number. It’s having a roadmap that adapts to real life, because real life rarely follows the original plan.
The Bottom Line
More than half of Canadians are pushed into retirement earlier than they expected. That’s not a reason to panic, but it is a reason to act now while you still have runway. A comprehensive retirement income plan gives you a clear picture of where you stand, what your options are, and what levers you can pull if something unexpected happens.
Whether the outcome is that you can retire earlier than planned, need to adjust your timeline, or simply gain confidence in your situation, getting that clarity while you still have time to act on it is the whole point.