Toronto, Canada — There are many definitions of retirement based on the premise that it marks the end of your full-time career. One dictionary even defines retirement as “a withdrawal from one’s position or occupation or from active working life. “However, for many Canadians today, retiring is about much more than just leaving the workforce. People are living longer, working later into their lives, and are spending a larger portion of their lives in retirement than previous generations. If the reality of retirement is changing for many people, isn’t it time the definition of retirement changed with it?

“Slowing down and enjoying your golden years means different things to different people,” says Cynthia Caskey, Vice President, Portfolio Manager and Sales Manager, TD Waterhouse Private Investment Advice. “You can choose to continue working part-time, consult, volunteer, go back to school, open your own business – the sky is the limit. So with all these choices, we can see that retirement is changing. Shouldn’t the definition change too?”

With this in mind, TD is asking Canadians to submit their own definition of retirement. Just visit www.redefineretirement.ca from Sept. 10 until Sept. 26, 2012, and provide your contact information and your own new definition of retirement in one sentence. For submitting your definition, you’ll be entered into a draw to win $1,000, which could be used to help top up your retirement savings. The contest winner will be announced in a press release that will be issued the week of Oct. 22, 2012, and on TD’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

“In general, we’re remaining healthier and more active longer in life, which means that many are spending more years in retirement. We’re inviting Canadians to really think about what their ‘ideal retirement’ will be like, and consider how they want to spend their time, who they want to spend it with, and whether or not they will stop working completely,” says Caskey.

“It’s important for Canadians of all ages, not just those approaching retirement, to think about the lifestyle and activities they’ll want to be involved in – and then consider the finances that will be needed to support this,” adds Caskey. “The earlier you start thinking about your retirement dream, the sooner you can start saving to make sure it comes true.”

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The Hague, The Netherlands - The first AEGON Retirement Readiness Survey of 9000 respondents in France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the U.K., and the U.S. returned with bleak results. Current workers are expecting to be worse-off in retirement than current retirees and the awareness of retirement responsibility is not translating into action. There is broad support for government pension reform but nearly half reject increasing the retirement age, despite the rising life expectancy. Individuals are also phasing into retirement rather than dropping off the “retirement cliff” – going straight from work to retirement.

Despite the fundamentally positive aspects of living longer, longevity increases have brought greater costs and potential reductions in retirement systems, including government and private pensions. The global economic crisis of recent years and ongoing economic uncertainty and austerity measures have put even greater pressure on these retirement systems and shifted more of the responsibility to individuals to save for their own retirement.

An international survey initiated by AEGON, one of the world’s leading providers of retirement security, indicates that there is widespread pessimism about the future state of retirement. Seventy-one percent of respondents still working believe that future generations will be worse-off in retirement than current retirees – reversing the long-established notion that each generation helps pave the way for subsequent generations to enjoy a higher standard of living.

More than two-thirds of the 9000 people surveyed in eight European countries and the United States accept that they bear principal responsibility for their retirement security. However, only 15% are confident that they are on course to achieve the retirement income they need. This is also reflected in the AEGON Retirement Readiness Index that has been developed to measure how prepared people feel about their own retirement in the various countries represented in the report.

Most respondents support increased taxes, reduced benefits (or both) to ensure the viability of government sponsored pension systems. At the same time, nearly half of the respondents do not support raising the age of retirement, even as people are living longer, healthier lives. However, a clear majority of respondents expect to continue working in some form past traditional retirement age.

AEGON CEO Alex Wynaendts said, “people in general are enjoying longer, healthier lives, and yet their readiness for a longer retirement is considerably less than that of previous generations of retirees. A concerted effort is needed to reconsider traditional retirement models and provide greater flexibility for phased retirement. If current pension systems are not adapted to the new realities of longer life spans and declining government and employer funding, the burdens placed on society will be a source of even greater economic and societal turmoil in the future. The good news is that people in general accept their responsibility in creating the conditions that will provide for a secure and satisfying retirement.”

The AEGON survey also showed that the traditional “retirement cliff” is disappearing, referring to people going straight from working life into full retirement. Consequently, phased retirement is set to become the norm as more people expect to continue some kind of work activity past traditional retirement age. Fifty-four percent of the current generation of retirees went straight from work into full retirement, but only 30% of the current working generation expects a similar path. The findings further indicate that “silver entrepreneurs” could become more common as many in this current generation plan to combine activities such as starting their own businesses with leisure pursuits in their advanced years.

Alex Wynaendts stated, “advances in longevity and health, combined with a modern approach to retirement, can make this life stage a period of productivity and personal fulfillment. It is in the interests of public policy makers, employers and the financial services industry – working together – to provide the incentives and opportunity for people to achieve the level of financial security that will be required for a longer period than at any time in history.”

The AEGON survey, developed in collaboration with the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies(R)- a non-profit, private foundation in the United States dedicated to conducting research and educating the public on retirement security trends – and Cicero Consulting, a leading public policy and communications consulting firm providing independent market research to the financial services sector, was conducted with the aim of understanding prevailing attitudes about retirement in the future and to determine the levels of financial readiness that currently exist among today’s working generation.

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“It’s a national disgrace that so many families dump their elderly parents in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. We need to become a nation of family caregivers. Sons and daughters should invite their aging and aged mothers and dads to live with them,” says trends analyst and forecaster, and family caregiver, Stephen L. Goldstein, Ph.D.

“Yes, you can!” Goldstein reassures families in his memoir/how-to, When My Mother No Longer Knew My Name: a son’s “course” in “rational” caregiving. It could be titled “the joy of caregiving!” It’s the first book families need to read, the caregiver’s “one-minute manager.” Each brief, compelling chapter turns what a son learned on-the-job into immediate help for others. Step-by-step, Goldstein traces how his caregiving role evolved from nominal to 24/7.

“I would never let my mother live in a nursing home,” he says adamantly. “Diplomatically, I had to convince her to move in with me when she was strong and healthy. Eventually, I learned how to deal with her dementia—finding a sandwich in the clothes dryer, changing her diaper (rarely, thank God!), keeping her from choking to death. Finally, I had to discover how to care for myself after she died.

“I wrote the book I never found before and while I was my mother’s caregiver,” Goldstein says. “There’s no theory. Strategically placed throughout the book are 75 practical tips that turn my experience into advice others can use. My narratives make caregiving real. My tips make it manageable—even joyful.” There’s a “Self-Assessment” so current and potential caregivers can benchmark and increase their ability to manage the often lonely, challenging, unpredictable, and overwhelming roles they may assume.

When My Mother No Longer Knew My Name is a one-man support group, written like a friend who’s “been-there-done-that,” talking anecdotally, but authoritatively, to a friend who needs help. It’s raw and gritty, funny and inspiring. It makes people weep, but also gives them hope they can overcome a mountain of seemingly insurmountable challenges, for which they likely feel devastatingly unprepared.

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At his incredible 70,000 square foot mansion in Orlando, Florida on Friday, Shaquille O’ Neal announced his retirement from professional basketball after 19 successful seasons in the league.

Nobody can help but like Shaq. He is one of the most popular players in league history, unarguably the biggest character in professional sports history, and of course was a phenom on the court. He will forever rank among the best players ever to grace a basketball court in the way that he changed the way the game was played in his time in the NBA.

His numbers speak for himself. He has incredible accolades that could be written about for pages and pages, and have been over the past few days, but that is not what this article will be about. Too many people seem to be focusing on what Shaquille did on the court, and it is incredibly deserved, but I want to focus on the person Shaquille O’ Neal, which even transcends the player.

As expected, he was incredibly jovial leading up to the press conference, dancing in the background of the camera shot before the actual conference even began. Always a consummate entertainer, he had a smile on his face the entire time leading up to the big speech, making everyone believe this would be another slew of silly moments out of Shaq for possibly the last time. He has us fooled.

Never have I seen Shaq nervous in front of a camera throughout my entire life of watching him. Today was different. He obviously had a lot invested in today, in his speech, and in his career.

Shaq’s mother Lucille made the introduction for seven-foot son on Shaq’s private basketball court turned podium, an homage to the impact she had on both his career and his life growing up.

She then handed the microphone to Dale Brown, the man that originally recruited and coached Shaq at Louisiana State University. Shaq often refers to brown as one of the biggest helping hands he had in shaping his career, and Brown seemed both sincere and deserving of such praise. He too wanted to focus on what Shaq did off the court, the things that nobody knew or talked about, but should know.

Brown spoke about Shaq’s incredible parenting which goes far too unnoticed. He spoke about his lack of violations or problems off the court throughout his entire career, a sparkling record (even serving as a sherrif at one point in Miami, Florida). Lastly he touched on Shaq’s stress of the importance of education, which came from his parents. Little did everyone know that Shaq is not just a monster athlete, but he led his team in GPA at LSU, and has already obtained a Masters degree, and is now working on his Doctorate in Human Resource Development from Barry University in Miami.

This man works to the best of his abilities, no matter the task, and should be incredibly respected for it.

The diesel finally made his anticipated arrival to the podium and of course, made his first quick joke about being the new GM of the New York Knicks. Of course, everybody laughed. Though he was lighthearted, the tone was serious, incredibly thankful, and appreciative to all of those who had helped him along the way. It was evident that Shaq really wanted to let everybody know how much they really meant to him, giving countless thanks to everyone down to the security guards at the stadiums he played at along the way.

He of course spoke about the fun he had with the media in his time in the NBA en route to officially retiring every one of his many nicknames, and moving on to only one: “The Big AARP.”

He also gave himself his own plug, one fans should be incredibly excited about, in hinting that he will field calls from various television networks should they have interest in putting him in front of a camera, and giving him a career as an analyst, something I, and many other fans would love to see. The more Shaq, the better.

Shaq took a bunch of questions, telling heartfelt stories about his life and career as a basketball player, father, and role model. His emotion was obviously bittewrsweet, but he didn’t cry on camera for effect and he didn’t draw the conference out longer than it needed to be. It was never about him, it was about his fans and the people around him. He wanted to throw a party for everybody else celebrating his illustrious career. “It’s about you guys, I wanted to host you guys and thank you personally,” Shaq said in some of the closing words of the conference.

To me, this day summed up Shaquille O’ Neal in just a few minutes.

Humble, happy, sincere, professional, thankful, the list goes on and on, but one thing is for certain, Shaq is the utmost role model for not only basketball players, but all people, young and old, to look up to. Never have I seen an athlete like him on or off the court, and he will be very missed around the league for a long time.

What will he do now? Rapper, actor, investor, coach, analyst, doctor? He of course has a plethora of options (even later hinting at having a hand in bringing an NFL team to Los Angeles), but I have no doubt that he will have incredibly deserved success in whatever he should choose. Good luck to Shaquille O’ Neal, my favorite athlete of all time.

Karen Struthers / Shutterstock.com

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