The traditional idea of retirement is becoming a pipe dream for many Canadians, if it isn’t already?

Let’s face it, unless you’re a teacher or work in some other unionized profession, are a member of the military, or work for the federal government or one its many agencies, your chances of achieving “Freedom 65” is about as likely as winning the Mega Millions lottery.

Personally, I’m on the Freedom 85 plan, unless, of course, I die first, which at this point seems like the only shot I have at “retirement”.

And I’m not alone. I fit in that category of self-employed individuals who own their own business and face the daily challenge of paying rent and utilities, making the car payment, paying for insurance, the cell phone bill, and a host of expenses, all of which seem to go up year after year, while private sector incomes remain stagnant.

As if that financial strain isn’t enough, the price of gas has increased 30 to 40 per cent since the start of the U.S.-Iran War which has led to even higher grocery prices.

The cost of living is outpacing the cost of ever retiring at a dizzying pace.

And while those fortunate enough to have a union job enjoy cost of living increases every year, the rest of us are left to pay for those increases through higher taxes and user fees.

We’ve reached the point where retirement has become an unattainable dream unless you happen to be married to someone who is also gainfully employed, preferably with a pension of their own or are in line to get a hefty inheritance.

Most of the people I know who are retired are either former teachers, former members of the military, or former government employees who were able to maximize their RRSP contributions every year.

My favourite letter was the one I would get from Revenue Canada every year, informing me of what my maximum contribution limit was.

I actually have a friend, who didn’t fall under any of the aforementioned job descriptions I listed. He paid for everything in cash and never borrowed a cent to avoid paying any interest. Although he owned a credit card, he would pay it off every month. And he saved every cent he could. Whatever he didn’t spend on RRSPs, he put away in a tax free savings account all with the goal of retiring at the age of 55.

After achieving that goal, his savings were swallowed up by the high cost of living and he soon realized that he couldn’t afford to grow old without going back into the workforce as a consultant. Now he is “semi-retired”, which is code for someone who wishes they were retired but can’t afford it.

Of course, there is that other category of “semi-retired” who are retired but are bored to tears and need to keep busy so they find something to do past the time.

If you happen to fall in the latter category, congratulations. I, and thousands of others like me, don’t. We are frantically trying to figure out how we can survive on our combined CPP and Old Age Security earnings and the answer is, we can’t. Not unless, to borrow the words from the late Chris Farley, we “live in a van down by the river”.

Forget a retirement residence, or a seniors home. The best we can hope for is an in-law suite, assuming we have children who can afford to buy a home with an in-law suite.

Speaking of which, as bad as it is for people of my generation who are already of retirement age, the picture is even bleaker for young people.

A lot of folks in their 50s and 60s hope-fully have a home that is paid off, or near to being paid off, which contains enough equity to form a nest egg.

For a lot of young people today, owning a home is an even bigger pipe dream than being able to one day retire. Heck, retire-ment hasn’t even entered their consciousness.

As prices and the cost of living continue to rise, the possibility of being able to afford to retire becomes more and more distant. Add on top of that the fact that people are living longer. It’s a conundrum, without any easy answers. But it’s a conundrum that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.

(If you wish to comment on this or any other View Point column please write to Fred Sherwin at fsherwin@orleansstar.ca)