Passion & Purpose in Retirement: Why it Matters — with Mark Young [Podcast]

Purpose > portfolio: Money funds options, but it isn’t the finish line. Clarifying what gives your days meaning often quiets the scarcity voice and makes “enough” feel truly enough.

Time, talent, treasure: After the paycheck stops, you still have hours, skills, and resources to deploy. Volunteering, mentoring, and thoughtful giving turn those assets into impact you can actually feel.

Retire to something: Jumping from 100% work to “endless vacation” leaves many people restless. Test-drive your next chapter with a sabbatical, extended break, or small pilot so you enter retirement with momentum.

I think one of our Loopers, Christine, said it best, “retirement is not an endless vacation”. For many people, when they are working, their sense of purpose revolves around their job.

Giving without emptying yourself: It’s generous to shuttle grandkids or say yes to every volunteer shift—until your own passions get crowded out. Set simple boundaries (days, hours, roles) so giving stays energizing, not depleting.

From Ottawa to Mercy Ships: Mark shows how old skills find new homes—church livestreams, Cycling Without Age, and IT work aboard Mercy Ships. Serving outside your bubble can expand empathy and reset what “rich” means.

• “A Single Lucid Moment” by Robert W. Soderstrom
• Mercy Ships
• Cycling Without Age

Relationships & marriage in retirement: Different retirement dates and interests don’t have to clash. Put recurring “us time” on the calendar and talk openly about solitude vs. togetherness, screen habits, and shared projects.

Body & brain health: Consistency beats intensity—think walks, e-bikes, kayaking, or hikes. Uneven ground challenges balance and cognition, while active social time doubles as mental health care.

How to start if you feel aimless: Visit a local volunteer fair and bring a one-page “volunteer résumé.” Try short, low-risk gigs first; it’s okay to make mistakes, or quit what doesn’t fit and keep experimenting until something clicks.

Action steps you can take this week:

1. Draft a 1-page “volunteer résumé.” List 5–7 transferable skills (tech, finance, HR, writing, teaching, marketing).

2. Pick one micro-test. Email one local nonprofit to shadow a shift (food bank, community center, seniors’ home).

3. Schedule “us time.” Put a 90-minute date/walk/coffee on the calendar and protect it.

4. Move twice. Two 30–60 minute sessions (walk, hike, cycle) on uneven ground, if possible—great for body and brain.

About Mark

Mark Young is a retirement coach at Retirement Loop. After a career in software engineering, he retired early to help others design purposeful retirements—combining financial clarity with service, learning, movement, and community.

More specifically, he’s helping other Canadians gain control over their retirement plans as a coach at Retirement Loop.

Want to Get Ready for Retirement?

Retirement Loop is a community of over 500 Canadians who are in or nearing retirement. We have developed tools, including the RL Projections Tool, to help them navigate the transition and remain confident once they arrive. There is also a lot of power in having hundreds of people working with the same program to help each other. You can finally connect with other retirees going through the same challenges.

Canadians who enjoy their retirement:

• Know which account to withdraw from first.
• Build a clear financial plan covering multiple scenarios.
• Use an agile budget through the go-go, slow-go, and no-go phases.
• Create multiple sources of income, including CPP, OAS, investment income, and others.

Download the 20 Income-Focused Products Review for free and join the waitlist to get noticed when we reopen Retirement Loop doors.

retirementloop.ca/waitlist

Related Content

Here’s Mark Young’s first appearance on the show. As an early retiree and creator of the Retirement Loop Projection Tool, he shares what it really takes to retire with confidence.