I just retired and now I barely want to see anyone. Should I be worried? It’s common, but it comes with emotional and financial costs

The NIA’s 2025 Ageing in Canada Survey found that 57% of Canadians over the age of 50 experience loneliness, while another 43% are at risk of social isolation. In particular, older Canadians with less financial resources face higher chances of loneliness, with 65% of those with inadequate incomes at high risk of isolation (2).

This might come as alarming news to the social butterflies of the world, but there’s another side of the issue. What about older Canadians who choose isolation during retirement?

To some, a little time to yourself might not sound like the worst thing in the world. After all, if you’ve spent decades in a career where you’re constantly interacting with the public, it could feel like a breath of fresh air to go it alone for a while.

Too much time alone, however, can have negative consequences — not only on your mental and physical health (3), but also on your financial well-being.

Here’s a look at how that ‘me time’ in retirement could impact your finances.

The nest egg a Canadian retiree can expect

Heading into retirement age, you might be asking yourself where you stack up financially against other Canadians in your position. But the answer to that question isn’t exactly straightforward since many retirees have multiple sources of income.

For Canadians aged 65 and over, statistics from Statistics Canada show that the average amount held in a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) or other tax-deferred retirement accounts is $248,700, not including employer-sponsored pension plans (4). When factoring in other financial assets, including cash accounts and Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs), that average is closer to $490,000.

At first glance, a nest egg of this size should yield a good income, depending on the strategy. For instance, using the 4% rule, it will bring in approximately $19,600 a year, or about $1,633 a month. Adding in the average Canada Pension Plan (CPP) benefit — about $858.34 a month if you retired at age 65 in July 2026 (5) — will get the average Canadian retiree a little under $2,500 a month.

Put together, that’s an income of about $30,000 a year, or $60,000 if you’re a married couple, not including employer-sponsored pension plans. It’s a modest monthly income that could allow you to pay the bills while still having some fun, particularly if your house is paid off and you have no outstanding debts.

Building a bigger nest egg for less

If a modest income in retirement isn’t enough for you, though, you might have to do a bit more legwork during your working years.

To help you get there, there are plenty of tools you can utilize — from little things, like setting up an automated savings plan, to striking out on your own and building a whole investment portfolio from scratch.

For these intrepid investors, it’s always a good idea to shop around to find trusted brokerages like CIBC Investor’s Edge, which gives them security of one of Canada’s biggest banks without having to pay exorbitant commissions on trades and account fees.

With their comprehensive online trading platform, it actually pays to trade more. Active traders making over 150 trades a quarter can enjoy a discounted commission rate of $4.95 per trade. Plus, CIBC doesn’t charge any account or maintenance fees if the combined market balance of all accounts is greater than $10,000.

Opening a discount brokerage account with CIBC Investor’s Edge can help you expand your portfolio while not being dragged down by commissions and fees — keeping your cash where it belongs, with you

Higher living costs, less fun

Something to remember about these income calculations is that they’re missing a crucial variable: the effects of inflation.

This could be very important because retirement accounts like RRSPs aren’t typically indexed to inflation, meaning that the cash sitting in them doesn’t automatically adjust or grow with inflation. Payouts depend more on contribution limits and the performance of investments within the accounts, so inflation could still take a bite out of their purchasing power years down the road.

It’s a problem that worries Canadians of all ages.

In the 2025 BMO Retirement Survey, for instance, almost three-quarters (74%) of respondents said they were worried about having enough savings to support them in retirement, while two-thirds (66%) reported their ability to save and invest for retirement was impacted by the pressures of inflation (6).

For Canadians who are retired or about to retire on a fixed income, the impacts of inflation could be far worse. Over time, you might find your budget gets more and more pinched as costs continue to climb faster than your savings grow.

As a retired couple, that prospect is scary enough. But you could end up struggling faster and more to cover your daily living costs if you don’t have someone to share expenses with. And even if you do have more savings than average, the more costs you bear alone, the less money you’ll have to pay for things that make retirement so fun, like hobbies and entertainment.

Lower fixed costs, more fun?

You could, of course, try to stretch your savings by trying to reduce the fixed costs of everyday life.

While there are plenty of ways of doing this, one that might not immediately occur to you is taking a second look at your car insurance premiums, which have soared in recent years.

For instance, auto insurance premiums climbed 18.9% in the five years between October 2020 and October 2025, according to Statistics Canada (7). If you were simply auto-renewing your policy during that time, you could be overpaying every month without realizing it.

However, by using a comparison platform like Rates.ca, you could get 20+ quotes from top-rated auto insurance providers and potentially save more than $500 in as little as three minutes.

Here’s how it works: Just answer a few basic questions, and Rates.ca will show you the most affordable deals in your area. That’s it. Not only is the process 100% free, but you could also save as much as 20% by bundling your auto and home insurance together.

Navigating big decisions without input

The price of solitude isn’t just losing out on sharing the costs of living. If you don’t spend enough time with other people, you might miss the opportunity to pick their brains for guidance — particularly on bigger financial decisions.

In fact, despite being increasingly open to using AI (8), Canadians are still most likely to seek financial advice from family and friends, according to the most recent Canadian Financial Capability Survey published by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (9).

The same study also found that older Canadians were far less likely to get financial advice from their peers.

And this habit could actually be hurting them, since there’s a correlation between older Canadians who struggle with finances and those who have limited access to their peers. According to the NIA, 72% of Canadians over the age of 50 who were struggling financially in 2024 also had weak social networks (10).

Retirement can be a financially tricky period of life, so it may actually be helpful to hear how your peers are managing their money. Those conversations are harder to have when you’re off doing your own thing all the time.

Rely on experts to manage your investments

If the idea of going to friends or family for financial advice still isn’t appealing to you, it’s always worth remembering that you aren’t alone in your investing journey. You can always rely on professionals to do some of the heavy lifting on your behalf.

For instance, if you know you should be investing but don’t want the guesswork of doing it alone, Wealthsimple Portfolios offers an easy, hands-off way to grow your money.

Their pre-built portfolios are tailored to your retirement goals, risk tolerance and investment horizon, so whether you’re saving for retirement, a home or building long-term wealth, there’s a portfolio that’s right for every investor.

Expert-managed and designed to weather market ups and downs, Wealthsimple takes care of the heavy lifting: automatic contributions, dividend reinvesting and smart rebalancing keep your investments on track.

You can invest through RRSPs, TFSAs or non-registered accounts, all from an intuitive online dashboard or their easy-to-use mobile app.

Trusted by more than 3 million Canadians, Wealthsimple manages over $100 billion in assets and provides $1 million in eligible coverage through the CDIC for chequing accounts and CIPF for investments. Plus, as licensed fiduciaries, Wealthsimple’s advisors must put your financial interests first.

As a Money.ca reader, get a $25 bonus when you open your first account and fund at least $1 within 30 days.

Visit Wealthsimple for up-to-date terms and conditions.

Not having a support system

Finally, while spending time alone can be fulfilling and liberating, you may reach a point where you also risk losing your support system. And that could have a number of negative consequences.