Retirees can be a wealth of information for future retirees, from both financial and social standpoints. Desjardins Financial Security's 2009 Rethink Retirement survey asked more than 400 retired Canadians about life in 2009.

Fifty five percent of full-time retirees said that they can afford to cover their basic needs plus a few extras, such as presents for their kids and grandkids, hobbies or travel. On the other hand, amongst the 27 percent of full-time retirees who say that they only manage to pay for basic expenses, close to two-thirds earn less than $20,000 a year and 44 percent went further into debt in the past year.

Many employers seem to be turning to retirees to fill positions left empty by the mass retirement of baby boomers. Close to one in six retireescontinue to work. Some have gone back to work because they need money for personal projects and others because the economy has decimated their retirement income. Young retirees, those aged 55 to 64, are the most likely to continue working at 25 percent, whereas only one in ten retirees over 65 works.