​The kids who beat their parents to retirement – and the guilt that comes with it 

Open this photo in gallery:Manon Breton-Couture at her home in Montreal on Jan. 30.Lisa Milosavljevic/The Globe and MailPlease log in to bookmark this story.When Manon Breton-Couture, 52, retired last December, she expected to feel happy. After all, she had achieved something that most people don’t: Retiring more than a decade earlier than the average Canadian.Instead, she felt the opposite.“I feel guilty because my parents still work,” she said.While she is enjoying slow mornings with coffee in hand, Ms. Breton-Couture’s mother, 72, is working as a crossing guard in the cold in Laval, Que. Her 79-year-old father still sells mattresses in Quebec City.“The feeling of shame was very strong,” the former nurse said. “I didn’t feel like celebrating at all.”Ms. Breton-Couture is part of a small group of Canadians who have managed to retire before their parents. Following the tenets of the FIRE (financial independence, retire early) movement, they’ve been able to save enough to walk away from work – yet their parents are still punching the clock.Stress Test podcast: How some Canadians manage to retire in their 30sHow the FIRE early retirement movement survives – and thrives – despite stock market volatilityWith the average retirement age in Canada at 65.3 in 2024, according to Statistics Canada, it’s uncommon for a child to be able to retire before their parents. Marlene Buxton, a certified financial planner and owner of Buxton Financial for Retirement, estimates that only 2 per cent of her clients fit the bill.But for those select few who do, she’s noticed the extra weight on their shoulders.“It doesn’t follow the path we normally would think would happen,” she said, referring to the conventional life stages: get an education, work, build a career, retire at 65. Instead of celebrating their financial success, she said many early retirees feel bad that they’re in a better situation than their parents.But she believes that shouldn’t be the case. “Why do people have to justify that they’re financially independent at a younger age?” she said. “They shouldn’t have to. They should be happy and pleased with that and not have it be a negative thing,” she said.Ms. Breton-Couture said she watched her parents overspend her whole life, struggling through financial setbacks.There were times when there was “no food in the fridge because there was no money,” she said. “I think that’s the reason why I saved from a very early age.”By 27, she had set a goal: accumulate $1-million by retirement. She checked that off by 45. By February, 2024, she had $2-million.She knew it was time to step away from work – that was the easy part. But telling her parents? She couldn’t even say the word “retire” and instead told them she was just taking a break, knowing full well she wasn’t going back to work.Despite her financial independence, she remains deeply involved in her parents’ finances. Ms. Breton-Couture bough