Noreen Goodchild wants to change her life. Richard, her husband, wishes she wouldn’t.

A year ago, Noreen was transferred from her comfortable government job close to home in Leduc, Alta., to another one 80 km away. The new job offered her more interesting work as a manager in the planning department of a federal government agency, plus a $15,000 salary increase. But although she enjoys the work, plus her gold-plated government pension and $80,000 salary, the stress of the daily two-hour commute is tiring her out. “I get up at 6 a.m. and I don’t get home until close to 7 in the evening,” says Noreen, 43. “It’s dark and there are moose and deer to look out for. But what bothers me most is that I barely have any time to spend with my 16-year old son, Sam, and my 7-year-old daughter, Mia. I want a job closer to home.”

Richard, also 43, sympathizes but admits that he feels differently. (We’ve changed both their names to protect their privacy.) As a private tutor and home-care worker, Richard earns about half of what Noreen makes—$45,000 annually—and has no company pension. Until now, the couple has always dreamed of retiring at 55 and the grand plan is that Noreen’s government pension will be a key piece in that retirement puzzle. The other piece is the nine-unit apartment building that the couple bought seven years ago. “We really can’t save any money as long as we hold on to it,” admits Richard. “But that doesn’t bother me, because I know that Noreen’s government pension at 55, along with the $35,000 net income from the nineplex at that time, will guarantee us early retirement.”

With $456,000 in mortgage debt on their real estate, there is no money left for retirement savings. And while the Goodchilds expect the nineplex to start making a few thousand dollars annually by next year (it has lost about $10,000 in each of the last two years), it won’t do more than that until the mortgage is gone. “Paying off all the real estate debt by 55 is all part of the early retirement plan,” says Richard.

Noreen, however, is more focused on the present. She wants to change jobs, sell the nineplex, and improve her quality of life now. She believes that the proceeds they would net from the sale of the building would give them a nice nest egg to grow over the next 12 years. “Without the debt we should be able to save another $15,000 annually, even if I am earning only $65,000,” says Noreen. If she left her government job today, her 11 years of service would still net her a $1,400-a-month pension that she can start receiving at 55. “That should be enough to retire on.”

Richard is skeptical. He feels they’ve never been able to save money, but they have been disciplined in paying down their mortgages, and the nineplex has doubled in value from $380,000 to about $800,000 today. He wants Noreen to stay in her job until she’s 55, which would allow her to collect a pension of $3,000 a month. But Noreen isn’t sure she can follow that plan.