Retirement
Addressing Major Gaps In Your Retirement Plan
A good majority of my clients reach out to me looking for retirement planning advice. They want to know if they have enough assets to retire comfortably, how much longer they should work, what type of investment strategy makes sense in retirement, when to take CPP and OAS, and how to set up tax efficient…
Read MoreThe Risk Of Carrying A Mortgage Into Retirement
A mortgage-free home is the cornerstone of any solid retirement plan. Indeed, decades ago it would have been considered a major financial sin to carry a mortgage into retirement. But times are changing. The proportion of seniors with mortgage debt has almost doubled from 8% to 14% (from 1999 – 2016). Seniors also have the…
Read MorePreparing For Retirement: Understanding New Spending Patterns
Last week we talked about boosting retirement savings during your final working years. In an ideal world you’ll have the double-effect of being in your peak earning years while your largest financial obligations are in the rear-view mirror. In the real world, however, many Canadians are faced with an uncertain retirement because they lack adequate…
Read MoreBoosting Retirement Savings During Your Final Working Years
Whether you’re a late starter or seasoned saver, the five years or so leading up to retirement might be the most crucial time to get your finances in order. Here’s how to take advantage of your final working years. Most retirement readiness checklists suggest your final working years is a time to double-down on retirement…
Read MoreTackling Changes To Your Retirement Income Plan
Spending money is easy. Saving and investing is supposed to be the difficult part. But there’s a reason why Nobel laureate William Sharpe called “decumulation”, or spending down your retirement savings, the nastiest, hardest problem in finance. Indeed, retirement planning would be easy if we knew the following information in advance: Future market returns and…
Read MoreMy Pension Decision: Deferred Pension or Commuted Value
There are few personal finance decisions more difficult or complex than the choice between taking a deferred pension in retirement or a lump sum (commuted) value today. It’s a choice many Canadians face each year if they leave a job with a defined benefit pension plan. (If you have a defined contribution pension plan, there’s…
Read MoreRRSPs Are Not A Scam: A Guide For The Anti-RRSP Crowd
“I don’t invest in my RRSP anymore because I’ll have to pay tax on the withdrawals.” This type of thinking around RRSPs has become increasingly common since the TFSA was introduced in 2009. The anti-RRSP crowd must come from one of two schools of thought: They believe their tax rate will be higher in the…
Read MoreUsing a Robo-Advisor in Retirement: A Wealthsimple Case Study
Readers often ask how an index investing approach can work for retirees or soon-to-be retirees. A low cost, globally diversified portfolio of ETFs is great for those in the accumulation stage, but retirees need income. How do they get it? When asked this question I often point to this excellent piece in MoneySense written by…
Read MoreRetirees Can Sell Most Of Their Stocks As They Approach Retirement
Retirement can be a scary time for retirees who have considerable and even modest portfolios. We want to protect those assets. And certainly the risk tolerance level for most retirees will drop considerably. And that risk tolerance level will often drive the bus with respect to your allocation to bonds and cash and other risk…
Read MoreWhat I’ve Learned So Far In Retirement
Through most of the five years the Financial Independence Hub has existed, Boomer & Echo’s Robb Engen has been kind enough to allow the “Hub” to republish some of his blogs that first appeared on his own site. He recently suggested we turn the tables and invited me to write a guest blog for Boomer…
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