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JUN 15: BEST FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE

June 15, 2020

60 per cent of pension plan members report barriers to retirement saving

New research from Benefits Canada magazine shows that even folks who are in retirement plans say they’re finding barriers to saving – all thanks to the impacts from the pandemic.

The magazine’s annual CAP (capital accumulation plan) Member Survey was carried during the start of the crisis, from March 30 to April 1.

A capital accumulation plan is any type of savings vehicle where members put in money – sometimes matched by the employer – over their working lives. At the end of work, the total amount saved for retirement is then either paid out to them via an annuity, drawn down from a special locked-in RRIF, or a combination of both.

The folks at Benefits Canada asked people in these types of plans how the pandemic was affecting their spending and saving habits.

The research found that Canadians “are continuing to juggle their financial priorities. More than half (54 per cent) of CAP members are prioritizing day-to-day expenses, followed by paying the mortgage or rent (47 per cent), paying off personal debt (38 per cent), enhancing personal savings (34 per cent) and saving for retirement (28 per cent),” the magazine reports.

A fairly low number of respondents – 41 per cent – “described their current financial situation as excellent or very good,” the magazine notes. A further 40 per cent said their finances were “adequate,” but 19 per cent said things were “somewhat poor or very poor.” A whopping 60 per cent said “they’re unable to save as much as they’d like for retirement due to other financial debts, such as credit cards or student loans,” Benefits Canada reports.

Debt is definitely a barrier to saving, the magazine reports. “I think the big thing we need to start to get across to workers, savers, Canadians . . . is that having too much credit card debt is the opposite side of insufficient retirement savings,” Joe Nunes, executive chairman of Actuarial Solutions Inc., states in the article. “It comes from too much spending. We have to get better at educating people that they need to keep the spending in check to get the savings in order.”

The problem, however, is that the pandemic is making Canadian household debt even worse.

“You don’t need to be a psychic to predict that over the next weeks and months, the country will see an increase in personal bankruptcies, while household debt is going to soar,” reports Maclean’s magazine. “Well before COVID-19, there was growing concern over the country’s personal finances, with debt-to-income ratios topping 176 per cent in the third quarter of 2019, which means for that every dollar of income we earn we owe $1.76.”

With so many people off work and receiving CERB benefits, which may equal only about half of what they were making at work, credit cards and lines of credit will feel the strain, the magazine predicts.

Let’s face it – at a time when just staying healthy and avoiding COVID-19 is the new national priority, followed by keeping a roof overhead and food in the fridge, retirement saving is going to get bumped to the bottom of most people’s to-do lists.

But remember that with some capital accumulation plans, like your RRSP or your Saskatchewan Pension Plan account, you can reduce your contributions and put in what you can. If you can’t chip in what you did last year, put in less. Any contribution, however small today, will benefit you in the future, thanks to the professional investment growth it will receive over the years. You can ramp things up again when better times return.

Written by Martin Biefer
Martin Biefer is Senior Pension Writer at Avery & Kerr Communications in Nepean, Ontario. A veteran reporter, editor and pension communicator, he’s now a freelancer. Interests include golf, line dancing, classic rock, and darts. You can follow him on Twitter – his handle is @AveryKerr22

JUN 8: BEST FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE

June 8, 2020

Will pandemic make us rethink our retirement plans?

Financial author Alexandra Macqueen, writing in MoneySense magazine, notes that we’ve always planned for retirement based on the assumption that things will be pretty much stable between the “now” of working and the “then” of retiring.

But, she asks, how will things change when the “now” is totally thrown into chaos by the pandemic?

Up until recently, she writes, we have thought about early, late, or part-time retirement. “All of these variations on the retirement theme have been built on a relatively steady set of economic conditions and assumptions: that housing and financial markets will remain stable, the economy will continue to function, and Canadians will continue to pay the Canada Pension Plan premiums and income taxes that keep CPP and Old Age Security payments flowing,” she explains.

But, she writes, the global pandemic and its “resulting economic fallout… could reshape retirement in Canada.”

First, she says, the idea of early retirement has always been associated with the idea that there are “fallbacks” if things don’t go smoothly – “returning to paid employment, harvesting home equity or counting on continued asset growth.”

But if jobs are scarce, property values drop and “markets tumble,” Macqueen notes, “these backup plans may not be available. As a result, more Canadians may opt to remain in their paid employment (if they’re employed) longer.”

As well, Canadians may find work hard to come by generally, and if they work part-time or via “gigs,” retirement savings will also be difficult to come up with, another reason Macqueen gives for seeing fewer early retirements going forward.

The next big change Macqueen predicts is that of Canadians finally coming to terms with their debt.

“The economic fallout from COVID-19 also means that many highly indebted Canadians will need to take a fresh look at the spending that got them where they are, because the security of the income or assets they expected to use to retire the debt has diminished or even disappeared,” she explains.

With no investment returns to pay down debt with, and with housing prices uncertain, Canadians may be forced to downsize their primary residence purely to save on mortgage costs, cut back on big vacations and fancy home renovations, or in extreme cases enter “a consumer proposal or bankruptcy proceedings to resolve outstanding debt,” she warns.

Finally, the COVID-19 era and its volatile market may result in a return to simpler and less risky retirement finances, such as guaranteed investment certificates (GICs) and annuities.

GICs carry almost no risk – they pay out a set amount of interest depending on the term of the certificate.

“A life annuity is a financial product, sold by an insurance company, that pays a guaranteed monthly income to the annuitant(s) for as long as they are alive—sort of like a “DIY version” of a defined-benefit pension,” notes Macqueen, co-author of a book on the subject, Pensionize Your Nest Egg.

Summing it up – we may need to work longer to have enough savings to retire on, or to pay off debt first before retiring, and when the wonderful day arrives, we might want to convert savings into a guaranteed lifetime income via annuities and GICs.

If you’re a member of the Saskatchewan Pension Plan, the idea of converting your retirement savings into a guaranteed lifetime income stream is already part of your retirement tool kit. SPP has a variety of annuity options available that will ensure you get a monthly cheque for as long as you’re alive. Check it out today.

Written by Martin Biefer
Martin Biefer is Senior Pension Writer at Avery & Kerr Communications in Nepean, Ontario. A veteran reporter, editor and pension communicator, he’s now a freelancer. Interests include golf, line dancing, classic rock, and darts. You can follow him on Twitter – his handle is @AveryKerr22

Jun 1: BEST FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE

June 1, 2020

If you’re nest-egg is getting a short-term pinch, it’s time to make do with less for a while

Those of us who are living on income from our retirement savings – drawing down from a big nest egg – are probably feeling like they are a GPS system in a car these days. Thanks to volatile investment conditions, the route has changed – and it’s time to recalculate.

An article on the Toronto.com site offers some interesting tips on how to cope with unpredictable income from volatile markets.

Those who “have seen that your stocks have been hit hard,” and who “realize they could fall further,” need “to act cautiously to bolster your finances without necessarily doing anything drastic, at least for now,” the article suggests.

“One simple but smart strategy is to find sensible ways to trim your spending once day-to-day living conditions return closer to normal. The comparison point is your expenditures before the (pandemic) struck,” the article explains. Don’t, the folks at Toronto.com add, base your “back to normal” spending on what you were doing during the pandemic, as “that doesn’t provide a useful model for spending prudently in normal times,” the article advises.

“A planned trim to spending is something you can do quickly; you can cut just what you feel you need to, then loosen the purse strings later when your portfolio eventually recovers. If conditions get worse, you can cut further, but only when and if required,” the article states.

The article points out that at age 65, the rule of thumb is that you need $25 of invested income for every dollar you want to take out and spend. If you expect your income will be depleted due to poor markets, it’s a time to take out less, not more, the article notes.

“While the relationship between spending and the current size of your portfolio will usually vary in subsequent years after you retire, you get the picture that you need a pretty sizable chunk of money in your nest egg to support each $1 of spending. So if you can cut a chunk out of spending without hurting your lifestyle too much, you can take a lot of pressure off a stressed portfolio and increase the odds your savings will last as long as you need it to.”

This great advice is worth heeding.

Members of the Saskatchewan Pension Plan can choose a different approach to managing their retirement income. An option they can choose is the life annuity – with this approach, SPP converts some or all of your account balance at retirement to a guaranteed, monthly payment that you’ll receive every month for the rest of your life. It can continue to a spouse or other beneficiary depending on what annuity option you select. Annuity recipients don’t have to worry about market conditions – however threatening the financial weather may be, they get the same amount every month.

Written by Martin Biefer
Martin Biefer is Senior Pension Writer at Avery & Kerr Communications in Nepean, Ontario. A veteran reporter, editor and pension communicator, he’s now a freelancer. Interests include golf, line dancing, classic rock, and darts. You can follow him on Twitter – his handle is @AveryKerr22

MAY 25: BEST FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE

May 25, 2020

Times are volatile, but there are things NOT to do with retirement savings: Gordon Pape

We’re living through a public health crisis that has undermined Canada’s economy and made the stock and bond markets go topsy-turvy.

Noted financial author Gordon Pape, writing in the St. Catharines Standard, says that this situation is particularly frightening to those among us who are living on their retirement savings.

Protecting your health, he writes, is number one. But number two should be protecting your savings, he advises.

“Some older Canadians have a significant amount of money tucked away in their retirement plans, and they don’t want to lose it,” writes Pape. “They’re depending on those RRSPs, RRIFs, and LIFs to support them in the coming years.”

He notes that the stock market “has taken a beating,” and “there’s turmoil in the bond market,” leaving many with no idea “which way to turn.”

Don’t get frightened and put everything into cash, Pape warns. “I’d prefer to have cash reserves to cover two years of expenses and invest the rest in government-issued fixed income securities, high-quality, dividend-paying stocks, and some gold funds or stocks.”

Putting your investments in cash is problematic, he writes. You won’t earn much interest. But the return of inflation could erode the spending power of your cash, notes Pape – governments are being forced to spend more than expected during the pandemic and some economists feel we could see inflation rates of up to three per cent in just a few years.

A second, albeit unlikely scenario with cash investing is bank failure. “Don’t misunderstand me here,” he stresses, “Canada’s banks are well-capitalized and among the strongest in the world.” But there have been failures among smaller institutions in years gone by.

Be sure to take advantage of the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation – you can put up to $100,000 per person in CDIC-backed savings accounts, so that in the unlikely event of bank problems, your money is insured, writes Pape.

Pape’s advice makes a lot of sense – he’s describing a balanced approach to retirement savings, with enough cash to cover your expenses for a couple of years, and then a mix of quality equities and government-backed bonds. For good measure, he also recommends a little exposure to precious metals.

There was a time, perhaps in the 1980s, when interest investing through GICs and high-interest savings accounts was seen as the right approach to retirement savings. But in those days, interest rates were far higher, at certain points of time reaching the mid-teens. Save with SPP remembers getting a $1,000 Canada Savings Bond that paid 16 per cent interest – and a car loan, from the bank, that cost 18 per cent interest! So the good old days weren’t always all that good.

The Saskatchewan Pension Plan’s Balanced Fund has an asset mix (as of December 2019) that features 29% bonds, 19% U.S. equity, 18% Canadian equity, 18% per cent non-North American equity, as well as exposure to real estate (10%), infrastructure (3%), mortgages (2%) and short-term investments (1%). Members who have holdings in this SPP fund are benefitting from diversification and professional investment management, with a goal of safe, low-risk growth. Check them out today.

Written by Martin Biefer
Martin Biefer is Senior Pension Writer at Avery & Kerr Communications in Nepean, Ontario. A veteran reporter, editor and pension communicator, he’s now a freelancer. Interests include golf, line dancing, classic rock, and darts. You can follow him on Twitter – his handle is @AveryKerr22

MAY 11: BEST FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE

May 11, 2020

Recession, sure – but keep saving what you can for retirement, experts say

Only the very oldest of us will remember times less scary than the spring of 2020, with so much illness, so many folks forced to stop working and stay home, and scary markets for investors.

Many of us are naturally more worried about keeping afloat financially than retirement savings.

However, a report in The Motley Fool blog says that this COVID-19 crisis should not be a reason to entirely give up on retirement saving.

“The coronavirus is driving the global economy into a recession. Stock markets are very volatile and it’s hard to tell where they’re headed. While it’s normal to be worried, you should continue to save for your retirement,” the blog advises.

You should continue to try and set aside “a small portion of your income for retirement savings,” notes the blog. One reason why is that if you don’t put money in a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) or registered pension plan, “you my not have as much extra money as you expect… as you’ll get a higher tax bill.”

The Motley Fool agrees with the idea of directing some of any precious extra dollars to an emergency fund in this crisis, “in case you get sick or lose your job.”

But, notes the Motley Fool, those who decided to quit saving for retirement during the last big recession more than a decade ago found themselves far behind those who kept saving and who “stayed on course.”

“A study by Teresa Ghilarducci, director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at the New School for Social Research, showed the negative impact on those who stopped or decreased their contributions during the 2008-2009 recession. People who came out of the markets sold low and bought high. We have to buy low and sell high to make money,” the blog reports.

“After the Great Recession, 64 per cent of high-income workers and 56 per cent of low income workers saw their accumulated retirement savings increase,” the blog adds.

Let’s recap what the blog is telling us, because there are several moving parts here. Some folks stopped saving for retirement during the last recession, and others sold their investments at the bottom of the market.

But those who kept contributing, and who didn’t sell, saw the value of their investments rise after the crisis was over.

It’s been said that every crisis has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It’s very hard to see the end when you’re at the beginning or even in the middle, but it will come eventually. If you can continue saving, even at a reduced rate, and if you can hold off selling your investments, your future you will thank you for remembering that one day, those savings will be your retirement income.

There’s a great little retirement savings trick that can really work well when markets are low. Say you’re contributing $100 per pay to your retirement account, and let’s say it is a balanced fund, such as that offered by the Saskatchewan Pension Plan. If you continue to chip in the same amount while markets are low, you are essentially buying low, which will help grow your savings when better times return.

Written by Martin Biefer
Martin Biefer is Senior Pension Writer at Avery & Kerr Communications in Nepean, Ontario. A veteran reporter, editor and pension communicator, he’s now a freelancer. Interests include golf, line dancing, classic rock, and darts. You can follow him on Twitter – his handle is @AveryKerr22

May 4: Best from the blogosphere

May 4, 2020

Pandemic crisis challenges some of our long-held financial beliefs

There’s no question about it, the COVID-19 pandemic and its disastrous impact on employment, the economy, and world markets is something we’ve not seen before.

And, writes Globe and Mail columnist Rob Carrick, the crisis is challenging some long-held notions about personal finance.

People used to think that, since the interest rates paid are so low, there was “no point in keeping money in a savings account,” Carrick writes. Instead, he notes, conventional pre-pandemic wisdom was to “access money when you’re in need from your home equity line of credit.”

However, now – given the sharply rising unemployment numbers – “piling on more debt to weather a layoff is a last resort, not a go-to strategy,” Carrick writes.

His next point is that up until now, most long-term saving by Canadians was for retirement, not for building an emergency fund. But retirement savings can’t be accessed – at least not without a big tax hit – for emergencies, so Carrick’s new rule of thumb suggests 75 per cent of savings go to retirement and the rest to an emergency fund.

Echoing his earlier point on the low rates paid via savings accounts and GICs, Carrick notes that those who invested their TFSA savings in fixed-income products can no longer be “mocked for their timidity and unworldliness.” They still have all their savings, while those in riskier TFSA investments have losses to deal with.

Given the high cost of housing, Carrick writes that most of us are used to “pushing (our) finances to the max to buy a house,” and dealing with “crushing” and huge mortgage payments. “But taking as much money as the bank will let you have means you have almost no ability to cope with a loss of income, particularly if you have kids and car payments,” he notes.

The other beliefs he shatters include carrying high debt – easy to do when you are working, less so otherwise – and “spending big” on your vehicles, particularly if you are getting your new truck or car through a car loan.

The takeaway points here are quite clear: paying for everything with debt is easy when jobs are plentiful, but it’s a recipe for disaster when times suddenly – and without any prior warning – get hard. Save with SPP knows more than a few people who have always “poo-poohed” savings because the interest rates are so low. Even if the interest rate was zero, having savings is a lot better than having debt when times get tough.

So perhaps Rob Carrick is right when he suggests going 75/25 on your retirement savings, with some money going to an emergency fund. Now that we’re in an emergency, some of us have that extra bit of security, while the rest must scramble. Now may not be the best time for much saving, but when better times return, let’s all remember this solid advice.

If you are looking for a good place to put away 75 cents of your savings dollar, be sure to check out the Saskatchewan Pension Plan. The SPP’s two major funds, the Balanced Fund and the Diversified Income Fund, are professionally managed, and when the markets are choppy, it’s good to know that there are experienced hands on deck, folks who know how to protect and preserve your savings for the long haul.

Written by Martin Biefer
Martin Biefer is Senior Pension Writer at Avery & Kerr Communications in Nepean, Ontario. A veteran reporter, editor and pension communicator, he’s now a freelancer. Interests include golf, line dancing, classic rock, and darts. You can follow him on Twitter – his handle is @AveryKerr22

Apr 27: Best from the blogosphere

April 27, 2020

The pros and cons of allowing emergency access to retirement funds

It’s been a grim time for all of us, coping with this pandemic, and Save with SPP and everyone at the Saskatchewan Pension Plan hopes everyone is staying safe.

With businesses closing, and the jobless rate rising, some experts are suggesting that raiding the retirement cookie jar be allowed – penalty-free – to help people access savings during the emergency.

Interviewed by Benefits Canada, noted pension expert and actuary Malcolm Hamilton was asked what he thought about a plan by Australia to allow folks there to withdraw up to $10,000 a year from their superannuation plans this year and next.

““It looks to me very creative and very sensible,” Hamilton, also a senior fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute, told the magazine. The magazine notes that the withdrawal option Down Under is open only to people “who are unemployed or who have had their working hours reduced by 20 per cent or more.”

“Telling people you’ve got to leave your money in your pension plan so you have enough money later, when you don’t have enough money now, is really stupid… who, given a choice, would elect to be hungry now instead of hungry later? You have to deal with the immediate needs first,” Hamilton tells Benefits Canada.

Other experts, the magazine reports, agree. Financial author Fred Vettese also sees the Australian policy as a good idea.

“Why not do this? What they’re doing is simply giving people access to their own money sooner. I don’t see anything wrong than that. And they’re not giving them all their money; it’s fairly limited and it’s also under fairly strict conditions,” he tells the magazine.

Other experts see downsides to allowing an early withdrawal of retirement savings.

Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald of Ryerson University’s National Institute on Ageing tells the magazine she is concerned that allowing emergency access to retirement funds might be “short-sighted.” (Here’s a link to an earlier Save with SPP interview with her.)

“The idea is that this will pass and, if we can get beyond it without tapping into our nest egg, then that’s the better approach because life will need to go on,” she tells the magazine.

And Hugh O’Reilly, a senior fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute, says people who take their money out now, at the peak of a crisis, will be effectively selling low, and will miss out when markets rebound. “I think it’s going to do it much more rapidly than in a typical bear-market scenario,” he tells Benefits Canada.

There are already a few allowable reasons – making a down payment for a home, or paying for education – where Canadians can tap into their Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) early. But in both cases, the money is supposed to be repaid, and those who don’t repay are taxed annually on what they should have repaid. And if you just withdraw RRSP money, there’s a withholding tax followed by a possible second tax hit when you file your income tax.

That all said, we have never seen times like these. Maybe the government will decide to permit withdrawals with some sort of repayment option down the road. Save with SPP worries about people taking money out of their retirement savings for other purposes and then not being able to afford to replace it, because that could lead to hardship when they are older.

One great thing about being a member of the Saskatchewan Pension Plan is that it is an open plan. You can decide how much to put into your account, and when times are tough, you can choose to reduce or even stop contributing until better times return.

Written by Martin Biefer
Martin Biefer is Senior Pension Writer at Avery & Kerr Communications in Nepean, Ontario. A veteran reporter, editor and pension communicator, he’s now a freelancer. Interests include golf, line dancing, classic rock, and darts. You can follow him on Twitter – his handle is @AveryKerr22

Apr 20: Best from the blogosphere

April 20, 2020

Stay the course on your retirement savings plans, experts say

If you’re a retirement saver, these past few months of pandemic-related market turmoil have no doubt raised your blood pressure and caused concern.

Experts tell us to take a deep breath, and to remember this crisis will eventually end, and things will move back to normal, reports The Record.

“While many Canadians may be panicking as they watch their retirement funds drop by tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, financial experts say it’s important to stay the course regardless of how close to retirement they are — and even if they’ve already finished working,” The Record reports.

“I would certainly encourage all of us to take a big collective deep breath,” states Karin Mizgala, co-founder and CEO of Money Coaches Canada, in the article.

If you aren’t planning to access the savings for retirement income any time soon, you should “stay the course” on your retirement plan, Mizgala tells The Record.

And even if you are withdrawing funds from your retirement savings, it’s important to put the market downturn in perspective, financial author Kelly Keehn says in the article.

“It’s not like you have to cash it all out the year that you retire, and I think people forget that,” she tells The Record.

If your funds are in a Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF), the federal government is planning to put new rules in place reducing the amount you have to take out. (Full details on this rule change are covered in this article in Advisor’s Edge).

As well, the article says, you can choose to defer your withdrawals until later in the year, when markets are expected to start rebounding.

Noting that markets lost 35 per cent of their value in 2008/9, and then fully recovered and increased in value, Keehn makes an important conclusion.

“The takeaway is: If this was causing you sleepless nights, maybe in the future you need to adjust your risk tolerance and your risk exposure. But it doesn’t mean acting on it now. That’s for darn sure… This is not the time to make those changes,” she tells The Record.

If you are a member of the Saskatchewan Pension Plan, there’s a feature of the plan you should consider if, as Kelly Keehn says, the markets are causing you to worry and lose sleep. With SPP, one of your options at retirement is to receive some or all of your savings in the form of a life annuity. With an annuity, you get the exact same amount each month, regardless of whether markets are up or down. And you’ll get that amount for life – and can provide for your survivors too, if you choose to. It’s an option that offers peace of mind, so check it out on their website today.

Written by Martin Biefer
Martin Biefer is Senior Pension Writer at Avery & Kerr Communications in Nepean, Ontario. A veteran reporter, editor and pension communicator, he’s now a freelancer. Interests include golf, line dancing, classic rock, and darts. You can follow him on Twitter – his handle is @AveryKerr22

Apr 6: Best from the blogosphere

April 6, 2020

With CPP, the longer you wait, the more you’ll get

For quite some time now, the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) has been available as an early retirement benefit – you can get it, with a reduction for taking it early, at age 60.

But is taking it at 60 the “no brainer” many seem to think it is?

An article in the Flin Flon Reminder suggests otherwise.

The article, quoting financial advisers, says it rarely makes sense to take CPP at 60, and “there are even fewer reasons to start drawing retirement funds while you’re still working.”

“I don’t advise taking CPP until you’re actually retired,” states Willis Langford, a Calgary-based investment planner, in the article. He adds that CPP, along with Old Age Security (OAS), “form the very base of a retirement income plan and you shouldn’t tap into it until you’re ready to start accessing all of your sources of income in retirement.”

Yet, the article notes, about 12.6 per cent of all CPP beneficiaries are taking their benefit early, and face a reduction in the benefit of 36 per cent – “0.6 per cent per each month… before you turn age 65,” the article explains. Those who can wait until age 70 to start CPP get an increase in their benefit of 42 per cent – 0.7 per cent for each month after age 65 that they are not collecting the CPP.

The article explains this with a couple of examples. Someone earning $50,000 a year would get $10,760 in CPP benefits ($897 per month) if he or she starts at age 65. If the same person starts at age 60, they would get “just $551 per month – about $6,600 a year.” As well, if the early collector continues to work while they receive CPP, they would have to make $2,300 a year in CPP contributions.

These extra contributions would boost the CPP benefit at age 65 to $658 a month ($7,896 a year) – still much less than what you get if you start at 65, the article notes. And if the person waits until age 70, he or she would get $1,422 per month ($17,064 a year).

Why, the article asks, do some folks take it early, given all this?

“If you knew you were going to live for a very, very long time, generally you would wait. The longer you wait, the more you would get,” Brad Goldhar of BMO Private Wealth tells The Reminder. “But if you knew at age 60 that your family history suggested not many years of longevity, you might take it early,” he states.

The bottom line – be sure you know the rules for CPP when you’re thinking about taking it.

Similarly, if you are a member of the Saskatchewan Pension Plan, and decide on a life annuity when you retire, be sure to get an estimate. Just like with CPP, the later you start your annuity, the more you will get per month. And generally speaking, more is usually a good thing when it comes to retirement income.

Written by Martin Biefer
Martin Biefer is Senior Pension Writer at Avery & Kerr Communications in Nepean, Ontario. A veteran reporter, editor and pension communicator, he’s now a freelancer. Interests include golf, line dancing, classic rock, and darts. You can follow him on Twitter – his handle is @AveryKerr22

Mar 30: Best from the blogosphere

March 30, 2020

Is Freedom 55 changing to Freedom 70?

Younger people are, for the most part, saving away merrily for retirement. But new research from Mercer, reported on by Benefits Canada, suggests the younger set may be going about things too conservatively.

That, in turn, could force them to keep working until age 70, the article explains.

Why?

“The report found millennials often opt to invest conservatively in low-risk, short-term investments such as money market funds. Using this strategy means many younger workers may not be able to retire until they’re 70,” the magazine reports.

(Save with SPP will remark that at the time of writing, with stock markets making thousand-point daily swings, “low-risk” investments are sounding pretty good.)

However, Benefits Canada reminds us, it’s not short-term results that matter with retirement savings – it’s a long haul from being a perky young person to a grey-haired gold watch recipient. Your rate of return over the long-term, not the short-term, is what really matters.

A more balanced approach, the magazine reports – citing the Mercer findings – such as “a healthy mix of equities and bonds” could allow our millennial friends to log off for the last time as early as age 67.

Equities carry risk, the article notes, but millennials need to aim for a long-term rate of return of six per cent or better to reach retirement savings targets. “A savings rate that’s any lower than six per cent total annual combined employer and employee contributions means retirement may not be possible at all,” Benefits Canada warns.

Other retirement-limiting factors for millennials include debt, paying off student loans, and entering the expensive housing market,” the magazine notes. “Those factors make age 65 retirement very unlikely for most millennials.

It’s a similar story for the slightly older Gen X group, the article reports. Those age 45 should be trying to ensure that they contribute 17 per cent of their gross earnings (this includes their own contributions plus any employer match) towards retirement savings, the article adds.

Even boomers, who generally had better access to workplace pension plans, are going to find it hard to leave work by age 65, Benefits Canada tells us. “One factor delaying retirement age for boomers is the shift from DB to defined contribution plans, requiring a mindset shift many aren’t making, said the report. Also, employers offering less conservative investment vehicles, such as target-date funds, didn’t become commonplace until 2010, which likely proved too late for some boomers,” the article explains.

Do you see the common thread here? Those who save early in a balanced savings vehicle have a better chance of hitting their retirement goals. Those starting in their 40s need to chip in much more, and once you are 60 plus you better hope you have a pension plan at work, because your savings runway is running out of pavement.

It sounds daunting, for sure. But if you are looking for a balanced approach to saving for retirement, the Saskatchewan Pension Plan offers the Balanced Fund, which has averaged an impressive eight per cent rate of return since its inception in the 1980s. With SPP, you decide how much to contribute – you can start small when you’re young, and ramp it up as you get older. Fees are low, and the level of expertise by SPP’s investors high. Be sure to check out SPP today.

Written by Martin Biefer
Martin Biefer is Senior Pension Writer at Avery & Kerr Communications in Nepean, Ontario. A veteran reporter, editor and pension communicator, he’s now a freelancer. Interests include golf, line dancing, classic rock, and darts. You can follow him on Twitter – his handle is @AveryKerr22