We’re living through an era where all the everyday things we spend money on cost a whole lot more than they did a year or two ago.

With that in mind, Save with SPP decided to do a little digging for some new (to us) ideas on how to keep more of your money in your purse or wallet.

The Asterisk blog offers up a few, including the idea of ditching your landline (if you haven’t already). “Paying… for a landline you barely use just doesn’t make sense,” the blog advises.

Other ideas include getting rid of traditional cable and making do with programming from an antenna on the roof, and/or the free streaming apps offered by major TV networks.

The blog also suggests you review your credit card statements each month to look for any subscriptions you can live without.

At the Millennial Money blog, we are urged to “stop paying for music” via streaming services. This is a good one. Here at home, we “ripped” all of our old CDs, stored them in the cloud, and used the Cloud Beats app to listen to them when in the car. You already paid for the CDs, so why not listen to them?

Another good idea from Millennial Money is to make use of your local public library.

“There’s really no reason to buy books or media on Amazon when you can just as easily visit your local library for a virtually unlimited selection of items,” the blog advises.

“The thing to remember about libraries is that you pay for them with your tax dollars. So, if you don’t frequent your local library, you’re literally flushing money down the drain,” the blog adds.

Our late father would like another of the cost-saving suggestions — “turn off the lights.” The blog notes that “people often lose a lot of money because they leave lights on around the house.” Check to see if this is true at your house!

The (Mostly) Simple Life blog offers up a few more.

A good one is to borrow, rather than buy or rent. “I’m sure that I could find a family member or friend to borrow from instead of purchasing something that’s just going to sit around most of the time,” the blog advises. “We’ve borrowed tools, suitcases, and extra bedding for guests instead of buying something we might only need once,” the blog adds.

Another nice idea is to shop with cash, rather than with debit or credit cards.

“If you have a hard time sticking to your budget, don’t bring more cash than you are supposed to spend,” the blog notes. “If you only have $50 to spend on groceries, bring $50 of cash into the store.” Boomers will recall that in the days before widespread credit card use, cash with truly the Monarch of Money — the main, and most common way to pay.

The My Money Coach blog has some great ideas as well.

The blog advises us to “give every dollar a job.” Huh?

This strategy involves finding “a home for every dollar in your budget so you’re not tempted to make thoughtless purchases by thinking `if I have the money sitting around, I’ll spend it,’” the blog explains.

“Start telling your money where to go once you deposit your paycheque: pay all of your bills first, then move the remainder to other accounts, such as a savings account or your retirement fund. By ensuring that every dollar has a home, you’ll be less likely to spend away your entire paycheque. To make things easier, you can set up an automatic transfer on payday to divvy up your paycheque into separate accounts, so you won’t be tempted to spend it,” the blog explains.

Other good advice from My Money Coach includes leaving credit cards at home when you go shopping, and the classics of having a budget and tracking spending.

We’ll add a couple that have worked for us over the years. Guaranteed investment certificates are basically a savings account that pays you interest, but can’t be accessed for a specified term, typically one to five years. Money that you can’t easily get at to spend tends to grow. It’s a piggy bank that can only be opened every few years.

Shopping at thrift stores is another great way to have fun hunting for treasure while saving money. It’s amazing what you can find, and you are usually paying a few bucks instead of $50 or $100. We brag to our friends at the golf course, especially after sinking a long putt, that our vintage putter cost $3 at Value Village.

The Saskatchewan Pension Plan makes it easy for you to automate the building of your retirement nest egg. SPP allows you to make pre-authorized contributions (PACs) to your account. Through PACs, you can have money directed to your SPP account every payday, so that you’re literally paying your future self first! Check out SPP today!

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Do you have several registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) accounts?

When Save with SPP thinks back to the mid-1980s, when our first RRSP was started, we probably have had about 10 providers up to now. Presently, we are down to two. Sometimes it was because we bought RRSPs through a specific bank, sometimes we moved our self-directed RRSP from one provider to another.  That made us wonder. Is it better to have multiple RRSP accounts, or should we all try to consolidate them into one?

The MD Financial website lists four reasons why consolidation may work in your favour. MD Financial assists Canadian physicians with their retirement savings.

First, an article on their site explains, “it’s simpler to manage accounts at one institution.” And since most financial institutions charge fees, maybe one fee is better than many, the article adds.

It’s also easier to review all your investments if they are all in one place, the article notes.

“When all of your RRSP assets are visible in one spot, you can more easily confirm whether your investments are right for you,” the MD article notes. “This is especially true as you start to withdraw from those accounts to create income, or as you approach the end of the calendar year in which you turn 71, when RRSP assets need to be converted to a registered retirement income fund or used to purchase an annuity,” the article continues. Working from one account will make getting your retirement income flow less complicated, the article adds. “With multiple sources of savings to draw on, consolidating your RRSP assets with one financial institution can make it easier to manage your retirement income cash flow,” the article explains. “That way, you’re making RRSP withdrawals from just one institution,” the MD article reports.

An article from a few years back by Terry McBride of the StarPhoenix makes some similar points.

“Having separate RRSP accounts with various banks is not a very efficient way to achieve safety through diversification. By consolidating and using just one self-directed RRSP, you can hold marketable bonds, exchange traded funds (ETFs) or guaranteed income certificates (GICs) issued by any number of banks, trust companies or credit unions. You can have as much diversification and Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation coverage as you want. Savings in mutual fund management fees from consolidating can more than offset your self-directed RRSP administration fee,” notes McBride.

It will also make it easier for your executor if they have only one financial institution, rather than multiple ones, to deal with, the article adds. And as well, the article concludes, you will save a few trees (or emails) by not having as many statements to read.

The Motley Fool blog makes another interesting point about fees — if your various retirement accounts all are charged different fees, it may makes sense to consolidate within an account that has lower fees.

“Costly fees will hamper the growth of your savings,” the blog warns.

An article on the Marketwatch website says consolidation is a great way to put little pieces of pension from various jobs in your career into one spot, prior to retiring.

“While putting everything together, you may remember accounts you had completely forgotten about, such as a 401(k) (similar to a Canadian group RRSP) from an employer you were with for only a few years, or a pension benefit you may be eligible for based on the company’s requirements,” the article adds.

Do you have your retirement savings in multiple places? If you’re a member of the Saskatchewan Pension Plan, you can consolidate them within SPP. Under SPP’s rules, you can transfer in up to $10,000 from an RRSP each calendar year. Transferred funds will be invested by SPP at a low management fee, typically less than one per cent, and you’ll be able to keep an eye on your account whenever you want via My SPP. Check out SPP today!

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We had just finished off a one-hour line dancing class the other day when a friend excitedly pointed out that her watch had counted X thousand steps for the hour.

Golf buddies of ours also seem to have embraced this new trend — their watches not only count strokes, distances, calculate golf handicaps and so on, but now, count steps. So it’s Y thousand steps per round of golf.

Save with SPP, as a known technical luddite, decided to take a closer look at why everyone seems to be into this new trend.

According to the Health Prep blog, step counters “have become increasingly popular over the past decade,” and are “great tools for increasing your overall fitness level and encouraging healthy habits.” The counters are typically either built into your smart watch, or are devices you wear on your wrist or attach to your belt, but they all do the same thing — “they measure the movement of the individual’s body to calculate the number of steps they have taken,” the article explain.

Some of the smart watches also measure “heart rate, calories burned and sleep patterns,” the article notes, adding that the devices can lead one into more exercise and ideally, fitness and weight lost.

Okay, so it counts your steps — how many should you be shooting for?

An article on the Mayo Clinic website says the average American walks 3,000 to 4,000 steps a day, but that a popular step counter target is 10,000 a day.

But, the article advises, rather than shooting for that target right out of the box, you should first get a handle on what your average “step day” looks like. “It’s a good idea to find out how many steps a day you walk now, as your own baseline. Then you can work up toward the goal of 10,000 steps by aiming to add 1,000 extra steps a day every two weeks,” the article notes.

This makes great sense. How can you “improve” your walking if you don’t know how much you were doing before you got the watch?

The article says that increased walking has many health benefits, including reducing the risk for heart disease, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and depression.

An article on the Live Science blog explores the benefits a little further. It’s good for the average person because the step counting data received is “intuitive and understandable to the layperson… easy to measure, objective, motivational and help(s) to facilitate behaviour change.”

U.S. guidelines suggest that 150 to 300 minutes a week of “moderate intensity exercise,” like walking, is the recommended level for adults. If the activity is “vigorous intensity,” (perhaps running, say) the recommended adult level is 75 to 150 minute a week, the article says.

An article on the Inverse blog expands on the idea of knowing what your baseline daily step count is before shooting for the magic 10,000 figure.

The article contends that 10,000 steps is not a scientific target, but the result of a marketing campaign for an early Japanese step counter.

“The gadget was named Manpo-kei because, in Japanese, it translates to “10,000 steps meter,” the article notes. “But the idea of 10,000 steps as an `ideal’ wasn’t exactly based in science. Rather, the Japanese character for “10,000” resembles a person walking — so it’s commonly thought, though hard to prove definitively, that the seeming similarity is the humble origin story of a now much-vaunted fitness target,” the article adds.

The article reiterates what we’ve seen elsewhere, that the typical person only walks 2,700 to 4,400 steps a day, so rather than trying to double or triple their typical day’s walking, they should increase it incrementally.

Save with SPP walked for exercise while working in downtown Toronto. At our least fit level, we could walk perhaps four blocks in an hour. We gradually increased our distance (speed) and by the end of our time there could walk maybe 10 blocks in the same period of time. Start with what you can handle, and gradually increase your goal.

It’s a similar story with retirement saving. Start by putting away an amount you can afford — we started with $25 a month in the mid-1980s. As you earn more, ratchet it up, and by paying yourself first, you won’t even notice that you are putting away hundreds, and eventually thousands, away. A great destination for those hard-earned savings is the Saskatchewan Pension Plan. Check them out today!

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Saving for retirement sounds like building wealth, but there’s a twist. After the saving is done, you’ll be wanting to convert that piggy bank into income for your golden years.

Do you bet it all on black, or is there a more sensible approach to investing for retirement? Save with SPP scouted the Interweb for some thoughts on the principles behind retirement investing.

Forbes magazine suggests retirement investors should take advantage of “tax advantaged accounts” available to them. In Canada, this would be things like a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) or tax free savings account (TFSA).

The article suggests an “asset allocation” approach makes sense for retirement investing, with a portion of your investments targeting growth, through exposure to equities (stocks), and the rest to income, via fixed income investments, such as bonds.

You can either buy stocks and bonds directly, or via exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds, the article adds.

Forbes believes that your age should help dictate the portion of your holdings that is in equities versus that in fixed income. In your 20s, the article notes, you should invest “90 to 100 per cent” in equities. By your 50s, you should be around 65 per cent equities and 35 per cent bonds, and once over 70, “30 to 50 per cent in stocks, 40 to 60 per cent bonds,” with the rest in cash.

At The Motley Fool Canada, dividend stocks are seen as one of the best investments in a retirement portfolio.

“You pay lower income taxes on dividend income from dividend stocks than your job’s income, interest income, and foreign income. Therefore, it is one of the best incomes to build up and grow as soon as you can. This low-taxed income will benefit you through retirement,” writes The Motley Fool’s Kay Ng.

She also notes that even if you have paid off your mortgage when you retire, you are still going to need income “to pay for home insurance, property taxes, and potentially utilities, condo, or home repair fees during retirement.”

Her article suggests real estate income trusts (REITs) are an investment well suited for your retirement portfolio. Owning REITs, she explains, is like owning shares in a property that is being rented out — you’ll get regular monthly income (like rent) and the value of the properties held by the REIT tend to go up over the long term.

The folks at MoneySense note the RRSP, now more than six decades old, is still a “go-to” for Canadian retirement investors.

The article begins by noting that the RRSP allows investments to grow on a “tax deferred basis,” meaning no taxes are owed until you take the money out in retirement. The Saskatchewan Pension Plan (SPP) operates very similarly, for tax purposes.

MoneySense agrees with the idea that Canadian dividend stocks make sense in your retirement investment portfolio, as they are taxed at a lower rate than foreign stocks in a non-registered account and aren’t taxed in a registered account.

Since the end game of retirement investing is converting savings to income, MoneySense notes the annuity — “which pays a fixed income for life” — is a good idea for some or all of your savings once you have retired.

So, let’s recap. You want to build your retirement portfolio with a mixture of dividend-producing stocks, and interest-producing (and lower risk) fixed-income investments. Real estate income is seen as beneficial both before and after retirement. When retirement begins, these sources will provide regular income, and if you want to guarantee the level of income, you can convert some or all of your holdings to an annuity.

If you’re hesitant about wading into this somewhat complex topic, another way to go is to join the SPP. SPP’s Balanced Fund is invested in Canadian, U.S. and international equities, but also bonds, mortgages, real estate, infrastructure and money market funds. The savings of SPP members are invested, at a very low cost, in a large pooled fund. And when it’s time to collect your SPP benefit, you can choose from a variety of annuity options for some or all of your account. Check out SPP today!

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It’s inevitable for most of us to bail on our New Year’s resolutions early in the year — say, February.

But there must be some folks who succeed, right? With that in mind Save with SPP took a look around to find a few New Year’s Resolution success stories.

An article from a while ago in Canadian Living found a few.

34-year-old Steven of Saint John’s, NL resolved to “get a training plan together, and try to do it.” The “it” he was referring to was running a marathon — and by the fall, he had succeeded, the article reports.

“I just created a very long-range plan, which built up my running times bit by bit, so that it seemed more manageable,” he tells Canadian Living.

A second testimonial in the same article comes from Jenn, 27, of Kitsilano. She had long resolved to start saving, aiming to get a condo one day.

“Last January I made a resolution to actually set up automatic withdrawal from my paycheque straight to a savings account each month. I don’t have enough yet for a down payment, but I’m doing OK. I think I have been successful because the money comes out as soon as I get paid so I don’t really see it or feel it,” she tells Canadian Living.

An article in the New Hampshire Bulletin offers up a couple more successes.

Ann Patchett, the article notes, successfully gave up shopping for an entire year.

“Patchett’s resolution was actually an effort to understand what was driving her to buy things she didn’t need. By the end of the year, after a thousand little decisions not to buy this or that, she had fundamentally changed,” the article notes.

It’s not easy to find a lot of “kept resolution” success stories, and perhaps some stats courtesy of the Discover Happy Habits blog explain why.

A 2016 study, the blog reveals, of Americans found that of the 41 per cent who made New Year’s Resolutions, only “nine per cent feel they are successful in keeping them.” And an earlier 2007 research project found only “12 per cent of participants who set resolutions were successful,” despite the fact that 52 per cent were “confident of success at the beginning.”

The three little successes covered off in this post are interesting. The marathon runner “had a long-range plan” broken up into easy little steps. Our Kitsilano saver made her savings plan automatic — removing temptation to spend from the equation. Our New Hampshire non-shopper found her willpower increased the longer she stuck to her plan.

Taken together, these steps should work whatever your resolution is — a long-term plan, made automatic, that you stick with.

If saving for retirement is your objective, the Saskatchewan Pension Plan can make it automatic for you. Members can have regular deposits made to their bank accounts through SPP’s pre-authorized contribution program. That way, your contributions are made regularly, perhaps each payday, meaning you’re filling your nest egg before you have a chance to spend the coins at the mall. Check out SPP today!

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You’re enjoying your retirement party, your last paycheque is about to be deposited, and soon you’ll be cracking into your retirement savings.

All smooth sailing? Well, it can be if retirees are aware — in advance — of some of the bumps in the road ahead. Save with SPP took a look at the most common risks faced by those of us who are retired.

If your retirement savings are invested and you plan to live off the proceeds, investment risk and inflation should be near the top of your list, reports the Financial Post.

“Turbulent markets, soaring inflation and a higher cost of living are all impacting older workers that are transitioning to full or part-time retirement,” Mercer Canada’s F. Hubert Tremblay tells the Post.

The Kiplinger website adds a few more. Will you outlive your savings, the article asks? That’s known as “portfolio failure risk,” and can happen even if you have a set withdrawal rate, such as taking out no more than four per cent of your savings each year.

“Another withdrawal method is guessing how long you’ll live and dividing your savings by 20 to 30 years—but what happens if you live 31 years,” the article asks.

They also cite “unexpected financial responsibility risk” as being a possible challenge — this would involve having to help out adult children or ageing parents — or both.

The Wealth of Geeks blog offers up a few more risks, including a surprising one — frustration.

“Retirees are frustrated with their retirement,” the article notes. “On average, retirees rate their satisfaction in retirement as 7.0 out of 10 in 2022, compared to 7.4 in 2020. Similarly, retirees ranked their alignment of life in retirement with their prior expectations at an average of 6.4 in 2022, down from 6.8 in 2020,” the article continues.

A lot of the frustration is linked to inflation — the fact that everything costs more than it did even a year ago, the article continues. Having less to spend than expected while on a fixed income becomes a source of frustration, the article explains.

Forbes magazine sees three chief risks for retirees. The first two, inflation and investment risk, we’ve covered — but the third is possibly even more important — longevity risk.

“While there are a lot of benefits to living a long time, longevity increases financial risk. You need to pay the living expenses for all those extra years. Also, your annual expenses might increase, because people generally need more medical and long-term care as they age,” the Forbes article explains.

Save with SPP has been embedded in the camp of retirement for more than eight years now, and we can add another risk to the list — carrying debt into retirement.

According to the Canadian Press, via CP24, Canadians have $1.83 in debt for every dollar they earn.

While that’s bad, having debt when retired (and living on less income) is worse. Trying to reduce debt prior to retirement is, in many people’s opinion, almost as important as retirement savings.

It’s a daunting list of potential pitfalls. The best way to arm yourself against future risks is to have retirement savings and thus, future retirement income.

If you have a pension or retirement system through work, you are ahead of the curve. If you don’t, consider the Saskatchewan Pension Plan. SPP is a pension plan any Canadian with registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) room can join. SPP will take your contributions, as well as transfers from other RRSPs, and will grow them efficiently in a pooled fund offering low investment costs. When it’s time to turn savings into retirement income, SPP has several options for you, including lifetime annuities which guarantee you’ll never run out of income. Check out SPP today!

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As the New Year begins, Save with SPP decided to have a look around for some new and different resolutions on that perennial topic, savings.

At the Michelle is Money Hungry blog we learn a good one — simplify your budget.

“It’s my personal belief that most budgets may be too complicated and that’s why it’s hard for people to keep track of everything,” she writes. Consider using an app like Personal Capital, Mint or You Need a Budget, she continues.   These tools “help you identify leaks in your budget,” she notes — like her personal one, which is coffee shop visits.

We like her thinking here — unless your budget is easy to use, and doesn’t require a ton of time to get through, you probably won’t follow it. Fix it with something easier.

The Street offers up another one we haven’t seen before — make your money goals in 2023 “cyclical.”

The article explains that most people make “linear” financial goals, such as “I need to save a million dollars for retirement,” then plunk down a couple hundred dollars a month, thinking they are now on track. “Every time you contribute a couple hundred dollars, you’re using a spoon to empty the ocean.” You are falling behind on your target without realizing it, the article explains.

By contrast, a “cyclical” approach “means paying less attention to long-term goals and instead focusing on each “cycle” for its own sake, the article tells us.

“For example, say you set a goal to save [a certain amount from] each paycheque,” Australian academic Leona Tam states in the article. “If you didn’t put away [that amount] from your last paycheque, you need to try to catch up immediately in your next paycheque. Catching up means you need to put up double the amount. That’s quite hard.” In other words, going cyclical makes it harder on you if you fall behind, which may make the approach succeed.

OK, so we have simpler budgeting and a “cyclical” approach to saving. What else is new in the resolution department?

The Life and a Budget blog has another fairly unique one — “do one frugal thing a day no matter how small.”

“No matter how small it is, making one single decision every day can change your finances,” the blog explains. Examples include setting a food budget, creating a meal plan and using it for shopping, eating at home, bagging your lunch and using up leftovers. Trying to do this all the time might seem hard, but we like the idea of doing only one such good financial deed per day — there’s more chance of success.

Finally, the Positively Frugal blog suggests we all need to “develop a positive mindset” about our finances.

“Your self-talk can have a big impact on your money aspirations and your overall outlook on life,” the blog explains. “If you find that you have negativity swirling around your head space, make a new year’s financial resolution to interject positive affirmations for money into your daily routine.”

We’ll throw in one more that we learned from a recent CTV Ottawa interview with an 111-year-old veteran. Asked what advice he would give those of us hoping to live as long a life, he said that first, you need to be happy and kind, but also that “if you have a problem, fix it.”

Don’t stress yourself out worrying about things like a money problem — focus on solving it and moving past it, the gentleman said.

That’s a good thought as 2023 begins. We wish everyone a Happy New Year and a prosperous year ahead!

If your problem is not having a retirement savings program at work, a fix is in your reach. The Saskatchewan Pension Plan is an open defined contribution pension plan that anyone with registered retirement savings plan room can join. They’ll invest your savings at a very low fee, grow it into a retirement nest egg, and help you turn those savings into income down the road. Check out SPP today!

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We’ve reached that age — early 60s — where we have as many friends and family retired as working. The age-old question posed to us by our younger contacts is simple: what’s it like to be retired, and to not be working?

Well, first off, the only folks we know who are fully retired — meaning, living off a pension and/or retirement savings — tend to be a little older than us. We have an old friend, Bob, who was able to retire at 55 with a workplace pension and told me he has played lots of guitar, golfed, travelled, and apart from being a course marshal in return for discount rounds, has not worked a lick in retirement. He told me he took his Canada Pension Plan (CPP) the month he turned 60. “Why leave money on the table,” he asks.

A couple of golf buddies, who are around the same age as us, are still working away without plans to retire until their 70s. One has lots of savings so the transition won’t be that big a deal, the other doesn’t have savings but can collect a federal government pension and hopes to continue working as a consultant. So, no specific plan to exit the workforce in the here and now, but a general directional plan for five or six years out.

The eldest great-grandma in our tribe is living happily off her savings in a retirement apartment, and has taken up new hobbies and games, and met new friends, while rolling along in her early ‘90s. She is able to collect Old Age Security.

The folks we know around the ‘hood are largely retired government employees or teachers, either living on their own pension or on a survivor pension. Most are doing well and a number of them (enviably) are wintering in sunnier climes.

Apart from one dog-walking friend who retired, ran out of savings, and went back to work, no one we know complains about having a lack of retirement income. This is interesting, since this writer spent much time doing communications support on research about this particular topic.

We don’t find people complaining about their workplace arrangements or government pensions, other than to occasionally grumble that the inflation increase wasn’t very much.

Things fellow retirees have warned us about are coming true:

1. Understand the rules about CPP survivor benefits — you won’t receive your partner’s full CPP entitlement upon their death, but may get topped up to what they were getting. Factor this reality into your income planning.
2. The trickiest part of having multiple streams of income is taxes, and you won’t always be able to offset your tax bill through contributing to a retirement savings program. Figure out a plan for the taxes on your income, even if it is having more taken off at source.
3. A good trick, if you have a registered retirement income fund and must withdraw from it, is to take any money you don’t need and contribute it to a Tax Free Savings Account. Many of our friends say their kids are using TFSAs as a primary retirement savings tool to avoid having their future retirement income taxed. Good for them!
4. Our late Uncle Joe sold his house and then moved into a condo before his early 70s. He then downsized from the condo to a seniors’ apartment. When he went to his reward, there was no house to sell and the related problems, and all his belongings were relatively easy to pack up and distribute. Joe always lived on 90 per cent of what he made, which is also very good advice.
5. If you aren’t doing something other than watching the news, you will have a short retirement. Join new things, meet new people, try something you haven’t, and good times may follow.

The final thing we’ve learned is that worrying about things doesn’t help anyone. On our local news recently, a 111-year-old veteran said his advice was to be happy, and that “if you have a problem, get it fixed” rather than worrying about it. We’ll take his word for it and try to live his example.

The CPP and OAS programs are great, in that they retire you with a basic retirement income, probably enough for core expenses. If you don’t have a workplace pension to augment that government layer, take a look at the Saskatchewan Pension Plan (SPP). SPP has been building retirement futures since 1986, and can help you start saving for the days when work is a memory. Check them out today!

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If you take a look at the cost of real estate in most Canadian towns and cities – and then look as well at rental rates – it is not surprising that so-called “boomerang kids” are choosing or being forced to move back in with their parents.

Figures from 2016 – pre-pandemic – from Statistics Canada showed “34.7 per cent (of) young adults aged 20 to 34 were living with at least one parent,” states an article on the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada website.

The article, written in 2019, quotes Great West Life Realty Advisors’ Brigitte Lazarko as saying the high cost of housing is definitely a contributor factor in the boomerang equation.

“Everybody has that dream of owning a home, and they’re seeing [that] it’s going to take quite a bit more to get there than perhaps the previous generation,” she states in the article.

Since then, while housing prices have rolled back from their highs, interest rates have jumped to record high levels. That makes mortgages more expensive, and can increase rental rates as well, and no doubt the number of kids moving home has increased.

Interest rates, which recently were around 6.8 per cent, are having impacts on housing, confirms MoneyWise Canada via MSN.

“Higher mortgage rates have already affected house sales. With fewer buyers, homesellers have been forced to consider lower prices,” the article notes.

“But it’s not only buyers and sellers impacted. Renters are competing with those who can’t afford to buy, while investors are considering raising rent to keep up with increasing mortgage payments,” the article continues.

Those of us who remember paying under $200 a month for a one-bedroom apartment in the 1980s (when interest rates were also high) get sticker shock when they see what young people must pay now. The article notes that the average rent for one-bedroom apartments in Vancouver hit $2,590 recently, with Toronto ($2,474) and Burnaby ($2,292) close behind.

The pandemic has added some twists in the boomerang story, reports the BBC. “Though the ‘boomerang’ stage has been on the rise for at least the last decade, the pandemic has added a few new contributing factors: many who planned to go away for college could not – university campuses closed across the world – and others who might have otherwise moved for a job after college delayed leaving home because in-office work has not been available,” the broadcaster reports.

Other factors that hinder kids from leaving the nest include student debt, time needed to save a much larger down payment or just the need to “establish themselves in their career,” the BBC reports.

The Street reports that having to look after adult kids can impact retirement savings.

“Parents in their 40s and 50s should be saving aggressively for retirement, and extended child support can do a lot of damage. Suppose an assortment of parenting costs come to $500 a month for five years, starting when the parents were 45. If that money was invested instead at an eight per cent annual return it would grow to $36,707 in five years,” the article notes. “Over the next 20 years that sum could grow to $171,000. How many 70-year-olds wouldn’t like to have that?,” the publication reports.

Forbes magazine offers five ideas on how to help boomerang kids become more financially self-sufficient, including a detailed cost analysis on what extra you’ll pay to help the kids with accommodation, their bills, etc., to helping them set up a budget, to considering charging them rent, to getting them saving for retirement while at home, and to making sure they get financial advice.

The overall message here is to work things out beforehand, so that your kids aren’t “guests,” but contributing family members with various chores and responsibilities. As well, an effort needs to be made to ensure that they benefit from living at home for less by paying off debt and saving for the future, including retirement.

For anyone without a retirement program at work, the Saskatchewan Pension Plan (SPP) is a great do-it-yourself option. You can contribute up to $7,000 a year towards SPP, plus you can consolidate savings stuck in various registered retirement savings plans by transferring up to $10,000 annually into SPP. Be sure to check out this made-in-Saskatchewan solution to Canadian retirement saving today!

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Let’s face it. The cost of a lot of things, particularly groceries and gas, has gone way up of late, leaving us all with a little less in the wallet to buy other things. That’s prompted a number of us to take a look at an old idea – bartering. Save with SPP took a look around to see what people are saying about this ancient take on trading goods and services for other goods and services, without the need for money.

“Bartering is a simple and cheap exchange of goods and services between people,” reports the Moneyless blog. “Bartering is also recommended if you want to live without money or if you want to save money. Bartering is also a fantastic way to get new stuff and it can be a good alternative to the monetary economy,” the blog suggests.

The chief idea of bartering is trading, the blog explains. It’s like “can you fix my computer? Then I’ll fix your curtains,” the article adds. However, thanks to 21^st Century technology, the process has moved online.

The blog notes that there are online bartering sites where people offer to exchange “games… audio equipment, TVs or furniture” for other goods or services they specifically need. Some of these sites work with a credit system, and others “one to one,” meaning you trade your chair for someone’s table.

Save with SPP looked for a few Canadian barter sites, and found Swapsity, Barter Pay and First Canadian Barter.

The Budget And Invest blog looks at some of the advantages of bartering.  Bartering, the article says, “generates more business” by bringing your items to “a larger pool” of barterers. It also “reduces the cost of doing business” by virtue of it being a moneyless system – unsold items that remain on a store’s shelf, for instance, equate to lost money, the blog suggests.

Bartering helps “conserve cash” since you are trading items and services for the same, and not paying for them, and is “easy” since it has grown from individual dealmaking to online networking.

Forbes cites the example of Melissa Barker, who has launched a bartering business called WE Barker that has “5,000 people involved in 44 industries across 25 cities.”

“At the crux of WE is the bartering system, both small trades like writing a review to big trades like developing a website in exchange for public speaking coaching,” Forbes reports.

Another practical example comes from the Blogging Away Debt blog, which provides the testimonial of a woman named Hope, who has bartered for things like “Tae Kwan Do lessons, homeschool co-op tuition, competitive gymnastics training, and so much more over the years.”  She recently bartered for two full weeks of boarding for her seven dogs in exchange for redoing the kennel’s website.

Save with SPP has one fond memory of bartering. Back in the 1980s, we were driving an ancient 1975 Impala around Wainwright, Alta. One day, the engine blew. The mechanic across the street from work said it would cost $2,000 for a new one. Told a friend, he said a national chain might have rebuilt engines for $1,000. Told another friend (happily) about this saving, and he said try a wrecker, could only be $250. Finally, told my friend Don, and he said he and his brother had a car like mine in the barn and could switch out the engines for a case of beer. Now that’s the value of bartering!

The money you save by bartering might allow you to put more dollars in your retirement piggy bank. If you are daunted by saving money in today’s challenging markets, take a look at the Saskatchewan Pension Plan. As a member of SPP, you get the experience of their expert money managers at a very low fee – less than one per cent. They’ll grow your money over your working career, and when it’s time to give back the security badge, SPP can help you turn those savings into a stream of retirement income. Check them out today!