Your 20s may be the best time to start saving for retirement

Writing for Yahoo! Finance, Phoebe Dampare Osei points out that your 20s is a good time to start saving for retirement.

“Your 20s is that decade where society says you’re old enough to have some responsibilities, but young enough that you haven’t quite settled down yet,” she writes. She notes that statistics from the U.K., where she is based, show most couples aren’t getting married until their 30s these days, a big change from the 1970s when they married younger.

Similarly, U.K. stats show people aren’t buying their first homes until they are in their 30s or older, she adds.

“But what about life after 60? It may seem odd to be thinking so far ahead, but your future you, will thank your present you, if you take care of yourself now,” writes Dampare Osei. We love that sentiment!

Her suggestions:

• “In your 20s you have fewer responsibilities than someone much older, so it’s easier to save now than a lot more later with more financial pressure.”
• “State pension alone will not cover you — check with your employer to make sure you are eligible and auto-enrolled.” (Auto-enrolment in a workplace pension plan is not a common practice in Canada – so here at home it’s up to you to find out if there’s a retirement plan and how you can qualify to join it.)
• “If you do not have enough money saved for retirement you may have to keep working beyond state pension age. Working into your 70s if you don’t have to and don’t want to doesn’t sound like much fun.”

This last point is very true. Many people without retirement savings simply say to themselves well, I’ll keep working until 70. That sounds great when you are younger and healthier, but will you be healthy enough to keep punching the clock by age 70? Not everyone is.

She raises a good argument about state benefits not being all that great.

To Candianize this a bit, the current maximum benefit from the Canada Pension Plan is $1203.75, but the average amount is $706.57, according to the federal government’s own site.

The maximum Old Age Security payment, again per the government’s web, is $626.49.

In fairness to the government, these benefits were never intended to provide the only income people receive in retirement – when they were launched, most people had workplace pensions, and these programs were designed to supplement that.

So the most anyone could get from both programs is a little over $1,800 a month – and not everyone qualifies for the maximum.

The point Dampare Osei makes is a very good one. When you are young, single, and just starting out in the workforce, you probably don’t have as many expenses as you will when you’re in your 30s, married, raising kids and paying a mortgage. So it’s a good time to start your retirement savings program.

Another great reason to start early is the “magic” of compounding. The longer your money is invested, the more dividends and interest it will accrue.

As an example, the Saskatchewan Pension Plan has averaged an eight per cent rate of return since its inception 35 years ago. And while the past rate of return is of course no guarantee of what SPP will do in the future, the track record is worth noting. If there isn’t a workplace pension plan to sign up for, the SPP may be just the thing for you. And as Dampare Osei correctly notes, your future you will be very pleased if the current, youthful you gets cracking on retirement now rather than later.

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Doing it yourself can lead to missteps, particularly for retirement planning

Let’s face it. More than likely, the person you see in the mirror each morning is also your “retirement planner.” And, writes noted financial columnist Jason Heath, writing in the Sarnia Observer, the best estimates of do-it-yourselfers can often miss the mark.

Here are some things to watch out for.

We may mess up the key question of how much is enough to save, he writes. The math is complicated, he explains. While one might think that one million dollars supports $50,000 a year withdrawals for 20 years, Heath points out that growth has to be factored in.

“$1 million invested at a four per cent return will generate $40,000 in the first year, meaning a $50,000 withdrawal will reduce the account balance by just $10,000. Depending how the money is invested, the investment fees payable, and other factors, $1 million may support $50,000 of annual withdrawals for 30 years or more,” he writes.

Tax rates in retirement are significantly lower in retirement, and most folks overestimate their tax bill. You’ll be earning less so that will chop your tax bill, and “income like eligible pension income, capital gains, and Canadian dividends are eligible for tax credits or reduced income inclusion rates. Married couples can also split income more easily in retirement to minimize their combined family tax,” he writes.

Expenses are usually overestimated. Heath notes that in most cases, once you are retired you won’t be paying off a mortgage, the kids will be educated and gone, and you’ll no longer be saving for retirement.

A common mistake people make is starting their government retirement benefits either at age 65 or earlier. “Deferring CPP or OAS after age 65 results in an increase in both pensions for every month of deferral. Retirees who live well into their 80s or 90s will receive more lifetime pension income for delaying their pensions to age 70 than starting early,” he writes.

Heath cites a 2018 research paper that questions the old “rule of thumb” that your current age equals the percentage of your investment portfolio that should be in fixed income. While he is not advocating going “all in” on stocks, “but holding a low allocation to stocks is unlikely to maximize a retiree’s spending or estate value.’

Lastly, he points out the risk of longevity – most people are living into their 80s, 90s and even beyond. People, he writes, “should plan for a 30-year retirement.”

Most of us boomers were raised by Depression-era parents who were brought up in a “make do” environment where costly things like medical, financial, and even home repair support were automatically shunned. Long-distance phone calls and cab rides were rare events, associated with the annual Christmas phone call to the grandparents or the extremely rare need to take a cab – usually, only done if the car needed to be left at home when travelling by train, for example.

However, we are not jacks and jills of all trades, so getting a little professional advice is not such a bad idea, especially with retirement planning. Why not consider the Saskatchewan Pension Plan – they’ll invest your retirement savings professionally, at a very reasonable cost, and when it’s time to live on those savings, you can choose annuity options that will ensure you never run out of money, no matter how long you live.

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Boomers don’t think they’ll have enough – but aren’t aware of potential healthcare costs in retirement

It’s often said that if you don’t have a workplace pension plan, you will have to fall back on the “safety net” of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Old Age Security (OAS) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS). You’ll be able to augment those benefits with your own Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) nest egg, the party line suggests.

But new research from HomeEquity Bank and Ipsos, reported on by The Suburban, finds that 79 per cent of Canadians 55 and older “say they can’t bank on RRSPs, the CPP and OAS for a comfortable retirement.”

In short, they don’t think those sources will provide them with as much income as they want.

The survey goes on to note that “four in 10” of the same over-55 group think they may have to “access alternative lending options for their retirement planning toolboxes,” including accessing the equity in their homes via a reverse mortgage.

Traditionally, the article notes, older folks would “downsize” the family home, selling it and buying something smaller and/or cheaper. “That’s long been considered the right thing to do,” the article tells us.

However, states HomeEquity CEO Steven Ranson in the article, “downsizing isn’t as attractive as it used to be. Given the amount of risk associated with moving and finding another suitable home, more than a quarter of older homeowners are considering accessing the equity in their homes instead of selling to help fund their retirements.”

What could be behind this concern over retirement income?

One possibility is the possibility of expensive post-retirement healthcare costs, suggests an article in Canadian HR Reporter.

The magazine cites research from Edward Jones as saying that “66 per cent (of Canadians 55+) admit to having limited or no understanding of the health and long-term care options and costs they should be saving for to live well in retirement.” The article says that the cost of a private nursing home room – on average, in Canada – is a whopping $33,349 per year.

While not all of us wind up in long-term care, one might assume that you want to make sure you still have a little money set aside for that possibility – right?

The Edward Jones survey found that 23 per cent of those surveyed feel their retirement savings will last them only about 10 years, the article notes. Thirty-one per cent don’t know how long their savings will last, the article adds.

This is a lot to take in, but here’s what the survey results seem to tell us. Boomers worry they won’t have enough money in retirement – and many aren’t aware of the huge cost of long-term care late in life. Perhaps those who are aware of long-term care costs are realizing they might run short in their 80s or beyond?

So what to do about this? First, if you can join a pension plan at work, do. Often, your employer matches your contributions, and the income you’ll receive in retirement is worth a small sacrifice in the present.

No pension plan to join at work? No problem – the Saskatchewan Pension Plan has all the retirement tools you need. For 35 years they’ve delivered retirement security by professionally investing the contributions of members, and then providing retirement income – including the possibility of a lifetime annuity – when those members get the gold watch. Check them out today.

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In Japan, has 70 become the new 60?

Here in Canada, 70 is the latest you can start taking your Canada Pension Plan payments, and a date when you can begin thinking about what to do with your registered retirement savings plan.

But in Japan, according to HRMAsia, it’s the new retirement age – up from age 65.

Companies, the magazine reports, will now be “required to retain workers until they are 70 years old.” The reason for this legislative change, we are told, is two-fold. Due to the fact that Japan has a falling birthrate and an aging population, there’s a labour shortage. The aging population is also driving up the cost of pensions, the article notes.

The legislation’s main focus is allowing workers to stay on the job longer. The old retirement age of 65 is no more, the article says, and legislation permits workers to stay on past the new, higher age limit of 70, or to work in retirement as freelancers.

It’s an interesting decision. Here in Canada, there was talk at one time – and later, federal legislation – that would have moved the start of Old Age Security to age 67, for some of the same reasons the Japanese are citing. While the present government reversed this plan, we are now experiencing some of the same issues Japan is experiencing. It’s something to keep an eye on.

Could we see an era of super inflation once again?

When we tell the kids that we once lived through an era where wage and price controls limited our pay raises to six per cent – and where mortgages and car loans had teenage interest rates attached to them – their eyes doubtless glaze over at this litany of impossible-sounding boomer factoids.

Could the crazy interest rates we saw in the ‘80s ever return?

One U.S. professor says yes. Speaking to CNBC in an article carried in Business Insider, Prof. Jeremy Siegel of Wharton says “I’m predicting over the next two, three years, we could easily have 20 per cent inflation with this increase in the money supply.” The increased money supply Stateside is due to “unprecedented” fiscal and monetary stimulus, he states.

Money supply is up 30 per cent since the beginning of 2021.

“That money is not going to disappear. That money is going to find its way into spending and higher prices,” Siegel states in the article.

“The unprecedented monetary expansion, the unprecedented fiscal support, you know, I think excessive, was first going to flow into the financial markets, into the stock market, and then once we’re reopening, and we’re right at that cusp, it was going to explode into inflation,” he concludes.

When you’re saving for retirement, it’s usually a very long-term deal. You may not starting drawing upon any of your savings until you are 70, and there’s a chance you will still be banking on retirement money until you are in your mid-90s. So a balanced approach, a portfolio that has exposure to Canadian and international stocks, bonds, real estate and other sectors is the way to go to avoid having all your nest eggs in the same basket. If you don’t want to take on nest egg management yourself, rest assured that the Saskatchewan Pension Plan is there to manage things for you. Their Balanced Fund has averaged an impressive eight* per cent rate of return since the plan’s inception 35 years go.

*Past performance does not guarantee future results.

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Recent changes to the federal Old Age Security (OAS) program, including two one-time extra payments of $500, and a plan to increase the program’s payout by 10 per cent for those 75 and over, shouldn’t impact Ottawa’s ability to sustain the program.

So says Sheila Block, chief economist for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), Ontario branch.

On the phone to Save with SPP from Toronto, Block notes that unlike the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), OAS isn’t funding through contributions and investment returns like a private pension plan – it’s a government program, paid for through taxation. So, she says, if planned changes go ahead there is “absolutely… the capacity for the government to afford it.”

While OAS is a fairly modest benefit, currently about $615.37 per month maximum, Block notes that it has an important feature – it is indexed, meaning that it is increased to reflect inflation every year.

“This acknowledges that a lot of retirees’ pension plans are not indexed,” she explains, or that they are living on savings which diminish as they age. An indexed benefit retains its value over time.

Many people who lack a workplace pension and/or retirement savings will receive not only the OAS, but also the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS), which is also a government retirement income program. OAS and GIS together provide about $16,000 a year, which is helpful in fighting poverty among those with lower incomes, she explains.

“OAS was not designed to support people on its own,” she explains. “And the GIS is an anti-poverty measure that supplements OAS. As we see fewer people with defined benefit pensions or adequate retirement savings, there is an argument to increase OAS, for sure.” But, she reiterates, the OAS is more of a supplement than it is a program designed to provide full support.

As well, she notes, many getting OAS and GIS also get some or all of the CPP’s benefits.

Save with SPP noted that much is made about the OAS clawback in retirement-related media reports. But, Block notes, in reality, the threshold for clawbacks is quite high. The OAS “recovery tax” begins if an individual’s income is more than about $78,000 per year, and you become ineligible for OAS if your income exceeds about $126,000, she says.

A 2012 research paper by CCPA’s Monica Townson, which made the case then that OAS was sustainable, noted that only about six per cent of OAS payments were clawed back.

Citing data from the Canada Revenue Agency, Block notes that today, only about 4.4 per cent of OAS payments are “recovered” through the recovery tax.

We thank Sheila Block for taking the time to talk with Save with SPP.

Retirement security has traditionally depended on three pillars – government programs, like CPP and OAS, personal savings, and workplace retirement programs. If you don’t have a workplace pension plan, you’re effectively shouldering two of those pillars on your own.

A program that may be of interest is the Saskatchewan Pension Plan. This is an open defined contribution program with a voluntary contribution rate. You can contribute up to $6,600 per year, and can transfer up to $10,000 from your registered retirement savings plan to SPP. They’ll invest the contributions for you, and when it’s time to retire, can help you convert your savings to income, including via lifetime annuity options. Check them out today!

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If you are one of the many Canadians who is a decade (or less) away from retirement, and haven’t had time to really think about it, there’s an ideal book out there for you.  The Procrastinator’s Guide to Retirement by David Trahair walks you through all the decisions you’ll need to make, and the strategies you may want to employ, to have a solid retirement – soon.

Trahair makes the point early that you need to track your current spending to have an accurate sense of how much you need to save to fund your retirement.  He says the old 70 per cent rule – that you will be comfortable if you can save up enough to live on 70 per cent of your pre-retirement income – is “problematic… it may be the right answer for one person, but totally wrong for you because your financial situation is as individual as your fingerprints.” Knowing what you spend now, and will spend when retired, is a key piece of knowledge when setting savings targets, he explains.

Through the deft use of charts, examples and worksheets, Trahair explains that most of us have “golden opportunity” years for retirement savings when we have surplus funds, thanks to paying off a car loan, or having a child graduate from university. What you do during these periods of excess money “can make or break” your retirement plans, he advises, noting that an obvious destination for some of this cash is retirement savings.

He looks in detail at whether it’s a good idea to save for retirement in a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) or pay off debt, like credit cards or mortgages, first. Trahair says anyone with high-interest credit card debt should pay that off first before saving for retirement, because of the “rate of return” you get by eliminating the debt.

“A lack of cash outflow is as good as a cash inflow, and better if that inflow is taxed,” he explains. In other words, all the money once spent on paying down the credit card is now in your pocket instead.

Whether to pay down the mortgage versus saving for retirement is a trickier calculation (Trahair has a spreadsheet for you to make your own choice). He says the “commonsensical” approach is to make an RRSP payment and then put the refund on the mortgage. However, later in the book he warns of the dangers of not paying off the mortgage until after retirement.

“If you went into retirement with a $200,000 mortgage, you’d need $293,254.75 extra in your RRSP just to break even,” he writes. “Put another way, you’d be just as well off as someone who had a zero-mortgage balance and $293,254.74 less in their RRSP.”

There’s a lot of good stuff here. There’s a chapter on selecting an investment advisor, and good advice for those investing on their own. He warns that those saving later in life often look for higher returns, which can be risky. “Hoping for a 10 per cent rate of return to solve your problems will mean you’ll have to take extreme risk… chances are good this strategy will result in dismal failure. So, he advises, have a disciplined investment approach, and manage risks. A rule of thumb he likes is the one that suggests 100 minus your age should be the percentage of your portfolio that is in fixed income. The rest should be in the stock market.

Later, he explains how GICs are his favourite investment, especially when held in RRSPs, Registered Retirement Income Funds (RRIFs) and Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs).

He examines the concept of how much you’ll spend in retirement, noting that some costs, like Canada Pension Plan (CPP) contributions, car operating costs, dining out and dry cleaning will drop once you’re no longer going to work, well-dressed.

He talks about how you can maximize both CPP and Old Age Security benefits by deferring them until later – and covers the pros and cons of doing so.

Later chapters cover the “risk” of living a long life, the “snowball” versus “avalanche” methods of debt reducing, and estate planning.

This is an excellent resource for all aspects of retirement planning, and – even better – it is written for a Canadian audience.

If your retirement plan includes the Saskatchewan Pension Plan, you’re already getting professional investing help at a low fee of just 0.83 per cent in 2020. SPP manages investment risks for you – and has chalked up an impressive rate of return of 8 per cent since its inception 35 years ago. Why not to check out SPP today!

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Canadian millennials now focused on long-term saving: report

It’s hard to find many silver linings to the dark, terrible cloud that is COVID-19, but a report from Global News suggests the crisis has caused millennials to think longer-term when it comes to savings.

Carissa Lucreziano of CIBC tells Global that Canadians aged 24-35 “are very committed to saving more and investing.” That’s great news for this younger segment of our society, she states, “as actions now can have long-term benefits.”

The report also cites data from Semrush, an online data analysis company, as showing 23.6 per cent of millennials regularly visit their online banking websites, as compared to 20.7 per cent of older Canadians aged 35 to 44.

Semrush’s Eugene Levin tells Global this suggests younger people “are more conscious moneywise… they are using this time (the pandemic) to plan out their finances to either mitigate their financial insecurity or improve their financial security.”

Other findings – more people are searching for information on Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs), and investment apps like Wealthsimple and Questrade, the article reports.

CIBC data noted in the Global report found that 38 per cent of millennials have decreased spending, 34 per cent plan to add to TFSAs or Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs), and to establish emergency savings accounts.

While there is also interest in topics like payday loans and installment loans, the article finds it generally positive that younger people are thinking about long-term savings.

For sure it is positive news. Data from Statistics Canada reminds us why long-term savings are so important.

The stats show that as of 2019, 70 per cent of Canadians are saving for retirement, either on their own or via a workplace savings program – that’s up from 66 per cent in 2014, Stats Canada reports.

“Interestingly, this may reflect the fact that over the past five years, Canadians have become increasingly aware of the need to save for retirement,” reports Stats Canada. “For example, almost half of Canadians (47 per cent) say they know how much they need to save to maintain their standard of living in retirement—an increase of 10 percentage points since 2014 (37 per cent).”

Those who don’t save for retirement on their own (or via a workplace plan) will have to rely on the relatively modest government benefits, such as the Canada Pension Plan, Quebec Pension Plan, and Old Age Security, the article notes. And surely, the terrifying pandemic era has more of us thinking about our finances, both current and future.

So that’s why it is nice to see the younger generation is focusing on these longer-term goals. The best things in life, as the song goes, are free, but many other things carry a cost. The retired you will certainly be thankful that the younger you chose to stash away some cash for the future.

If, as the article notes, you don’t have a workplace pension plan and are saving on your own for retirement, there’s a plan out there for you that could really be of help. For 35 years, the Saskatchewan Pension Plan has been delivering retirement security; the plan now manages $673 million in assets for its 33,000 members. Check them out today!

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Gordon Pape has become a dean of financial writers in Canada, and his book Retirement’s Harsh New Realities provides us with a great overview of our favourite topic.

There’s even a shout-out to the Saskatchewan Pension Plan!

While this book was penned last decade, the themes it looks at still ring true. “Pensions. Retirement age. Health care. Elder care. Government support. Tax breaks. Estate planning,” Pape writes. “All these issues – and more – are about to take centre stage in the public forums.”

He looks at the important question of how much we all need in retirement. Citing a Scotiabank survey, Pape notes that “56 per cent of respondents believed they would be able to get by with less than $1 million, and half of those put the figure at under $300,000” as a target for retirement savings. A further 28 per cent thought they would need “between $1 million and $2 million.” Regardless of what selection respondents made, getting that much in a savings pot is “daunting,” the survey’s authors note.

Government programs like the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Old Age Security (OAS) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) help, but the benefits they provide are relatively modest. “If we want more than a subsistence-level income, we have to provide it for ourselves,” Pape advises.

He notes that the pre-pandemic savings rate a decade ago was just 4.2 per cent, with household debt at 150 per cent when compared to income. Debt levels have gone up since then. “Credit continues to grow faster than income,” he quotes former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney as saying. “Without a significant change in behaviour, the proportion of households that would be susceptible to serious financial stress from an adverse shock will continue to grow.” Prescient words, those.

So high debt and low savings (they’ve gone up in the pandemic world) are one thing, but a lack of financial literacy is another. Citing the report of a 2011 Task Force on Financial Literacy, Pape notes that just 51 per cent of Canucks have a budget, 31 per cent “struggle to pay the bills,” those hoping to save up for a house had managed to put away just five per cent of the estimated down payment, and while 70 per cent were confident about retirement, just 40 per cent “had a good idea of how much money they would need in order to maintain their desired lifestyle.”

One chapter provides a helpful “Retirement Worry Index” to let you know where your level of concern about retirement should be. Those with good pensions at work, as well as savings, a home, and little debt, have the least to worry about. Those without a workplace pension, with debt and insufficient savings, need to worry the most.

If you fall anywhere other than “least worried” on Pape’s list, the solution is to be a committed saver, and to fund your own retirement, he advises. He recommends putting away “at least 10 per cent of your income… if you’re over 40, make it a minimum of 15 per cent.” Without your own savings, “retirement is going to be as bleak as many people fear it will be.”

Pape recommends – if you can — postponing CPP payments until age 70, so you will get “42 per cent more than if you’d started drawing it at 65.” RRSP conversions should take place as late as you can, he adds. This idea has become very popular in the roaring ‘20s.

Pape also says growth should still be a priority for your RRSP and RRIF. “Just because you’ve retired doesn’t mean your RRSP savings need to stagnate,” he writes. And if you find yourself in the fortunate position of “having more income than you really need” in your early retirement needs, consider investing any extra in a Tax Free Savings Account, Pape notes.

Trying to pay off debt before you retire was once the norm, but the idea seems to have fallen out of fashion, he writes. His other advice is that you should have a good idea of what you will get from all retirement income sources, including government benefits.

In a chapter looking at RRSPs, he mentions the Saskatchewan Pension Plan. The SPP, he writes, has a “well diversified” and professionally managed investment portfolio, charges a low fee of 100 basis points or less, and offers annuities as an option once you are ready to retire.

This is a great, well-written book that provides a very solid foundation for thinking about retirement.

If you find yourself on the “yikes” end of the Retirement Worry Index, and lack a workplace pension plan, the Saskatchewan Pension Plan may be the solution you’ve been looking for. If you don’t want to design your own savings and investment program, why not let SPP do it for you – they’ve been helping build retirement security for Canadians for more than 35 years.

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For those of us who aren’t yet retired, it’s difficult to put ourselves in the shoes of a retiree and imagine what issues they may be facing.

Save with SPP reached out recently to Bill VanGorder, Chief Policy Officer for C.A.R.P., a group that advocates for older adults, to find out what it’s like once you’re no longer working.

For a start, says VanGorder, all older people aren’t set for life with a good pension from their place of work. In fact, he says, “65 to 70 per cent of those reaching retirement age don’t have a (workplace) pension.”

As a result of that, most people are getting by on income from their own retirement savings, along with government benefits like the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Old Age Security (OAS), and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS).

“Politicians don’t understand what it’s like to live on a fixed income,” VanGorder explains, adding that any unexpected expenses hit those on a fixed income really hard. Right now in Nova Scotia C.A.R.P. is trying to stop plans to end a longstanding cap on property taxes – a move that would hit fixed-income folks the hardest.

In removing the cap, the province has suggested it would “look after” low-income seniors, but VanGorder points out that retirees at all levels of income are on fixed income. “It’s not just low-income earners… everyone would be hit by this,” he says.

It’s an example of how older Canadians seem to be overlooked when the government is writing up new public policies, VanGorder says. When the pandemic struck, all that older Canadians were offered was a one-time $300 payment, plus an extra $200 for the lower income group, he notes. Meanwhile younger Canadians were eligible for Canada Emergency Response Benefit payments of $2,000 per month, there were wage subsidies and rent subsidies for business, and more.

Older Canadians “feel they’ve seen every other part of the country get more economic assistance,” he explains. That’s because there’s a misconception that older Canadians “are already getting stuff… and are being looked after.”

“Their cost of living has gone up exponentially,” VanGorder says, noting that many services for seniors – getting volunteer drivers, or home support visits – have been curtailed for health reasons. These changes lead to increased costs for older Canadians, he explains.

C.A.R.P. is looking for ways to keep more money in the pockets of older people. For example, he notes, C.A.R.P. feels that there should be no minimum withdrawal rule for Registered Retirement Income Funds (RRIFs). “It’s unfair to force people to take their money out once they reach a certain age,” he explains. “A lot of people are retiring later (than age 71).” He notes that since taxes are paid on any amount withdrawn anyway, the government would always get its share eventually if there was no minimum withdrawal rule.

Another argument against the minimum withdrawal rule is the increase in longevity, VanGorder says. Ten per cent of kids born today will live to be over 100, he points out. “We’re adding a year more longevity for every decade,” he says.

C.A.R.P. is also pushing the federal government to move forward with election promises on increasing OAS payments for those over age 75, and to increase survivor benefits. While the feds did improve the CPP, the improvements will not impact today’s retirees; instead they’ll help millennials and younger generations following them.

Another area of concern to C.A.R.P. on the pension front is the rights of plan members when the company offering the pension goes under. “C.A.R.P. would like to see the plan members get super-priority creditor status,” he explains. That way, they’d be first in line to get money moved into their pensions when a Nortel or Sears-type situation occurs.

He notes that Canada is the only country with government-run healthcare that doesn’t also offer government-run pharmacare.

VanGorder agrees that there aren’t enough workplace pensions anymore. “Canada doesn’t mandate employers to offer pensions, making (reliance) on CPP and OAS more critical than it is in other countries,” he explains. The solutions would be forcing companies to offer a pension plan, or greatly increasing the benefits offered by OAS and CPP, he says.

“If we don’t start fixing it now, we are going to end up with a horrible problem when the millennials start to retire,” VanGorder predicts. Now is the time to act on expanding retirement security, he says. “They always say the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago,” he says. “But the second-best time is today.”

We thank Bill VanGorder for taking the time to speak to Save with SPP.

Don’t have a pension plan at work? Not sure how to save on your own? The experts at the Saskatchewan Pension Plan can help you get your savings on track. SPP offers a well-run, low-cost defined contribution plan that invests the money you contribute, and provides you with the option of a lifetime pension when work’s in the rear-view mirror. An employer pension plan option is also available. See if they’re right for you!

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If there’s one thing that working Canadians can’t quite grasp with their imagination, it’s what things will be like when they step away from full-time work.

David Aston’s The Sleep-Easy Retirement Guide is a great and refreshingly Canadian-focused look at what lies ahead – and what you need to think about to ensure you make the best of it.

The book begins by noting that the old days of “full-stop” retirement at 65 are gone. “You can retire much earlier than 65 or much later. You can leave work full-stop, or you can work in a second career, or you can work as little or as much as you want or need to with part-time employment or on contract,” he writes. You can also start a business or just go for “the traditional retirement of leisure.”

So saving, Aston writes, is a bit tricky, because you normally start saving “many years ahead of when you will have a clear picture of what your financial demands will be in retirement.”

Aston sees three “paths” for retirement savings. The “Steady Eddie” approach involves saving “at a constant rate throughout your working life.” If a 25-year-old put 10 per cent of his or her salary into retirement savings annually for 40 years, there would be $1 million in the nest egg at age 65.

Other approaches give you the same result – a “gradual ramp up” means you start at six per cent per year and increase to 30 per cent for the 25 years before age 65. Or, there’s the “mortgage first, save later” approach where, after mortgage is done, you save 35 per cent of income for the 13 years left to retirement.

If working part-time, or at something different, is part of your “life after full-time work” plans, Aston provides a handy list of tips for older job-hunters, who may not have looked for work for a while. Among the tips are getting familiar with today’s more tech-focused approach to human resources, such as the use of Skype or FaceTime for interviews, and LinkedIn for shopping your resume around.

The book has many great chapters focused on decision points. Maybe you’re at age 65 with a reasonable stash of money in your RRSP. Aston’s detailed charts show how retiring at 68 instead can boost your annual cash flow by an impressive $11,360, thanks in part from holding off on withdrawals from savings and taking Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security benefits later.

Another set of tables looks at what couples and singles spend in retirement. For an average couple, here’s what goes out: $44,000 a year for shelter, mortgage, vehicles, groceries, health and dental, home and garden, clothing, communication, financial services and transportation. But wait, there’s more – they’ll spend a further $16,400 on “the extras,” which include recreation and entertainment, restaurants and alcohol, a second home, travel, pets, gifts and charities, and miscellaneous perks.

Aston says an important concept is to have a “sustainable withdrawal rate” from savings, so that you don’t run out. He recommends taking four per cent out of your savings each year, if you start at age 65. The four per cent figure assumes “a blend of both investment returns and drawdown of principal.”

If you don’t want to risk running out of savings, Aston says an annuity may be for you. “An annuity gives you the opportunity to purchase your own defined-benefit pension plan,” he explains. They “are an ideal product for many middle-class Canadians who are concerned about outliving their wealth,” Aston adds.

This well-written, thorough and very informative book ends with some very good advice. “Behind the goal of a life well lived,” writes Aston, “it helps to have the support of finances well-managed.”

Did you know that Saskatchewan Pension Plan members have the option of receiving their savings in the form of a lifetime annuity? The annuity delivers you a payment that stays the same, and lands in your bank account every month for the rest of your life. And, depending on what annuity option you pick, it can continue on to your surviving spouse. Not an SPP member yet? Check their website and find out how you can sign up!

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