Sun Life

How SPP changed my life

May 24, 2018
Punta Cana: March 2018

After a long career as a pension lawyer with a consulting firm, I retired for the first time 13 years ago and became Editor of Employee Benefits News Canada. I resigned from that position four years later and embarked on an encore career as a freelance personal finance writer.

In December 2010 I wrote the article Is this small pension plan Canada’s best kept secret?  about the Saskatchewan Pension Plan for Adam Mayers, formerly the personal finance editor for the Toronto Star. The Star was starting a personal finance blogging site called moneyville and he was looking for someone to write about pensions and employee benefits. I was recommended by Ellen Roseman, the Star’s consumer columnist.

The article about SPP was my first big break. I was offered the position at moneyville and for 21/2 years I wrote three Eye on Benefits blogs each week. It was frightening, exhausting and exhilarating. And when moneyville began a new life as the personal finance section of the Toronto Star, my weekly column At Work was featured for another 18 months.

But that was only the beginning.

Soon after the “best kept secret” article appeared on moneyville, SPP’s General Manager Katherine Strutt asked me to help develop a social media strategy for the pension plan. Truth be told, I was an early social media user but there were and still are huge gaps in my knowledge. So I partnered with expert Leslie Hughes from PunchMedia, We did a remote, online presentation and were subsequently invited to Kindersley, Saskatchewan, the home of SPP to present in person. All of our recommendations were accepted.

By December 2011, I was blogging twice a week for SPP about everything and anything to do with spending money, saving money, retirement, insurance, financial literacy and personal finance. Since then I have authored over 500 articles for savewithspp.com. Along the way I also wrote hundreds of other articles for Employee Benefit News (U.S.), Sun Life, Tangerine Bank and other terrific clients. As a result, I have doubled my retirement savings.

All my clients have been wonderful but SPP is definitely at the top of the list. I am absolutely passionate about SPP and both my husband and I are members. Because I was receiving dividends and not salary from my company I could not make regular contributions. Instead, over the last seven years I have transferred $10,000 each year from another RRSP into SPP and I would contribute more if I could.

By the end of 2017 I started turning down work, but I was still reluctant to sever my relationship with SPP. However, as my days became increasingly full with travel, caring for my aged mother, visiting my daughter’s family in Ottawa, choir and taking classes at Ryerson’s Life Institute, I realized that I’m ready to let go at long last. After the end of May when people ask me what I do, I will finally be totally comfortable saying “I am retired.”

I will miss working with the gang at SPP. I will also miss the wonderful feedback from our readers. I very much look forward to seeing how both savewithspp.com and the plan evolve. My parting advice to all of you is maximize your SPP savings every year. SPP has changed my life. It can also change yours.

Au revoir. Until we meet again….

—-

Written by Sheryl Smolkin
Sheryl Smolkin LLB., LLM is a retired pension lawyer and President of Sheryl Smolkin & Associates Ltd. For over a decade, she has enjoyed a successful encore career as a freelance writer specializing in retirement, employee benefits and workplace issues. Sheryl and her husband Joel are empty-nesters, residing in Toronto with their cockapoo Rufus.

Changing coverage for medical marijuana

December 28, 2017

Health Canada statistics reveal the number of Canadians with prescriptions for medical marijuana more than tripled between the fall of 2015 and 2016 from 30,537 people to nearly 100,000 individuals. And with legalized marijuana for recreational use slated to come into effect July 1, 2018, it is expected that use of the drug will soar.

In response to the proliferation of legal marijuana use, life and health insurance companies have had to rethink several aspects of their pricing and coverage including whether or not:

  • Individual life insurance applicants using marijuana must pay smokers’ rates
  • Benefit plans will reimburse clients for the cost of medical marijuana.

Smoker/Non-smoker rates
Until the last several years, marijuana users applying for individual life insurance had to pay smokers’ rates. For example, a man in his 30s could expect to pay about two to three times as much for a policy than a non-smoker. A smoker in his 40s could expect to pay three to four times as much.

Insurance companies charged this massive price increase because smokers have a much higher risk of death than non-smokers. In addition, smokers often have other health problems like poor diets or an inactive lifestyles.

Within the last two years, the following insurers in Canada announced their plans to begin underwriting medical and recreational marijuana users as non-smokers, including:

  • Sun Life
  • BMO Life Insurance
  • Canada Life
  • London Life
  • Great-West Life

Sun Life is taking the most comprehensive approach, saying it will treat anyone who consumes marijuana but doesn’t smoke tobacco as a non-smoker. BMO Life Insurance is more restrained, limiting non-smoker status to people using only two marijuana cigarettes per week. Canada Life, London Life, and Great-West Life issued a joint statement which said that “clients who use marijuana will no longer be considered smokers, unless they use tobacco, e-cigarettes or nicotine products.”

This change won’t affect group benefits as coverage is not individually underwritten. An article on Advisor.ca includes a chart comparing where a series of major Canadian life insurers stand on pot use.

Drug plan coverage
So, what about coverage for medical marijuana under your benefits plan?

If your coverage includes a health care spending account (HCSA), you are in luck. Medical marijuana is an eligible expense under HCSAs because the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) allows it to be claimed as a medical expense on income tax returns. Note that only marijuana is eligible under CRA medical exempt items, not vaporizers or other items used to consume it.

However, even though physicians are prescribing cannabis and people are using it for medical reasons, it is not currently covered under almost all traditional drug benefits. That’s because Health Canada hasn’t reviewed it for safety and effectiveness or approved it for therapeutic use the way it reviews and approves all other prescription drug products.

This means marijuana hasn’t been assigned a drug identification number (DIN), which the insurance industry usually requires before a drug can be covered. Until there is research that can be reviewed by Health Canada, marijuana will remain an unapproved drug and unlikely to be covered by your plan.

However several recent events suggest that it may be only a matter of time until group and individual drug plans offer at least limited coverage for medicinal marijuana.

Jonathan Zaid, a student at the Umiversity of Waterloo is the executive director of the group Canadians for Fair Access to Medical Marijuana. He has a rare neurological condition that causes constant headaches, along with sleep and concentration problems. Zaid said he was sick for five years before even considering medical cannabis. He tried 48 prescription medications, along with multiple therapies, all of which were covered by his insurer without question – except for medical cannabis.

After eight months of discussions, the student union (who administers the student health plan) came to the conclusion that they should cover it because it supports his academics and should be treated like a medication.

Similarly, the Nova Scotia Human Rights Board ruled in early 2017 that Gordon Skinner’s employee insurance plan must cover him for the medical marijuana he takes for chronic pain following an on-the-job motor vehicle accident. Inquiry board chair Benjamin Perryman concluded that since medical marijuana requires a prescription by law, it doesn’t fall within the exclusions of Skinner’s insurance plan.

Perryman said the Canadian Elevator Industry Welfare Trust Plan contravened the province’s Human Rights Act, and must cover his medical marijuana expenses “up to and including the full amount of his most recent prescription.”

And at least one major company is covering employees for medical marijuana in very specific circumstances. In March 2017, Loblaw Companies Limited and Shoppers Drug Mart announced in an internal staff memo that effective immediately it will be covering medical pot under the employee benefit plan up to a maximum of $1,500 per year for about 45,000 employees.

Claims to insurance provider Manulife “will be considered only for prescriptions to treat spasticity and neuropathic pain associated with multiple sclerosis and nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy for cancer patients,” said Basil Rowe, senior vice-president of human resources at Loblaw Companies Ltd., owner of Shoppers, in the memo.

“These are the conditions where the most compelling clinical evidence and literature supports the use of medical marijuana in therapy,” explained Loblaw/Shoppers spokesperson Tammy Smitham. “We will continue to review evidence as it becomes available for other indications (conditions).”

Since cannabis does not yet have a Drug Identification Number recognized by insurers, it isn’t covered under typical drug spending. However, it will be covered through a special authorization process where plan members will pay and submit their claim after, said Smitham.

The move could trickle down to other Canadian employers and their benefit plans and even set a precedent, Paul Grootendorst, an expert on insurance and reimbursement and director of the division of social and administrative pharmacy in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto told the Toronto Star.

Written by Sheryl Smolkin
Sheryl Smolkin LLB., LLM is a retired pension lawyer and President of Sheryl Smolkin & Associates Ltd. For over a decade, she has enjoyed a successful encore career as a freelance writer specializing in retirement, employee benefits and workplace issues. Sheryl and her husband Joel are empty-nesters, residing in Toronto with their cockapoo Rufus.

Jul 13: Best from the blogosphere

July 13, 2015

By Sheryl Smolkin

Back from two weeks of vacation and back in the saddle! While it’s hard to get re-establish anormal routine, it’s not difficult to find many interesting personal finance stories and blogs to share with you because all of our favourites kept on blogging when I was away.

On Boomer & Echo, Robb Engen wrote about The Evolution of Loyalty Cards. Scanning weekly flyers and clipping coupons is a great Canadian tradition but he says that like the landline telephone, VCRs, and analog TV – coupons and flyers are on their way out. Retailers are moving online and developing smart phone applications to get more personal with their offers.

In Is Paying Down a Mortgage Underrated? on Our Big Fat Wallet, Dan says the real value of paying down the mortgage isn’t the interest savings. With rates as low as they currently are, the interest you save will likely be minimal. He suggests the best approach for anyone looking to use extra funds to pay down their mortgage is to consider a ‘hybrid’ approach – using the money to reduce the mortgage and then putting more money each month towards investing.

Blond on a Budget’s Cait Flanders has finally finished her year-long shopping ban. In a herculean 6,000 word blog The Year I Embraced Minimalism and Completed a Yearlong Shopping Ban she explains why she did it and how it changed her life. Flanders says, “There is nothing I need right now that could make my life better than it already is and that’s a great feeling to end this year-long challenge with.”

Globe & Mail reporter Ian McGuigan agrees that accumulating wealth is a challenge but he says that “decumulating” it can be trickier still. In a recent article he refers to the paper Making Sense Out of Variable Spending Strategies for Retirees written by Wade Pfau, a professor of retirement income at American College in Bryn Mawr, Penn. McGuigan notes that spending only 4% a year works out pretty well if you don’t want to outlive your money. It also keeps your spending at a constant level, in after-inflation terms. However, it’s not so good if you’re interested in being able to live as well as possible in retirement.

Guess who’s saving for retirement? The kids  reports Adam Mayers at the Toronto Star. While we often point the finger at young people as having limited interest and understanding of their personal financial affairs, Sun Life finds that’s not so. Younger workers know a good deal when they see one and like all smart consumers they’re snapping it up. Only 40% of those in their 40s and 50s are taking full advantage of matching Registered Retirement Savings Plan or pension money in plans Sun Life administers. On the other hand, 90% of those in their 20s (presumably new employees) are opting in.

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information with us on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.


Will you be working at 66?

May 7, 2015

By Sheryl Smolkin

Findings from Sun Life’s 2015 Canadian Unretirement Index released earlier this year received extensive media coverage. The seventh report in an annual series tracks how workers’ attitudes and expectations about retirement are evolving in response to economic, health and personal factors affecting their lives.

The question central to the ongoing study is “Will you be working at age 66?” This year for the first time, more Canadians expect to be working full time at age 66 (32%) than expect to be fully retired (27%).

As indicated in past years, those who plan to work past 65 fall into two camps. Forty-one percent say they’ll do so because they want to while 59% feel they will need to. The gap between the two has been gradually widening since 2011 but closed significantly this year. In addition, another 27% say they will be working part-time, while 12% aren’t sure.

Nevertheless, on average, Canadians say they expect to retire at 64. That’s the lowest figure reported since 2009. Canadians anticipate working past 65 – either by choice or necessity – but that trend is offset somewhat by a significant number who expect an early retirement.

Compared to current retirees, working Canadians are two and a half times more likely to believe they are at “serious risk” of outliving their retirement savings. The actual average retirement age among current retirees was 61 and a whopping 88% retired before age 66. They intended to retire early (at 62 on average) and for the most part, they did so.

But their experiences differ markedly from today’s workers. Three-quarters (76%) benefited from a workplace retirement plan (68% had their own and another 8% were married to a plan member). By comparison, just 68% of working Canadians have a workplace plan (55% have one of their own, 13% will benefit from a spousal plan).

Retirees are significantly more confident about their government pensions (94% vs. 72% among working Canadians); their government-funded prescription drug benefits (82% vs. 68%respectively); and their employer pensions (71% vs. 65% respectively).

Indeed, working Canadians are more likely to be “not at all confident” than retirees about:

  • Having enough money to enjoy the lifestyle they want: 36% working Canadians vs. 20% retirees.
  • Having enough money to pursue their hobbies and interests: 33% working Canadians vs. 17% retirees.
  • Being able to take care of medical expenses: 28% working Canadians vs. 11% retirees.
  • Being able to take care of basic living expenses: 19% working Canadians vs. 5% retirees.

Nearly two-thirds (63%) of retirees are very/somewhat satisfied with their retirement savings. Only 44% of today’s workers say the same. When it comes to outliving their retirement savings, 55% of today’s retirees are unworried, 31% are unsure and 14% are worried. Contrast this with 30% of workers who say they are unworried. One-third (35%) are unsure and 36% are worried.

It makes sense that current retirees would answer more positively about retirement planning. Many of those who did not achieve their financial goals have adjusted accordingly. But clearly, there is more to this story.

Today’s workers have experienced a prolonged period in which low interest rates, volatile capital markets and a drop in employer-funded retiree benefits have combined to make retirement planning more challenging.

More than ever, working Canadians have to plan, save and take full advantage of whatever plans their employer provides. The onus is on the individual to an extent current retirees did not experience. It is also on the financial services industry to support consumers with investor education and innovative product design.

All Canadians over age 18 are eligible to participate in the Saskatchewan Pension Plan which is a defined contribution plan with a fund return history of 8.2 % since inception (29 years) and 9.1% in 2014.

You can calculate your own personal Unretirement Index score, which measures your outlook on retirement, at www.sunlife.ca/unretirementindextool. My score is that I am “Clear and sunny, fully confident in my retirement and the countdown is on.” Since I was born in 1950, that’s not surprising. But I will probably be one of those people still working at least part time at age 66, not because I need to, but because I love my job. 

Also read: More people planning to work beyond age 65


Getting married? Check your insurance

April 23, 2015

By Sheryl Smolkin

According to the 2014 Bridal Survey conducted by weddingbells.ca, in 2014 an estimated 162,056 weddings took place in Canada and 65% of them took place between June and September.

That means dozens of your friends and neighbours are probably trying to balance their wedding budgets, booking venues and “saying yes to the dress” as you read this blog. But how many of them are factoring in the impact their upcoming nuptials could have on their insurance or any previous estate planning?

The folks at the web site insureeye.com recently asked licensed life insurance broker Tamara Humphries for her opinion on what you need to know about life and health insurance if you are getting married. Here are a couple of interesting issues she raised:

  1. Amount of coverage: Once you get married, and especially if you have or will be having children, you should consider increasing in your life insurance coverage. There are various life insurance calculators online including this one from Sun Life that will help you calculate how much you need. Your financial advisor can also assist you.
  2. Group Benefits: Understand the life and health insurance plans both you and your partner have at work, and how benefits are coordinated. If one supplementary health plan is particularly good, you may wish to opt out of the other.
  3. Changing your beneficiary: If your previous life insurance policy named, for example, your parents as beneficiaries, you may want to make your spouse the beneficiary instead. You can change this beneficiary designation at any time upon notice to your insurance company unless you have made the beneficiary designation irrevocable.
  4. Family life insurance: As an alternative to two life insurance policies for each spouse, you can get one policy for both of you, which often results in lower premiums overall. This policy is often called family or joint-first-to-die (JFTD) policy. JFTD policies pay only at the first death. It is important to know if one spouse dies, the surviving spouse will not have life insurance. If you prefer to keep separate policies after the marriage and get the policies from the same provider, you might benefit from a multi-life discount.
  5. Look for bundles: Bundles still work. If you or your spouse already have a home and/or auto insurance provider, there may be an option to get a bundle discount when adding a life insurance policy from the same company. Some insurers, called universal insurers, offer all insurance products – life, property and health insurance.

Also keep in mind that when you get married, (see Public Legal Education Association of Saskatchewan) unless you indicate in your Will that you are making the Will in contemplation of the marriage or a spousal relationship, your entire Will is cancelled. This general rule does not apply where an individual makes a Will while living in a spousal relationship and later marries that spouse.

Ending a spousal relationship can also revoke or cancel your Will or parts of it. For example, if you name your spouse as your Executor or leave part of your estate to your spouse, those parts of your Will are revoked or cancelled after you divorce, or after 24 months of separation in the case of other spousal relationships, unless you expressly say otherwise in your Will.

In Alberta and British Columbia, however, new laws state that marriage, or the entrance into an adult interdependent partnership (common-law relationship) does not automatically revoke a Will.

Since the laws across the country are no longer consistent, deciding which laws apply if the person married in one province and died in another, can be unclear. Further, if a person marries or dies outside of Canada, the decision as to which law applies becomes even more complicated. To avoid such difficulties, it is best to enter into a Will and revoke the old one upon marriage, or when entering into a common-law relationship.


Apr 13: Best from the blogosphere

April 13, 2015

By Sheryl Smolkin

There were several interesting provincial budgets this week with provisions impacting the cost of health care for seniors.

The Saskatchewan budget removed 6,000 seniors from the province’s drug plan. Previously the threshold of $80,255 was the cutoff for the drug plan. Anyone with a taxable income in excess of that amount was not eligible for the program. Now, the threshold will be lowered to $65,515.

The Alberta budget added a new Health Care Contribution Levy payable through the income tax system that will cost each Albertan up to $1,000 per year. Coverage and eligibility for provincial public health care programs remain unchanged. Unlike the previous Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan premium eliminated after 2008 that was a flat fee for individuals, the Levy has a progressive structure (See Table at p.87). Each member of a family filing an income tax return who has income over $50,000 will be subject to the levy and seniors are not exempt.

On another note, Mr. Money Moustache, a Canadian blogger living in the U.S. was recently profiled in the Globe & Mail. He and his wife retired at age 30. He says A Lifetime of Riches is As Simple As a Few Habits. This means doing less pointless driving around in your car and making fewer visits to restaurants, bars, and coffee shops. He also says alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, TV watching, video game playing, procrastination, unhealthy eating, sedentary living, and unnecessary shopping are other habits that stand between the average person and a truly wealthy life.

On Brighter Life, Sun Life VP Kevin Press presents blogs that will refresh your understanding of employee pension plans and employee benefit plans. He notes that Canadians who do not enjoy employer-sponsored benefit plan membership are at a significant disadvantage because provincial plans provide limited levels of coverage. What’s more, your reimbursements for health and dental claims are not taxable. So you’re almost always better off if your employer sponsors a plan versus paying you a higher salary.

And finally, an interesting post on Our Big Fat Wallet about getting compensated for a flight delay. Dan booked his ticket with Travelocity and he was not notified when the return flight was cancelled. Fortunately, the airline re-booked him several hours later and he received a $100 rebate from Travelocity and $75 from his Scotiabank Momentum Visa Infinite card that provides coverage of up to $500 per trip for trip delays of four hours or more.

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information with us on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.

 


Sept 22: Best from the blogosphere

September 23, 2014

By Sheryl Smolkin

I recently put together a list of 40 highly-regarded but very different personal finance blogs and this week Best from the Blogosphere taps into this resource to bring you some new voices.

Switching careers is a life-altering decision, and one that needs to be thought through with care. The gals at Frugalista Finance have been there and done that. In Careers 101: Planning for a career change, they compile a step-by-step checklist to help you make sure you’re on the right track to career bliss.

If you are lucky enough to have a defined benefit pension plan, you may wonder if there is any point also belonging to the Saskatchewan Pension Plan or contributing to a personal registered retirement savings plan. The author of the blog Use RRSP with DB Pension? on “Blessed by the Potato,” says the answer depends on a few factors, chief amongst them your expected tax rate in retirement versus your tax rate now (or in the near future if you choose to contribute now but defer the deduction).

Have you been waffling about finding a financial advisor? Sandra Schmidt, an advisor with Sun Life in Vancouver says there are five financial planning milestones an advisor can help you prepare for:

  • Buying your first home.
  • Merging your finances.
  • Starting a family.
  • Setbacks.
  • Retirement.

Dan Bortolotti is an investment advisor with PWL Capital in Toronto and author of the award-winning blog Canadian Couch Potato: Your complete guide to index advising. While Dan is well known as an advocate for using exchange traded funds, he readily acknowledges implementing such a strategy is more complicated if you and your partner have several accounts.

The Model portfolios he typically recommends are ideal for investors who have a single RRSP account. But life isn’t so simple once you’ve accumulated a significant portfolio. Chances are you’ll be managing two or three accounts, and if you have a spouse there may well be a few more. In Managing Multiple Family Accounts he says it’s generally most efficient to consider both partners’ retirement accounts as a single large portfolio.

And finally, in order to enhance their income, many people opt to get a part-time job in addition to their regular day job. Nelson Smith on Financial Uproar mines twitter postings to come up with a humorous series of tweets he calls How Not To Get A Part-Time Gig. Bad grammar and spelling certainly don’t help these people make their case.

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information with us on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.


Dave Dineen’s retirement journey

May 22, 2014

By Sheryl Smolkin

 

 

Dave Dineen in Barcelona
Dave Dineen in Barcelona
podcast picture
Click here to listen

Hi,

Today in savewithspp.com we continue our series of interviews with personal finance bloggers. Dave Dineen’s blog “Dave’s retirement journey” appears on Sun Life’s brighterlife.ca

Dave retired in December 2010 in his mid-50s. Before retiring, he spent 30+ years in marketing for several financial services companies, most recently, for Sun Life.

He writes about what it actually feels like to be retired – the pitfalls, as well as the joys. He shares many real-life experiences and what they’ve taught him about how to retire successfully.

Thanks for joining me today Dave.

My pleasure Sheryl. Great to talk to you.

Q: More and more people are now saying they are aiming for Freedom 70 or older. You’ve achieved Freedom 55. Why did you decide to retire so early?
A: Well, a few reasons really. My parents were dairy farmers and my dad died at age 62 before he could retire. And before that, my parents’ vacations actually fit between milking the cows in the morning and milking them again at night, 365 days a year. So I decided to retire while I was young enough, healthy enough and vital enough to do the things I wanted to do.

My career choices along the way, also really led to my retirement. My first career was as a journalist. My second career was in marketing with big financial companies like TD Canada Trust and Sun Life where I created retirement websites and wrote retirement newsletters, blogs and brochures. So I know quite a bit about retirement.

And my third and kind of final career – if there is such a thing as a final career in life – was in market research. In that position I created Sun Life’s Canadian Unretirement Index, which has really contributed to how we understand the idea of retirement and the reality of how retirement is changing in this country.

Q: How are you funding such a long retirement?
A: I’m going to be 58 this year, so I can’t apply for CPP any earlier than two years from now. I can’t apply for OAS for over seven years. And I don’t want to start my workplace pensions too early and get really small payments.

So for now, my wife and I are living off two sources of income. Our basic day-to-day living costs are paid from a stream of dividends on her non-registered investments. The income I get from freelance writing and marketing is what we’re using for the “nice to haves” like travel or even to up our TFSAs.

Q: How many hours a week do you devote to freelance writing and marketing consulting?
A: It really varies. Actually when I retired, I had no intention of freelancing, but I kept getting offers from people who needed some help and knew what I could do. I’ve done work for people even while I’ve been away traveling in England, Scotland, Wales, Italy and Spain. All it takes these days is a laptop, a phone and Skype.

Q: Can you estimate what percentage of your pension income you are earning from your freelance work? 20%? 40%?
A: Oh, it’s more than either of those numbers. It’s made a tremendous difference. So much so, that after more than three years, we actually have yet to touch a penny in our RRSPs or our TFSAs or our pensions. We are preserving our retirement savings and enjoying a better retirement lifestyle than we really expected.

Q: So, let’s get to your blog. What have some of your most popular blogs been about?
A: Well, my blog “Dave’s Retirement Journey,” really is my personal story. And people are interested in living a good life without going through their money too quickly. In our case, we travel a lot. We were on the road almost 12 of our first 36 months of retirement.

So, one of my most popular blog posts was around spending money slowly while you’re taking a long trip. By the way, we just got back a couple of weeks ago from three months in Europe where we ate like royalty, lived centrally in wonderful cities and we did fun things. Yet we still arrived home with a zero credit card balance.

Q: How important do you think it is to retire without debt?
A: Oh boy, it is absolutely necessary. In my mind, if you are in debt, you are not ready to retire. Obviously, if poor health or a job loss forces you out, you kind of have to muddle through somehow. But otherwise, I believe even thinking about retiring with debt is just crazy.

Q: One of the things that you blogged about is how downsizing in retirement doesn’t always work. Can you tell us a little bit about your home and cottage buying and selling and where you’ve finally landed in terms of your housing choices?
A: Yes, it really was complicated. A couple of years before retirement we sold our big four bedroom house and downsized to a one bedroom city condo, plus a cottage. But we realized the upkeep on the cottage was keeping us from travelling, so we sold it. Then we found that the one bedroom condo on its own was too small and my wife really missed her garden. So we ended up selling the condo as well right about the time we retired. In the end, we bought a new condo in Stratford, Ontario, which is in the MoneySense list of the best places to retire in Canada.

Q: With the benefit of over three years as a retiree, what are several unexpected things you’ve learned?
A: Boy, I love that question. I’d say that the first thing is that if you’re the kind of person who’s disciplined enough to have saved well for retirement, then you’re probably going to find it pretty easy to adjust to the financial discipline of living within your means in retirement.

Another unexpected thing for me has been the power of social media. A couple of years after retiring, I remembered that I had a profile on  LinkedIn. I figured I’d better go in and update my profile to show that I was retired. Within a day, someone that I hadn’t worked with in 17 years reached out to me as a result of that LinkedIn update, and asked if I was interested in doing some freelance work for them in the marketing department at Investors Group. Another of my freelance clients actually has paid Google so that if somebody searches for my name, that client’s website comes up.

And I suppose a third unexpected thing I’ve learned along the way is that I actually like doing some freelance work. That’s a big surprise to me, because I really thought that I’d closed the door to work.

Q: So what was the best investment you ever made?
A: This will sound odd, but I believe my best investment was actually to buy a good-quality treadmill about five years ago. It helps keep my wife and I healthy, and to us that’s more valuable than a big tall stack of money.

Q: If you had one piece of advice for Canadians thinking about retirement, what would it be?
A: That’s a tough question. I think Canadians need all kinds of advice when it comes to retirement. But I think for me it all starts with thinking about what kind of retirement you want to have. I like to use a simple analogy.

In your working career, chances are, somebody else wrote your job description. And at the end of your life, somebody else is going to write your epitaph. But it’s that in-between part that you get to write.

So what kind of retirement do you really want to have? Figure that out and of course seek all the help you need to deal with the financial stuff.

Thank you, Dave. I really appreciate talking to you today.

My pleasure, Sheryl.

This is an edited transcript of the podcast you can listen to by clicking on the graphic under the picture above. If you don’t already follow Dave’s retirement journey on Sun Life’s brighterlife.ca, you can find them here. Subscribe to receive blog posts by email as soon as they’re available.


More people planning to work beyond age 65

January 9, 2014

By Sheryl Smolkin

SHUTTERSTOCK
SHUTTERSTOCK

Later retirement and working longer is the new norm. That’s the message in Sun Life’s 2013 Canadian Unretirement Index report.

Over 3000 adults aged 30 to 65 years of age polled online by Ipsos Reid in late 2012 present a startlingly different picture than five years ago.

The number of Canadians who are planning to exit the workforce by age 66 has declined by nearly half since 2008. Just 27% of survey respondents expect to be retired by that age versus 51% five years ago.

As a result, there is a corresponding increase in the number of Canadians who assume they will be working retirees. And according to the study, we’re not talking about part-time work.

Twenty-six percent now expecting to be working full-time at age 66. This figure represents a 10-percentage point increase since 2008 in the number of Canadians who expect to be punching the clock for a full 40 hours or more a week.

Furthermore, most people say they will be working longer not because they want to, but because they need the money. This is apparent when we examine the order in which Canadians ranked their reasons for working at age 66 in 2008 as compared to 2012.

Reasons for working at age 65

2008

2012

15%: I enjoy my job or career 25%: To earn enough money to pay basic living expenses
14%: To stay mentally active 21%: To earn enough money to live well
13%: To earn enough money to live well 16%: I don’t believe government pension benefits will be enough to live on
13%: I don’t believe government pensionbenefits will  be enough to live on 13%: To stay mentally active
11%: To earn enough money to pay basicliving expenses 10%: I enjoy my job or career

SOURCE: 2013 Sun Life Unretirement Index Report

It is apparent that there is a serious disconnect between retirement dreams and retirement reality for many Canadians. According to the Sun Life study, on average Canadians anticipate needing $46,000 in annual retirement income and they expect to live in retirement for 20 years.

But the average amount they anticipate saving by the time they retire is $385,000 (not including the equity in their house). That’s well below the amount required to meet these average expectations.

In fact 58% of Canadians aim to have less than $250,000 saved for retirement. Thirty-eight percent say they will have less than $100,000 tucked away.

There is no doubt that we all have competing priorities that make it difficult to save for retirement. Paying down debt and raising our children are pretty high on the list. But small steps can make a huge difference.

A good way to start is to pay yourself first. That means arranging for automatic monthly deposits in a registered retirement savings account like the Saskatchewan Pension Plan.

And if you complete and file the Canada Revenue Agency’s T1213 form you can request permission from your employer to deduct a lower amount of taxes at source.

By reducing your withholdings at source, you are paying yourself and not the Canada Revenue Agency first, and increasing your net take home pay. You are effectively giving yourself a raise all year long, not just once at tax time.

In 2013 you can contribute up to $2,500/year to the Saskatchewan Pension Plan and contribution options include directly contributing from your bank account on a pre-authorized contribution schedule. Additional amounts up to your RRSP contribution limit can be contributed to your individual or workplace retirement savings plans.

Developing the “Pay yourself first” habit can help you build up a substantial retirement nest egg. For example, if you deposit $2,500/year in the SPP and earn five percent over a 40 year career (age 25 to 65) you will have a lump sum of about $317,000 in your account.

The value of planning and saving is that you can decide how and when you want to fully retire. Saving with SPP will help you accumulate the funds you need to enjoy your golden years on your own terms.


October 28: Best from the blogosphere

October 28, 2013

By Sheryl Smolkin

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This week we have random posts from some of our favourite bloggers that consider how you can save for retirement, invest your savings and spend your money after retirement.

Robb Engen on Boomer & Echo thinks that many media money makeovers are unrealistic, and that we really need to prioritize our financial goals. He shares his portrait of the ideal saver.

When it comes to spending and saving money, for many of us monthly mortgage payments take the biggest chunk out of our earnings. From the archives of the Canadian Finance blog, Nelson Smith offers 6 ways to save thousands on your next mortgage.

Saving is not enough. You have to invest your money in a way that both minimizes risk and maximizes growth of your account. A Young and Thrift blogger explains how he finally overcame his inertia and invested the $100,000 cash he had in his accounts. Spoiler alert: He topped up his TFSA and RRSP and then invested in ETFs.

But the Canadian Capitalist says we can learn a thing or two on how to invest our own money from the manner in which the CPPIB invests our surplus Canada Pension Plan contributions.

And finally, however much you save and whatever your plans are, Kevin Press tells us how you choose to spend your retirement will be a compromise. That’s because recent Sun Life research revealed seven ways men and women disagree about retirement.

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere. Share the information with us on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.