Who wants to retire as a millionaire?

We all probably dream about having a cool million in the bank when we retire, writes Vishesh Raisinghani for Money.ca. But, he notes, fewer than 10 per cent of us ever reach that target.

His article offers up a few tips and how you can raise your game at retirement savings.

He begins by noting that, according to BMO’s Annual Retirement Survey, “the average Canadian believes they need $1.7 million to retire comfortably – up from $1.54 million the year before…. yet more than one in three (36 per cent) say they’re unlikely to ever reach that target.”

“Three quarters of Canadians (75 per cent) aged 55 to 64 have $100,000 or less saved for retirement, according to Benefits Canada data,” he adds. “Put another way, nearly nine out of 10 people approaching retirement age aren’t in the seven-figure club,” Raisinghani reports.

His first advice is to set a realistic goal.

“You can’t reach a destination if you don’t know where your starting point is. The first step toward a million-dollar retirement is benchmarking your savings against what other Canadians your age actually have,” he notes. In other words, you can’t catch up if you don’t know that you’re behind.

He suggests using the savings median as your target, by age bracket. The average rate of savings is usually higher because it is skewed by high-income earners. Here, reports Raisinghani, are average savings and median savings by age bracket:

• Under 35: average $41,000 / median $12,500
• 35 to 44: average $82,100 / median $30,000
• 45 to 54: average $150,300 / median $70,000
• 55 to 64: average $216,900 / median $100,000
• 65 and over: average $224,000 / median $100,000

Don’t forget that government benefits like the Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security can supplement your savings, he adds.

Next, he recommends that we boost our savings rates.

“If your retirement target is well above the national or median average, your savings rate probably needs to be significantly higher as well,” he writes.

Currently, the Canadian savings rate is a fairly modest 4.4 per cent, he reports. “That means for every $20 in disposable income, most Canadians are saving less than $1. Saving just six per cent of your income could put you ahead. Hit 10 per cent or more and you’re in a select group of super-savers,” he notes.

His final tip is to “invest for growth.”

“Savings are the foundation. But to turn a solid nest egg into a million-dollar one, your money also needs to work hard. The power of compound growth is real — but only if you have the time and the right investments to let it run,” he writes.

“Passive investing through low-cost index funds has become one of the most popular and accessible strategies for Canadians. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) now make up nearly a quarter of Canada’s investment fund market, up from less than 10 per cent a decade ago, according to Morningstar. Canadian equity ETFs tracking major indices have produced strong historical annualized returns,” he writes.

Another tip would be to take your CPP and OAS late, for income that is 42 per cent and 36 per cent higher than taking it at 65, respectively, he reports. “For those who can afford to wait, this strategy provides a powerful, inflation-indexed income stream for life,” he notes.

Raisinghani concludes with several other general savings tips, including the idea of “automating” your savings (so that savings dollars are auto-transferred to your savings account before you have a chance to spend them) and knowing the tax rules for retirement savings accounts when deciding where to withdraw money as income.

The Saskatchewan Pension Plan invests members’ savings in a low-cost, diversified, professionally managed pooled fund that has boasted excellent rates of return over its 35-year history. As well, SPP members have the option of “automating” their savings (PAC-PCC-application.pdf) via setting up pre-authorized contributions from a bank account or credit card.

Check out SPP today!

What’s the one best tip for living a longer life?

We used to be told things like “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” by our parents and grandparents. These words were intended to be words to live by – their wise maxims for living a long and healthy life.

Save with SPP decided to freshen up the old adages by searching the Interweb for some fresher healthy living adages.

Let’s start with the Uncommon Quotes website, which offers up a few new thoughts on the subject.

“Nourish your body, and your spirit will thrive,” the site suggests. Not bad.

“Stress less, live more; find joy in the present,” reads another. Also very good advice.

“Healthy living is a marathon, not a sprint,” the site advises. And as well, “listen to your body, it knows what it needs.”

We found a few more good sayings at the Lifehack website.

For starters, the site notes, “it is health that is real wealth, and not pieces of gold and silver.” This quote is attributed to Mahatma Gandhi. A former CEO of a pension plan we once worked at used to paraphrase this one by saying “you can be the richest, wealthiest person in the world, but if you don’t have your health, you ain’t got nothing.”

The site quotes Jack LaLanne as saying “exercise is king, nutrition is queen. Together you have a kingdom.” Nice.

Dr. Kenneth Cooper’s thoughts on the subject are as follows, the site reports – “we do not stop exercising because we grow old; we grow old because we stop exercising.”

The Life Success Journal blog provides a few more pearls of wisdom.

“Your diet is a bank account. Good food choices are good investments,” Bethenny Frankel is quoted as saying. “Just as we save money for future gains, healthy foods nourish our bodies and boost our well-being. By making conscious food decisions, we invest in our health and happiness,” the blog adds.

“The mind is everything,” states none other than Buddha in the blog. “What you think, you become,” the quote adds. “This quote emphasizes the importance of cultivating a positive mindset as we strive for a healthy lifestyle. When we maintain optimism, we allow ourselves to thrive and reach our fullest potential,” the blog explains.

Let’s finish up with three more, this time from the Wisdom Quotes website.

The site tells us an old Irish proverb – “a good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book.”

Next, there’s an Arab proverb – “he who has health has hope; and he who has hope has everything.”

Finally, the great chef Julia Child once said “Moderation. Small helpings. Sample a little bit of everything. These are the secrets of happiness and good health,” the blog reports.

We certainly wish everyone a long and healthy life.

One thing that’s particularly important with longevity is making sure you don’t run out of savings in retirement.

The Saskatchewan Pension Plan has you covered in that regard. Among the options available to retiring plan members is a lifetime monthly annuity payment. No matter how long you live, you’ll receive a payment on the first of every month for the rest of your days. And depending on what annuity option you select, there may be benefits available to your survivors.

Check out SPP today!

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Avoid an “early retirement nightmare” with these steps: Dale Jackson

Writing for BNN Bloomberg, Dale Jackson reports that early retirement can either be a dream, or a nightmare.

He offers up, in his insightful article, some ideas designed to help shift your early retirement towards “dream” and away from “nightmare.”

He begins by noting that while Canadians are generally working longer, “it’s an ironic twist that nearly half are involuntarily forced into retirement due to job loss, health issues or the need to care for someone else.”

When the unexpected happens, he continues, the help of a financial advisor is often of great assistance. “Even if your advisor only manages a portion of your big financial picture, they probably have other clients in the same situation and could present options you never considered,” he remarks.

With an advisor’s help or on your own it is essential to have a handle on what your day-to-day expenses are, Jackson writes. If your retirement income falls short of covering those expenses, “the growing trend toward part-time work, or the establishment of a small business can possibly supplement those expenses,” he points out.

Managing debt in retirement can also be a challenge, the article notes.

“If you have debt, talk to your bank about consolidating high interest debt (such as credit card balances) into one manageable low-interest loan payment plan. For most Canadian homeowners a home equity line of credit (HELOC) provides the lowest rates because the property is secured as collateral. Reverse mortgages are also an option for homeowners but normally charge much higher interest rates,” he writes.

If you have a pension plan through work, know your options. Defined benefit plans can often be deferred and collected at a future date. With defined contribution plans, you usually can keep your savings invested via your employer’s administration (to collect later) or can transfer it to another registered retirement savings plan (RRSP). In either case, find out what your options are, Jackson stresses.

It’s also important to fully understand the tax consequences of withdrawing money from RRSPs. “Income splitting with a spouse is a great strategy but is limited for Canadians under 65 years. In any case, it is best to withdraw from your RRSP at the lowest possible marginal tax rate and top up any additional funds required through a Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA),” Jackson reports.

He also advises those of us going through an earlier-than-planned retirement to not “panic, and sell potentially lucrative or income-generating investments, or become too conservative.”

That’s because “you still need your savings to grow in equities during retirement and resorting exclusively to fixed income probably won’t get you to your goals. You will, however, need to keep a portion of your portfolio in cash, or near cash, to meet short-term living expenses,” he explains.

Finally, an earlier than expected retirement party may mean you want to draw your Canada Pension Plan (CPP) at age 60, the earliest date you can access it, Jackson writes. Old Age Security starts – at the earliest – at age 65.

Dealing with multiple small RRSPs in retirement can be a hassle, particularly when you are converting RRSP savings into income via a registered retirement income fund (RRIF) or an annuity. Members of the Saskatchewan Pension Plan can choose to transfer any amount from RRSPs they may have into SPP to consolidate your retirement nest egg.

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Study suggests guaranteed income “can actually help you live longer”

Could having guaranteed income for life actually make us live longer?

A recent working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research in the U.S., reported on by Liliana Hall for Money.com, suggests there is indeed a link.

The paper, her article notes, “finds that folks who choose annuities are about three per cent less likely to die over the next decade than those managing withdrawals on their own. It’s a small difference, but it could say a lot about how financial security shapes our overall well-being.”

The study, the article continues, covered 600,000 retirees in Chile, where the retirement system “forces most workers to choose how to turn their savings into income.”

“Over five years, annuity users had about 2.5 per cent lower mortality; over 10 years, that gap widened to roughly 3.6 per cent,” the article reports.

Chile was used in the study because unlike other countries it relies “primarily on a defined contribution (DC) pension system. Most workers build retirement savings in individual accounts managed by private pension funds rather than through a traditional government pension,” the article continues.

When Chileans reach retirement age, the article explains, their choices for turning their savings into income boil down to selecting either a guaranteed lifetime annuity or opting “for market-based withdrawals.” There are some hybrid options (including both annuities and market withdrawals) available, the article adds.

The system’s design has made annuities a very popular choice for Chileans, the article tells us.

“That structure has helped create one of the more active annuity markets in the world. More than 60 per cent of Chilean retirees choose annuities, compared with less than five per cent of U.S. retirees, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College,” the article notes.

The “market-based withdrawals” alternative to annuities is “a government-run withdrawal system that pays out savings in installments,” the article explains.

OK – so how does the link to longer life work? Let’s read on.

The article suggests that those choosing annuities face less stress.

“Retirees who rely on market-based withdrawals may face more uncertainty about how long their savings will last, especially during downturns. Annuities, by contrast, provide a steady paycheque. That stability may reduce anxiety and the mental strain tied to financial uncertainty,” the article notes.

The other reason researchers found was that having guaranteed income makes one “more likely to invest in their health,” the article notes. Annuitants were found to be more apt to be “keeping up with routine checkups, preventive care and other ongoing medical needs.”

There’s a sense of security that comes with a lifetime annuity, the article notes.

“Many people fear running out of money more than they fear death,” Angie Welsh, founder and president of My Annuity Agents, tells Money.com. “The financial stress that comes with the unknown has real negative impacts on both physical and mental well-being.”

Those withdrawing money from an actively invested account can end up “living and dying with every market spike and dip,” she tells the publication. Their sense of security fluctuates just as much as the market does, the article adds.

And not knowing how much your income will be (at least, exactly) can lead to behaviour changes, she tells Money.com.

“Without a steady income stream, some retirees become hesitant to spend money on essentials that support their quality of life — like healthcare, nutrition and social activities — because they’re trying to avoid outliving their savings,” she states in the article.

Members of the Saskatchewan Pension Plan have the option to convert some or all of their savings into a lifetime annuity when the time comes to turn savings into income.

While you are contributing to SPP, your savings dollars are invested in our professionally managed, low-cost, diversified pooled fund. You decide how much to contribute, and you can transfer in any amount from registered retirement savings plans (non-locked-in) you may have.

At retirement, you can elect to convert some or all of your savings to a lifetime annuity. Depending on the annuity type you select (the Pension Guide retirement_guide.pdf provides full details) there can also be benefits paid to a surviving spouse or beneficiary.

Check out SPP today!

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Piggy bank strategies – making piggy work harder for you

All of us, even those of single-digit age, understand how a piggy bank works. You fill it up with loose change and the odd bill, and when it’s full – wait, what do people do with it then?

Save with SPP took a look around to see what piggy bank strategies are lurking out there on the Interweb.

Let’s start with ETFFIN blog.

The blog sees piggy banks as an ideal place “to keep your spare change. Dropping loose change from your purse, pocket and car cushions into a piggy bank will keep you from knowing how much money you have accumulated until you open up the piggy and count up the change. You can take the saved change to a bank to deposit it into an account or in exchange for bills. This process allows you to make the most of every cent you earn, which can accumulate into saving of $10 from a piggy bank of pennies, up to at least $50 from a (bank) of quarters.”

The blog recommends that you use a different coloured piggy bank for each type of change and bill. “This saving trick will help you be more organized with your money, and can lead to more saving since you can keep better track of the money you have, as well as how much you want to put away rather than spend,” the blog explains.

The blog recommends that you have a savings purpose for each piggy bank – “such as to book a vacation or buy a new item of clothing.” This, the blog continues, “creates incentive to use a piggy bank more, and therefore, creates more opportunity for saving money.”

A final thought from ETFFIN – a piggy bank can hold bills, and not just change. “Even small bills, such as ($5 and $10 bills), will add up quickly if you put them in a piggy bank. A piggy bank full of… $5 and $10 bills can quickly add up to several hundred dollars. After you have filled the piggy bank, empty it, then take the money to a bank to deposit or to get the amount back in more manageable bills,” the blog advises.

The Monzo website advocates a multi-piggy bank approach, with each bank having a specific savings goal.

“Piggy banking involves setting up multiple piggy banks… and splitting your money between each one. You use the money in each piggy bank for a different purpose – like bills, groceries and new clothes,” the site explains. We are instantly reminded of the multiple jar approach popularized by Canadian financial author Gail Vaz-Oxlade (Feb 8: Control spending and debt, and you’ll free up money to save: Gail Vaz-Oxlade | Save with SPP).

The Monzo site suggests – after setting up a budget – that you establish separate piggy banks for these categories: rent or mortgage, bills, groceries, eating out, new clothes, holidays and “savings, investments and debt repayments.”

The site suggests that you overestimate the amounts you’ll need (to stay on the safe side) and that if you don’t want to use cash in physical piggy banks, you can set up separate online accounts for each “piggy” category. No matter how you approach it, the money in each bank can only be used for spending on its designated category.

The Moneystepper site provides a few additional ideas.

“Never empty your piggy bank haphazardly,” the site warns. “If you do, it’ll quickly simply become a nice tidy way to store your money rather than being a money-saving tool.”

Don’t, the site suggests, set a limit on what goes into the bank – say, nothing bigger than a quarter. “All that does is tell your brain that (anything over a quarter) can be spent,” and not saved, the site notes.

Have the goal of doing something specific with your piggy bank once it is full, the article concludes.

“You should be aiming to empty and place your piggy bank amounts into your real bank account on a scheduled basis (I would recommend every six months at most). If not, you will be losing out on too much compound interest,” the site adds.

We used our piggy bank to save all loose change, any scratch ticket winnings, payouts from our dental and vision insurance, and other unexpected amounts. All money saved was contributed to our Saskatchewan Pension Plan accounts! We even used small gift cards to make contributions.

SPP invests everyone’s savings dollars in a low-cost, professionally managed, pooled fund. You can decide how much you want to contribute, and can also transfer in any amount from registered retirement savings plans (non-locked-in) you may have. When it’s time to retire, your income options include the security of a monthly lifetime annuity payment or the more flexible Variable Benefit.

Check out SPP today!

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Taking a look at what Canadian retirees actually live on

A recent Money Canada article by Noel Moffatt reveals some surprising numbers when it comes to the question of what Canadian retirees are actually living on.

“A newly retired Canadian opens their first government deposit to see their retirement benefits. The Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS) payments are available, but they total only about $1,530 per month. After working for decades, that amount is often shocking to retirees,” Moffatt begins.

And, he continues, most of us – even with personal savings added in – don’t do much better than that average base.

“According to Statistics Canada, the median after-tax income for individual seniors in Canada is about $31,400 per year, or roughly $2,617 per month. That amount pales in comparison to most working wages in Canada,” he writes.

That got Moffatt wondering.

“So, how much do Canadian retirees actually live on each month? Where does the money come from, and is it enough?,” he asks.

“The median retirement income data for Canadians paints a more realistic picture for most households,” he writes. “For individual seniors, that figure drops to about $31,400 annually, or $2,617 per month. The median senior couple will earn about $64,300 per year,” he reports.

“These totals include all of the retirement benefits that Canadians rely on, including CPP, OAS, the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS), pensions and personal savings, as applicable,” Moffatt adds.

The article then takes a look at where this income is coming from.

“For most Canadians, retirement income comes from a combination of the three pillars: government retirement benefits, workplace pensions and personal savings and investments,” he explains. “The first pillar includes things like CPP, OAS and GIS Canada, which some seniors may qualify for. In 2025, the average CPP payment was about $772 per month, while the maximum benefit was $1,364.60. For OAS, the monthly payment was $713.34, and for seniors over 75, it was increased to $784 per month,” he continues.

For low-income seniors, the GIS can add up to $1,065.47 per month, Moffatt notes.

The second pillar, Moffatt continues, is “the employer-provided pension.”

While pensions can be a valuable part of the overall income picture, not that many Canadians have access to them, Moffatt notes. “According to Statistics Canada, more than 6.6 million Canadians are a part of registered pension plans, even though fewer than one-third of workers have employer-sponsored pensions,” he notes.

The final pillar is personal savings, he writes.

“This includes investments in registered retirement savings Plans (RRSPs), registered retirement income funds (RRIFs), Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs) and non-registered investments. For Canadians without pensions, these savings often determine how comfortable retirement feels,” he continues.

The message in this article is quite clear. If you are thinking that you don’t really need to save for retirement because you’ll get CPP, OAS and maybe GIS, those benefits deliver a very modest benefit.

If you don’t have a pension program through work, don’t worry – all Canadians with available RRSP room have the option of joining the Saskatchewan Pension Plan. SPP is an open, voluntary defined contribution plan. You decide how much to contribute – any amount up to your annual RRSP limit – and SPP does the rest.

You can also transfer in any amount from other RRSPs you may have.

Contributions are invested in our low-cost, diversified, professionally managed pooled fund. At retirement, you will have created your own retirement income pillar – and your SPP funds can be collected as a monthly lifetime annuity payment or the more flexible Variable Benefit, among other options.

Check out SPP today!

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Unretired: how never retiring might be the right choice for you

It’s been programmed into the psyche for most of us – retirement is a time when you finally escape the grind of work and ease into a life of travel, leisure and relaxation.

Not so, writes Mark S. Walton in his engaging book, Unretired.

A quote from Hemingway begins his book. “Retirement is the filthiest word in the language,” the great author once wrote. “Whether by choice or fate, to retire from what you do – and what makes you what you are – is to back up into the grave.”

Walton notes that many older people don’t want to spend their retirement day playing golf “and then a round of dominoes and get back home around 4 p.m.;” they want to continue to be “a contributing member of society.”

As recently as 2022, he writes, “nearly 10 per cent of college-educated Americans aged 65 and older who had previously retired, changed their minds and rejoined the workforce…. By the year 2030, the number of working 65-plus-year-old Americans… will be greater than the populations of Los Angelese and Chicago combined.”

“Retiring from work is not right for everybody – in fact, for a solid majority of people, it can turn out to be a seriously bad idea,” Walton notes.

He notes that for those “who enjoyed and were effective in their work lives,” the “losses” from retirement include personal identity, sense of purpose, daily structure, and friends and a social network.

He adds that “the more successful you have been in your career, especially financially, the more likely you are to feel like a failure in retirement.”

To be “unretired,” he posits, is a solution. Walton lists three “essential building blocks of a joyful and fulfilling future,” namely fascination, flow, and generativity. The last term refers to “the drive to help others.” His book his filled with examples of those who continued to work at important jobs, found new careers, vocations, or started new businesses, and became “unretired.”

Susan Nolingberg was let go at age 60 after the company she worked for was bought. “I had a nice severance. I could have just done nothing, but it would not have been very personally rewarding to me,” she tells Walton 10 years later. “I don’t need to work, that’s not why I’m working, but I’ve been able to live a very nice lifestyle with the additional income in… I’ve done some amazing things in the past 10 years that I wouldn’t have experienced if I’d just hung it up.”

Ruth Johnson, also 70 and still working as a medical doctor, says “I really enjoy what I’m doing. I feel like it’s valuable, it’s helping people, and you can’t beat that really.”

Walton notes that the American Association of Retired Persons now goes by only its initials, AARP, because still-working Americans who were invited to join the association on turning 50 “didn’t want to be reminded they were growing older (and) didn’t want to join a club that included their parents.” AARP recognized that many of its members “continue to work full time or part time.”

That’s changing the look of the U.S. workforce, the book continues.

Chris Farrell of NPR is quoted in the book as saying “older workers are going to change the workforce as profoundly as women did.”

In a later chapter, Walton speaks with Dr. Michael Merzenich about how challenging your brain can keep it healthy even in your later years. “In a well-led life,” the doctor states in the book, “you would consider your brain fitness, your neurological abilities, and try to do what’s necessary to sustain these as close to the peak as possible at all times… what a gift it is that we have the ability to keep ourselves at that high operational level in our 70s, 80s, or however long we live.” Continuing to work and challenge the brain keeps it fitter, the book tells us.

Dr. Shep Nuland tells Walton that “those of us who’ve had challenging things to do in which every year brought greater growth in our profession, are much more likely to be insistent on greater growth once we’re older. We’re not going to sit still for decline.”

This is a great, well-written and inspiring book.

Even if you continue to work after age 65, full time or part time, a little extra income is always handy. You can convert your Saskatchewan Pension Plan to an income stream “any time between the ages of 55 and 71,” according to the SPP Pension Guide (retirement_guide.pdf).

SPP will continue to invest your contributions in our professionally managed, low-cost and diversified pooled fund. When it is time to turn savings into income, your choices include the security of a monthly lifetime annuity payment or the flexibility of the Variable Benefit.

Check out SPP today!

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How to catch up if your retirement savings efforts haven’t really got on track

Let’s face it – life is expensive, especially if you’re looking after kids, renting or owning a home, and still finishing off paying down student debt. These legitimate life expenses can make saving for retirement seem impossible.

But, writes Vishesh Raisinghani for Money Canada, there are a number of ways you can jump-start your retirement savings and catch up.

He begins by noting that for most people, it’s usually not until “the final five years before they retire” that their “earnings have peaked, their children are self-sufficient, and their mortgage is close to being paid off.” This is when “your top priority is typically boosting your (retirement) nest egg as much as possible,” he adds.

Yet, perhaps not surprisingly, many in the pre-retirement years haven’t saved much, Raisinghani writes.

“Many older Canadians still aren’t as fully prepared for retirement as they’d like to be. A 2025 survey by the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan found 36 per cent of adults aged 55 to 64 have $5,000 or less saved for their retirement, with only 21 per cent having over $100,000 in savings,” he notes.

So, how does one turbocharge one’s savings? Raisinghani gives us a couple of strategic ideas.

First, he suggests, “max out your tax-advantaged accounts.”

“If you’re close to retirement age and have a registered retirement savings Plan (RRSP), you could take advantage of any carryover room you may have from previous years. That’s because any Canadian with an RRSP can accumulate unused contribution room year after year and carry it forward indefinitely — creating a significant opportunity for you to `catch up’ and build your savings over the last five years of your career,” he explains.

While the 2026 RRSP limit is $33,810 or 18 per cent of your income (whichever is lower), “many Canadians have far more room available because of unused carryover from previous years,” he adds.

Another catch-up strategy would be deferring your Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS) benefits until you are 70, Raisinghani notes.

“If you wait until you turn 70 to collect CPP payments, you could significantly increase the monthly amount you receive,” he writes. “That’s because even though you’re eligible to start collecting CPP at 60, the maximum monthly amount you could receive at that age is 36 per cent less than if you were to start receiving at 65.” It’s 42 per cent more if you wait until age 70 to collect, he adds.

Similar rules apply to OAS, he notes.

Consider, he adds, moving to a professionally managed investment portfolio rather than doing it yourself.

“Not everyone knows how to do these things on their own, especially when it comes to calculating withdrawal rates, factoring in variables like inflation or putting together a retirement portfolio that will go the full distance. That’s why there are professionally managed portfolios that can do the work for you, building the right mix of investments from various asset classes that can help you maximize your returns and minimize risk,” he suggests.

Another important idea is to know, in advance, the tax consequences of withdrawing from your savings. Taxes are higher, he notes, on investments that pay out interest. And you should make sure you are making maximum use of your Tax Free Savings Account.

You’ll also need to have a retirement “lifestyle plan” in place, he recommends.

“You need a lifestyle plan just as much as a withdrawal or tax plan. If you want to continue working side gigs or part-time hours, include that in your plan. If you want to spend more time travelling, remember to add that as well,” he explains. In other words, you need to spell out what you intend to do with all your time, so that your savings support that lifestyle.

Contributions to your Saskatchewan Pension Plan account are based on your available RRSP room, so if you have a lot of carry-forward room your SPP account can benefit from a large top up.

SPP also permits you to transfer any amount into the plan from other RRSPs you may have. This will consolidate your retirement nest egg.

All hard-saved dollars are invested in SPP’s professionally managed, diversified, low-cost pooled fund, where they will grow in the years leading up to your retirement. And when that day comes, your options include the security of a lifetime monthly annuity payment, or the flexibility of the Variable Benefit.

Check out SPP today!

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The Annuity Puzzle – working paper looks at why annuities, an answer to running out of savings, are not more popular

If people fear running out of savings when they retire, you’d think annuities – a way to convert some or all of your savings to a lifetime income stream – would be more popular.

A working paper produced for the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), titled The Annuity Puzzle Revisited: Barriers, Behaviour, and Policy Paths to Lifetime Income, takes a look at why the annuity solution is not more top of mind for retirees.

The paper’s authors are Hal E. Hershfield, Suzanne Shu, Jeffrey R. Brown, Abigail Hurwitz, Olivia S. Mitchell, Tamiko Toland and York University’s Moshe Arye Milevsky.

The paper begins by noting that, when considering retirement, “retirement plan design and academic research have focused on wealth accumulation, emphasizing how to encourage employees to begin saving and contribute at rates sufficient to support financial security later in life.”

However, the authors note, “the process by which retirees spend down their wealth has historically received far less attention from academics, policymakers and industry. Wealth decumulation decisions, or how to optimize consumption over an uncertain remaining lifespan, are among the most difficult ones that people face.”

The paper notes that “a life annuity… in which the consumer exchanges an amount of money for guaranteed lifetime income that may start immediately or at a future date” is often overlooked as a decumulation tool.

“A large body of economic literature has concluded that consumers should place a high value on annuities, yet in practice, few individuals voluntarily annuitize, a conundrum known as the `annuity puzzle,’” the authors notes. “There is also a substantial disconnect between the roughly half of consumers who report they would favor buying an annuity to protect against running out of money in retirement and the much smaller share of about 12 per cent that actually do (Arapakis & Wettstein, 2024),” the paper adds.

So why are annuities, which are the primary way to deliver guaranteed lifetime income, the paper continues, less popular than other options?

Many households, the paper suggests, “value retaining liquid assets to leave to heirs.” In many cases, an annuity conversion is “fully or partially irreversible,” meaning you can’t undo your choice, the paper adds. The paper (designed for a U.S. audience) notes that most government retirement benefits already provide “a substantial stream of guaranteed lifetime income.” (The same can be said of Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security benefits here in Canada.)

The paper goes into detail on other factors that impact people’s willingness to convert savings to annuities, including such things as pricing and their own thoughts on their potential longevity.

There’s a “behavioural impediment,” the paper notes – “people tend to focus on the chance of `losing’ principal when they die, rather than on the insurance value of having lifetime income protection” while they are alive.

Similarly, the paper notes, “retirees who have worked for decades to build a healthy retirement balance are likely to feel strong ownership and endowment over these balances, making the transfer of these funds… in exchange for an annuity highly uncomfortable.”

The paper then explores ways to boost annuity adoption.

“Survey evidence also suggests that many older Americans regret not having purchased annuities, highlighting the consequences of this gap (Hurwitz & Mitchell, 2025a),” the paper notes.

In some jurisdictions – notably Singapore and Israel – retirement systems require “partial” annuitization, the paper notes. At least some of the savings must be used to provide guaranteed income via an annuity, the paper explains.

Another plan design seen in Sweden and Switzerland is to have annuitization as the default choice for decumulation right from the time the member is enrolled, the paper continues. Some systems offer deferred annuities that start when the member reaches an advanced age.

Other systems build in ways “to address concerns about bequest, regret, and loss aversion,” such as offering “refundable income annuities, including cash-refund and installment-refund variants,” to reduce the perception that you have “lost” money by converting to an annuity.

The paper notes that most defined benefit pension plans offer lifetime annuity-style payments, but that the focus for more common defined contribution plans has more usually been on capital accumulation, with less design consideration given to decumulation. In the U.S., the paper notes, more policy and regulatory actions have been recently taken to increase annuity adoption, but progress has been slow.

Clearly, the paper notes, there needs to be more advice given to individuals on the importance of the annuity option, perhaps via more emphasis on financial literacy.

“One set of interventions would involve enhancing financial and longevity literacy, as low levels of financial literacy remain a major impediment to effective retirement planning (Lusardi & Mitchell, 2024),” the paper notes. “This ability is especially important for annuities, given the complexity of the decision process required (Brown et al., 2021). Although evidence on whether general financial literacy increases annuity demand is mixed, annuity-specific knowledge appears to be positively associated with annuity demand (Goedde-Menke et al., 2014; Hurwitz & Mitchell, 2025b),” the paper adds.

Indeed, the paper concludes, the need for better education to help people make informed choices is quite apparent.

“Creating more effective retirement income choice environments will require coordination among employers, insurers, advisors, regulators, and policymakers, even when incentives are imperfectly aligned. No single innovation or regulatory change will reliably deliver the outcomes predicted by idealized economic models. Meaningful progress will instead depend on a combination of education, carefully designed nudges, and continued innovation in products and choice architecture,” the paper concludes.

Members of the Saskatchewan Pension Plan have access to a variety of annuity options when it comes time to convert their savings (in total or in part) to income.

According to the SPP Pension Guide (retirement_guide.pdf), members can choose a life-only annuity (income goes to the member for life with no survivor options), a refund life annuity (where any balance remaining of the amount you transferred for your annuity can be paid to your beneficiary), and a joint and last survivor annuity (where a surviving spouse or common law partner receives some or all of your annuity payment for the rest of their life after you pass away).

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Several strategies can help those who won’t hit retirement “finish line” until after 65

Writing for CP24, certified financial planner and noted financial commentator Christopher Liew observes that a growing number of Canadians are finding that their working life will continue long past the traditional retirement age of 65.

“For decades, 65 was the finish line. You worked, you saved, you retired. But that script is quietly being rewritten across the country,” his article begins.

Citing data from Statistics Canada, he reports that “more Canadians than ever are staying on the job past 65. For some it’s a necessity, for others it’s a choice, but either way, the trend is here.”

As of 2025, he writes, 15.2 per cent of Canadians were still at work after age 65, according to Statistics Canada. That marks the fifth year in a row that the over-65 working cohort has increased in numbers, he adds, and means there are 1.2 million seniors still in the workforce.

And while the average retirement age was just 60.9 as recently as 1997, as of 2025 it has risen to 65.4 years, he adds. “Self-employed Canadians retire even later, at an average of 68.4,” he remarks.

So, he continues, if “done right,” working for a few extra years “can dramatically improve the rest of your life.”

What strategies should “delayed” retirees employ? Let’s read on.

Liew recommends that those working past 65 delay receiving the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS).

“This is the single biggest lever most Canadians ignore. According to the Government of Canada, every month you delay your CPP retirement pension past the age 65 increases your payment by 0.7 per cent. Wait until 70 and you’ll get a permanent 42 per cent boost,” he reports.

It’s a similar story for OAS, he notes. “OAS works the same way, but at 0.6 per cent per month, for a maximum 36 per cent permanent increase at 70. If you’re working past 65 and don’t need the income yet, deferring is almost always worth a serious look,” he advises.

A second benefit of deferring OAS if you are still working is avoiding the OAS “recovery tax” or clawback, Liew notes.

“If you’re earning a good income past 65, taking OAS at the same time can backfire. For the July 2026 to June 2027 benefit year, OAS starts to claw back once your net income hits $93,454, and disappears entirely around $152,000 if you’re aged 65 to 74,” he warns.

A third strategy of working longer is continuing to build up your retirement savings via your registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) or Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA).

“Working longer means more contribution room and more time for tax-sheltered growth. You can keep contributing to your RRSP until Dec. 31 of the year you turn 71. And since your TFSA limit keeps accumulating regardless of work status, every extra year of earnings is a chance to top it up,” he writes.

“I’ve always thought this is one of the most underrated benefits of working past 65. A 67-year-old maxing out their TFSA and adding to a spousal RRSP can quietly add tens of thousands in tax-sheltered savings before they even start drawing down,” he explains.

Liew adds a couple of additional strategic thoughts.

Those who are 65 and older but still working can still claim the pension income tax credit “on up to $2,000 of eligible pension income, plus a matching provincial credit.” The “trick” is to make sure you are drawing at least that amount from a pension plan or registered retirement income fund (RRIF) withdrawal, he adds.

A last bit of advice is to “phase in” your retirement, rather than making a “hard switch” from working to not working.  

“A growing number of Canadians are moving to part-time work, consulting, or seasonal gigs in their late 60s. Wage growth for workers 55 and older actually outpaced every other age group in March 2026, at 5.2 per cent year-over-year, according to the Labour Force Survey. Older workers aren’t just hanging on, they’re being rewarded,” he concludes.

Members of the Saskatchewan Pension Plan have the option to defer converting their savings into retirement income until the age of 71.

Their contributions will continue to grow in SPP’s professionally managed, low-cost pooled fund. When it’s finally time to draw income from the account, options include the security of a lifetime monthly annuity payment or the flexibility of the Variable Benefit.

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