Save Early

Save early, save often

December 8, 2011

By Sheryl Smolkin

You are 26 years old and at the end of 2009, you completed your first year of full-time work, earning $50,000. Your 2010 tax assessment form said you have $9,000 in Registered Retirement Savings Plan room for 2011. You know saving for retirement is a good idea, but it seems so far away.

Why start saving early for retirement?

Government benefits like Canada Pension Plan and the Old Age Security currently pay about $18,000/yr. These amounts will increase by the time you retire but so will your income. If at the end of your career you are earning $150,000/year you will need about $2 million in tax-assisted savings to buy a pension equal to 60 per cent or 70 per cent of your final earnings.

But if you start saving a small amount each month now, you will have a substantial chunk of retirement savings available to you when you need it. As long as you have sufficient RRSP room, the Saskatchewan Pension Plan (SPP) allows you to contribute $2,500/year. You can also transfer in an additional $10,000 each year from your RRSP.

The following example show how much money you can accumulate by saving regularly in the SPP.

Example:

You begin saving at age 26, with 39 years until you retire at age 65. You contribute $2,500 yr. and your retirement savings earn an average of 5%* each year.

Retirement savings at age 65: $299, 499.44

Starting at age 45, you also transfer in $10,000/yr. from your RRSP, which earns an average of 5% each year until retirement at age 65.

Additional retirement savings: $347,192.52

Total retirement savings:         $646, 691.96

You can easily join by filling out a form on our website and providing a photocopy of your birth certificate or passport. Anyone ages 18 to 71 is eligible, whether or not they are Saskatchewan residents.

SPP also makes it simple to contribute to your account by allowing you to choose from any of the following methods:

  • By mail.
  • In person or by telebanking at your financial institution.
  • By phone using your credit card.
  • Online.

On the long and winding road to retirement you will encounter many detours including raising a family, buying a house and contributing to the cost of your children’s education. However, by joining SPP at an early age and saving regularly, you can look forward to a more secure retirement.

For more information, check out our website, RSS savewithSPP.com, “like” us on Facebook or connect with us on Linked in.

*The SPP average rate of return over 25 years has been 8.2%. All calculations are approximate and do not in any way warrant future returns.

Also read:

Invest early, invest often 

Planning your RRSP contributions: Gary, Kevin and Judith’s story

How saving early in your RRSP helps: Amy and Amanda’s story  

Is it easier to save for retirement if you start earlier in life?

Millionaire teacher’s first rule of wealth


Welcome to savewithSPP.com

December 1, 2011

Welcome to the Saskatchewan Pension Plan’s (SPP) blog – a new way for us to keep current members informed and reach out to prospective new members. Beginning December 1, we are going to be blogging regularly and you can also follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn.

We will be posting podcasts with interviews of people behind the SPP, frequently asked questions, financial tips and links to personal finance articles written by top authorities across the country.

In a Toronto Star article late last year, the SPP was described as “Canada’s best kept secret.” Our new social media initiative is designed to make sure that secret is a thing of the past.

The fact is, SPP is a program developed ahead of its time. This plan, started 25 years ago is what many jurisdictions now desire. Anyone between age 18 and 71 is eligible to join, regardless of where they live and whether they are members in other plans, as long as they have unused RRSP contribution room.

It is a fully-funded capital accumulation plan created by the Saskatchewan government to provide supplementary retirement income to individuals with little or no access to employer-sponsored pensions.

Last December the federal and provincial governments announced that the maximum contributions would increase to $2,500 and that contributions would be subject the RRSP contribution rules. Members may now also transfer up to $10,000 a year from RRSPs, RRIFs and unlocked RPPs.

As of December 31, 2010, the SPP had close to 32,000 members and over 11,000 members received a pension from the Plan.  The market value of the fund was $192.5 million.

 So far in 2011, 931 new people have joined the plan. Our goal is to register over 1,000 new members before the end of the year.

In a recent article in the August/September 2011 issue of the CGA Ontario magazine Statements, author Flavian Pinto called the SPP “another option in retirement planning and a possible model for a better future than we have now – a glimpse into the future of pension plans.”

You and your friends can be part of this future.

Help us to spread the word. RSS savewithSPP.com, “like” us on Facebook or connect with us on Linked in. Make sure your friends are “in on the secret” so they too can make the SPP part of their retirement savings strategy.

Katherine Strutt

General manager

Saskatchewan Pension Plan

Also read: 

Is this small pension plan Canada’s best kept secret?
Saskatchewan’s new pension plan – Canada’s first PRPP?
Pooled Pension Plans
Saskatchewan Pension Plan and Changes to the Income Tax Act