Tips and tricks for retirement savers facing scary markets, inflation

Writing for Yahoo! Finance, Ella Vincent notes that these times of up-and-down markets and rising inflation are worrisome for savers.

She offers a variety of tips and tricks, some of which we have “Canadianized” as she is aiming her advice at a U.S. audience.

First, she writes savers nearing retirement should be thinking more about risk than they do about chasing growth.

Ken Moraif of Retirement Planners of America tells Yahoo! Finance that “risk control is incredibly important in our view. We have a philosophy that says you should only take as much risk as is necessary to accomplish your financial goals. Risk control is the number one thing to determine how much risk is appropriate for you and proceed accordingly.”

Diversify your portfolio so you aren’t “all in” on any one investment category, the article advises.

Moraif tells Yahoo! Finance that you should also review your investment philosophy. A “buy and hold” strategy, where workers “buy and hold stocks until they retire,” may not be effective as you move into retirement, where the goal is preserving capital versus growing it.

Buy and holders need to develop a “sell” strategy, Moraif states in the article. Reducing equities is sometimes away to cushion yourself from stock downturns while conserving your principal, he explains.

Next, consider tapping into your retirement account later. Here in Canada, that could mean continuing to work until you are 70 before starting your Canada Pension Plan benefits, with the idea being you’ll receive a greater monthly benefit the later you start.

If you didn’t start saving for retirement while you were young, you can try to catch up in your 1950s by maximizing your contributions to retirement savings programs. Here north of the 49^th that means things like filling up registered retirement savings plan room with an eye on maxing out. A Tax Free-Savings Account (TFSA) is also handy in retirement, so if you haven’t got one rolling by your 50s, you will have a lot of room there to use as well.

If you’re in a retirement program at work, be sure you are contributing to the max, the article adds.

Let’s sum this up. Don’t place your bets on one horse when it comes to financial markets; diversify to avoid risk. Your investment philosophy should be more about conserving capital than trying to grow it. Consider starting retirement benefits later so you get more — that usually means working longer too.

Don’t panic if you weren’t a saver in your 20s and 30s — there is still time in your 50s to try and max out your retirement savings vehicles like RRSPs and TFSAs. Be sure to join any retirement savings program through your work and contribute as much as you possibly can.

It’s a lot to take in.

There’s another way to go that’s open to any Canadian with RRSP room, and that’s the Saskatchewan Pension Plan. It’s a voluntary defined benefit pension plan where how much is contributed is defined by you, the member. You can chip in up to $7,200 a year, and can consolidate any other bits and pieces of retirement savings by transferring up to $10,000 a year in from other RRSPs. SPP will grow your savings and at retirement, you have the option of a lifetime annuity — a supply of monthly payments that never runs out! Check out SPP today!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Article warns of five “myths” about retirement

Writing for Kelowna’s Castanet blog, Brett Millard examines what he describes as five top “myths” about retirement.

The first such myth, he writes, is the belief that “the cost of living will be lower in retirement.”

Canadians may think “their income needs will be much lower once they stop working. After all, they won’t have those commuting costs or need to make mortgage payments,” he writes. But, the article notes, travel costs are likely to increase for the newly retired, and “plenty of Canadians have debt in retirement.”

Those of us retiring with debt are facing rising interest rates, which will “have an impact on your disposable income,” the article continues. We may also have to help struggling adult children, the article points out.

Finally, longevity — living longer — can impact your bottom line, the article notes. The longer you live, the more you’ll need to pay towards “in-home care, a care home, or renovations to make your home more accessible.”

The next myth, Millard writes, is that “registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs) are a complete retirement plan.” The article points out that RRSP income is not usually sufficient for all one’s needs, noting that most Canadians will be counting on other sources, such as “the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Old Age Security (OAS), company pension plans, Tax Free Savings Accounts,” and such sources as non-registered investments or income from rental properties.

“RRSPs are one part of an investment plan, but a real retirement plan also includes estate planning, life insurance and tax efficiencies,” Millard’s article advises.

The next myth is that “one million dollars is enough for retirement.”

Millard writes that for a variety of reasons — such as when you start your retirement, and what other sources of retirement income you have — setting a target of $1 million might not be right for you. “The amount that any investor will need when they retire will depend on a whole array of variables, with the target amount being unique to each person,” the article notes.

Lifestyle, the activity level of your retirement, possible inheritances — these all factor into determining how much you actually need to save for retirement, the article explains.

The final two myths are that “retirement plan portfolios should be conservative,” and that you should “never carry debt into retirement.”

On the first point, the older “conservative” investment idea was based on assuming a shortish retirement, the article says.

“Now, Canadians could realistically expect their retirement to last 25 years or longer. Retirement portfolios that need to support you for this many years aren’t going to experience significant growth if they’re made up exclusively of fixed income. A conservative retirement portfolio runs the risk of running out of money,” the article notes.

The “no debt” rule, the article contends, “is not realistic or practical” these days, as “close to half of Canadians carry some sort of debt.” Instead, the article suggests, work on paying down high-interest debt from credit cards, which the article describes as bad debt.

The overall message in this well-written piece is that there’s a lot of factors to consider when thinking of retirement, so rather than going by “myths,” you may want to consult a financial planner.

The government benefits most of us receive in retirement — CPP, OAS, and even the Guaranteed Income Supplement — are paid for life, and therefore cannot “run out.”

Yet many people who have RRSPs choose to continue investing them in retirement via a registered retirement income fund (RRIF), rather than choosing to convert any of their savings into income via a lifetime annuity.

If you’re a member of the Saskatchewan Pension Plan, you have the option, at retirement, to convert some or all of your account into an annuity. That way, you’ll never run out of retirement savings in the future. Check out SPP today!

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CPP benefit seen as modest in an environment where many lack workplace pensions

Writing in The Globe and Mail, David Lawrence provides a reality check for those of us thinking federal retirement benefits will cover our retirement costs.

He notes that the maximum benefit available from the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) for a new recipient in 2022 is $1,253.59 per month. But worse, not everyone gets the maximum — Lawrence writes that the average CPP payment this year is a mere $727.61 per month.

The traditional “three pillars” of Canadian retirement, he writes, are changing. While government pensions like CPP and Old Age Security (OAS) provide one pillar, and personal savings another, the third is pensions, which Lawrence says are not generally accessible to those who are self-employed or working on contract.

In fact, many people just don’t have a workplace pension, the article notes.

“While it used to be that clients were maybe worried that their pension wasn’t going to be enough, over the past 15 years we’ve encountered more clients who simply don’t have a pension [through their employer],” Tom Gilman, senior wealth advisor and senior portfolio manager with Gilman Deters Private Wealth at Harbourfront Wealth Management Inc. in Vancouver, tells the Globe.

Those who do have a pension are “more confident” about their retirement cost of living than those without, Gilman states in the article.

He also tells the Globe that your personal “income tax profile” should help you decide whether a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) is a better retirement savings vehicle for you than the usual alternative, the Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA). Some people need the tax deductions associated with an RRSP more than others, the article explains.

Those who are going to live off their investments need to think about how best to structure their portfolio, states Laura Barclay of TD Wealth Private Investment Counsel in Markham, Ont., in the Globe article.

“For her, the holdings that best mimic a pension plan with stable, long-term payments are high-quality, blue-chip dividend-paying stocks,” the article notes.

Barclay tells the Globe she advises her clients to look for “high-quality companies… with growing earnings,” and that also pay dividends. Diversification is also important, she states in the article.

Harp Sandhu, financial advisor with the Sandhu Advisory Group at Raymond James Ltd. in Victoria, tells the Globe he takes a “tortoise” approach with his own retirement investments — “slow and steady wins the race,” the article notes.

If you are starting to save for retirement while older, don’t pick risky investments with high returns in the short term to try and catch up, Sandhu tells the Globe. Things can go wrong with such investment choices, he tells the newspaper.

If you ever have an opportunity to join a pension plan or retirement savings arrangement through work, be sure to join, and contribute as much as you can. When retirement savings is a deduction from your paycheque, you’ll quickly forget about it and will be happy, when you retire, that you’re getting more than just standard government retirement benefits.

If there isn’t any retirement program available for you, perhaps because you work on a casual or contract basis, the Saskatchewan Pension Plan may be of interest. Any Canadian with available RRSP room can join. If you have bits of pieces saved in multiple RRSPs, you are allowed to consolidate them within the SPP — you can transfer in up to $10,000 per year. Check out SPP today — it may be the retirement solution you’ve been searching for!

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Writer offers six tips on how to achieve financial independence

Financial independence, writes CTV’s Christopher Liew, “is when an individual has accumulated enough wealth or has a passive income stream capable of covering all of their living expenses for the rest of their natural life without needing a paycheque or salary.”

While the idea of never having to work for a living again sort of sounds like full retirement, Liew’s article suggests that this financial independence can be attained through “hard work, planning, and consistent action.”

First, he writes, you need to increase your savings rate.

“Your savings rate is the percentage of your total after-tax income that you save,” he explains. By doing a thorough audit of what you are actually spending your money on, you may be able to find areas where you can cut back, he continues. “By saving more money, you’ll be increasing your savings rate.”

Next, Liew recommends that we start investing early. “Investing your money is one of the most common ways to achieve financial independence,” he explains, adding that “the earlier you start, the better, due to the magic of compounding returns.”

Make sure, the article continues, that you are taking full advantage of your Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA). “TFSA accounts are best used as investment accounts, and none of the earnings within the account are taxable,” he notes. You should also “maximize the value” of your registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) and/or registered education savings plan (RESP).

Another tip is to look for other sources of income, to boost your overall earnings and free up more money for savings, the article notes. These “extra” streams of income can include dividends from investments, freelancing, rental income, starting a business, negotiating a raise, or finding a higher-paying job.

Another great bit of advice in Liew’s article is to “live below your means.”

“If you spend all the money you make, it will be difficult to achieve financial independence. Living below your means can be one way to spend less. For example, if you get a promotion at work and your salary increases, try to keep your spending at the same level instead of immediately increasing your living costs. The value of delayed gratification will mean reaching your financial independence goals earlier,” he writes.

Finally, you’ll have an easier time of achieving financial independence if you have a “like-minded spouse,” Liew writes. If both of you are on the same page, your drive towards financial independence will be doubled, he concludes.

These are all great tips. When we were working full time we did “live below your means” by simply paying the bills based on the prior year’s salary and earnings, and banking the difference. This indeed boosted our pre-retirement savings.

One of the nice features of the Saskatchewan Pension Plan is its flexibility on contributions. You decide how much you want to contribute (currently, up to $7,000 annually) and SPP contributions can be done through pre-authorized debits, can be paid like bills online, and can even be paid using credit cards (including, as we found out, pre-paid gift credit cards). Check out SPP today!

We’d like to extend our happy retirement wishes to Bonnie Meier, Director of Client Service, who steps down at the end of 2022. We all thank her for her many years of dedicated service to SPP, and wish her all the best in the life after work that awaits her!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Things fellow retirees have warned us about are coming true:

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

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

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

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Could The Great Retirement be followed by the Great Returnship?

Will high inflation, volatile investment returns and soaring interest rates tempt new and recent retirees into “returnship,” or returning to the workplace?

That’s a view expressed in an article by Brian J. O’Connor, writing for SmartAsset via Yahoo! Finance.

“Retirees who find themselves hit by higher prices, lower stock returns and big health care bills might consider boosting their bank accounts by heading back to work – and employers are waiting to welcome older workers back with open arms,” he writes.

“Big health bills” are more of a U.S. problem than one we Canadians face, although long-term care costs can be eye-opening even here.

The article suggests having the option of returning to work could be a “linchpin” for your retirement plan. That’s because your work experience is more highly valued than ever thanks to the lack of new folks coming up the system to fill your job, the article continues.

“These employees are valuable because they are seasoned, and that’s not always easy to find today,” Charlotte Flores of BH Companies states in the article.

The article goes on to note that of the five million Americans who left the U.S. workforce during the pandemic, “more than two-thirds were over 55.” Now there are five job openings for every three U.S. workers.

“Employers are not only eager to hire experienced older workers, but they’re also open to bringing in retirees who’ve been out of the workforce for several years,” the article continues.

This rehiring of otherwise retired workers is called a “returnship,” the article explains. Large U.S. companies, such as Goldman Sachs, Accenture, Microsoft and Amazon have developed “returnship” programs.

“The programs are designed to give returning workers training, mentoring, a chance to learn or brush up on skills and lessons on how to navigate the current work culture. The trend is so strong that there even are “career-reentry” firms that specialize in connecting employers with returning workers, such as iRelaunch, which works with 70 companies offering returnships, including posting openings,” the article states.

Another benefit of going back to work after retirement, the article says, is that you can either “delay or reduce withdrawals from retirement accounts,” a decision that “stretches out your retirement nest egg to lessen your longevity risk.”

Here in Canada, that certainly would be true of any withdrawals from a Tax Free Savings Account or from a non-registered investment account. We have heard of defined benefit pension plans in Canada that permit you to stop receiving pension payments (temporarily) if you return to work – and let you resume contributions. We haven’t heard of there being ways to temporarily pause withdrawals from a registered retirement income fund (RRIF), however.

Many observers here in Canada have talked about making it possible to delay RRIF withdrawals, and continue to contribute to RRSPs, until later in life. Save with SPP spoke to Prof. Luc Godbout on this topic in the spring.

It sure seems like the old days of full retirement – our dad left work at 62 and never did a single lick of work again for the remaining 27 years of his life – may be gone forever. Not saying that’s a bad thing – a little work keeps your mind sharp and social contacts alive – but the concept of full retirement at 65 does not appear to be as likely in the 2020s as it was 30 or 40 years ago.

Whether or not you plan to fully retire in your 60s, 70s or later, you’ll need some retirement income. Most Canadians lack workplace pension plans and must save on their own for retirement. Fortunately, the Saskatchewan Pension Plan is available to any Canadian with RRSP room. This do-it-yourself pension plan invests the contributions you make, pools them and invests them at a low cost, and at retirement, turns them into an income stream. You can even get a lifetime annuity! Check out this wonderful retirement partner today!

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Some clever ways to tuck away more money in your retirement piggy bank

Writing for the GoBankingRates blog, Jami Farkas comes up with some “clever” ways to save more for our collective retirements.

First, the article suggests, use an online calculator to figure out how much you need to save. There are plenty of these, and the Saskatchewan Pension Plan’s own Wealth Calculator can show you how much your savings can grow.

Next, the article urges, make savings automatic. “Don’t give yourself the option of whether to set aside money each month. Automate your savings so it’s not a choice,” the article suggests, quoting David Brooks Sr., president of Retire SMART. This option is available to SPP members too – you can arrange to make pre-authorized contributions to your account.

If you are in any sort of retirement arrangement at work, be sure you are contributing to the max, the article notes. And if there is no employer match to your retirement savings, “set up your own match” by giving up a cup of coffee daily, the article suggests.

Once you’ve started automatically saving for life after work, be sure to bump up your annual rate of contributions every year, the article tells us. “A 25-year-old earning $40,000 a year who contributes just one per cent more of his salary each year (or $33 more each month) until age 67 would have $3,870 of additional yearly income in retirement, assuming a seven per cent rate of return and a 1.5 per annual pay raise,” the article explains.

It’s the same, the article continues, for raises. If you get one, so should your retirement savings – stash some or all of it into savings. “Since workers are already accustomed to living on their existing salary, they won’t notice money that they never had before is missing,” the article explains.

We’ll Canadianize the next tips – consider putting some or all of your tax refund back into retirement savings, such as your SPP account or a Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA). A few of the ideas for saving in this article, intended for a U.S. audience, aren’t available here, but remember that SPP operates similarly to a registered retirement savings plan, so contributions you make to it are tax-deductible. If you put money in a TFSA, there’s no tax deduction but as is the case with both vehicles, your money grows tax-free. And with a TFSA there’s no tax payable when you take the money out.

Other ideas – don’t downsize after you retire, but before when you can more readily afford to move, the article suggests.

Spare change can power your savings, the article adds. “Tossing spare change in a jar might seem like an old-fashioned approach to saving, but you’d be surprised how quickly your nickels, dimes and quarters can add up,” the article notes. Do the same with any money you save on purchases using coupons or apps, we are told.

We’ll add one more to this list. If you get a gift card that can be spent like cash anywhere, why not add it to your SPP account? SPP permits contributions to be made from credit cards, so it’s a nice way to turn a gift, or a rebate, into retirement income for your future self.

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Even if you have zero saved for retirement, these steps will get you started

One of the findings of a recent survey from the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) was that “32 per cent of working Canadians said they have yet to save anything for retirement.”

South of the border, reports GoBankingRates via Yahoo! Finance, the situation is similar, with 23 per cent of Americans having saved nothing for retirement, and “25 per cent of Americans between 45 and 55 years old” not having even started saving.

Like dieting and going to the gym more often, saving for retirement is something we know is good for us but is easy to avoid doing. GoBankingRates offers a few ways to fire up your own personal retirement savings program.

The first step is to start budgeting, the article notes. “When payday comes around, it’s tempting to pay for immediate expenses, such as rent and groceries, and use the rest of that money for spending and splurging. Instead, you should consider budgeting,” the article urges. “By setting aside a little money every month towards retirement, you will be able to enjoy that money in the future,” states Jay Zigmont of Live, Learn Plan in the article.

Next, the article continues, is addressing your debt load.

“Debt is a frustrating thing to have, but the sooner you are able to eliminate it, the more money you will have for saving for retirement, investing and spending,” the article tells us. This is a very valid point. Next time you get your credit card bill, see how much interest you were charged on the balance over the last month. That amount could go to savings if you were able to pay off the card.

To target your debt, the article advises you to first be sure to make at least the minimum payment on all debts. They then advise that you put any extra money you can on the debt with the highest interest rate. Once that one’s gone, add what you were paying on high-interest debt 1 to high-interest debt 2, and repeat until you are debtless.

A third idea in the article is goal-setting for savings.

“Make sure you know why you are saving,” Zigmont states in the article. “What do you want your retirement to look like? What are you willing to give up to get there? What is the dollar number you need to hit to retire? When do you want to do it by?”

If you want, for example, to have $20,000 in savings for 20 years of retirement, a target might be $400,000. For simplicity, we are not talking about interest rates and investment returns in this example, but both can help you get there.

Other ideas from GoBankingRate include investing your savings, rather than putting it all in a savings account. “Follow the general rule of only investing in things you understand,” Zigmont states in the article. “Take the time to learn what your options are and be sure to understand both what you are investing in.” In Canada, your choices include workplace pension plans, the Saskatchewan Pension Plan, registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs), Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs) and plain old cash trading accounts. Be sure you know the limits and rules for each type of investment vehicle.

The final advice in the article is to “take ownership” of retirement. “The key to retirement is making it your own,” the article concludes. Do you want to fully retire, or move to part-time work? Having an idea of what your own retirement will be like will help guide your savings plan, the article concludes.

Over many years of reviewing books for Save with SPP, there was one piece of advice that really stood out, and actually worked for us when money was tight. That idea was to put aside five per cent off your pay for savings right off the top, and then live on the rest.

A barrier to savings is the feeling that you won’t have anything left over after bills and groceries. But if you take five per cent off the top, and put it somewhere where you can’t get at it to spend, you’ll be amazed how quickly the savings start to add up, and how little you miss the five per cent (eventually).

A safe and secure cookie jar for your newfound savings is available through SPP.

With SPP, you can stash away up to $7,000 per year in a locked-in, voluntary defined contribution plan. “Locked-in” means you can’t raid your savings for non-retirement expenses; you can only access the money once you reach retirement age. And during that run up, your money will be invested professionally and at a low cost. SPP is a sensible savings option available to any Canadian with RRSP room; check them out today!

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We’re living through some very weird times. First we get a pandemic that keeps many of us from working for an extended period of time, and the rest of us with nothing to spend our money on. Now we’re facing crazy inflation that is making even routine purchases very expensive.

Are there any tricky ways to put away a few bucks for retirement out there? Save with SPP decided to seek out a few new tricks – ideally ones we haven’t covered off before.

A GoBankingRates article posted on Yahoo! offers up 42 savings tricks.

One is to watch the fees in your retirement savings accounts, the article suggests. Here in Canada, this would be in registered retirement savings plans – RRSPs – or Tax-Free Savings Accounts, TFSAs. Do you have mutual funds that charge a high fee, say two per cent or even more? Maybe you can switch to a lower-fee exchange traded fund (ETF). Other ideas include renting out a spare room or an unused garage for extra savings cash, “shopping around” for the best possible insurance rate, and the idea of “putting every tax refund into savings.”

“It’s tempting to use the extra money from your tax refund on a new toy or vacation,” the article states. “But these spurts of cash provide the perfect opportunities to give your retirement savings a big boost.”

The My Money Coach blog has some great ideas, including freeing up money for savings by paying attention to your pre-retirement cash flow.

“A very important key to saving for retirement in Canada – that many have lost sight of – is to earn more than you spend,” the blog explains.

If you are following a budget and still have little room for savings, the blog continues, “the next thing to do is to up your income. You can ask for a raise at work, or you can apply for a job that offers a higher pay and better benefits. You can also pick up extra shifts or take on a second job during the weekends or evenings, if your schedule allows it.”

Other ideas to boost cash flow (and create more savings) are “a side business or freelancing,” the blog notes. “Capitalize on one of your passions and see where it takes you.”

From the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) site comes a little bit of savings psychology advice.  “Try this little trick to motivate yourself,” the site suggests. Simply change the name of your savings solution. Seeing “My world trip,” “Better living” or “Playa del Carmen 2030” every time you log into… e-banking or (a) mobile banking app will remind you of your big dream, and give your motivation a boost,” states Daniel Bregenzer of UBS.

Other tips from UBS include making it “harder” to access your savings account so the temptation to spend it is lessened, “like keeping a box of chocolates out of sight,” and making savings an automatic habit.

Save with SPP can add a couple more.  First, if you get a cash gift card – say it’s issued as a rebate on a purchase of tires, or contact lenses, or whatever – did you know that you can use that gift card to make contributions to your Saskatchewan Pension Plan account? SPP allows you to make credit card contributions, and we have used gift cards quite a few times over the years. Here’s the page where credit card contributions can be made.

And, if you have a cashback card, what better place for the cash than your retirement savings plan – just set up SPP as a bill payment on your bank website or app, and when the cash is deposited, contribute it.

Whatever way you can wring a few extra bucks out of your living costs will work, and your future self will greatly enjoy the work your current self has put in!

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