posts about retirement
The last thing I want for anyone who is fortunate enough to have a team of professionals is for egos to get in the way. I want your professionals to confer with each other, disagree if they need to, and provide you with a united strategy that makes the most out of each person’s expertise to serve the only thing that matters: what’s most important to you.
The Canada Pension Plan, or CPP, has been around for sixty years, but most of us don’t think much about it except when we notice it on our paycheques, or have to pay it all at once on our self-employed earnings come tax time.
For lots of people, CPP is a major piece of their income pie when they stop working. It might be for you too. It’s also a payment you have to make with every paycheque, or - if you’re self-employed - in addition to your income tax at the end of the year. Isn’t it important to know where your money is going and when you can expect it back?
Our collective wealth includes the water, air, rocks, forests, and creatures that surround us, the relationships we have with each other, and the knowledge we gather and preserve in community.
What is retirement income planning, and why do we have to do it once a year? As it turns out, almost none of you are actually experiencing the worst case scenario, at least from the perspective of your investment returns, tax policy, and cost of living increases. Most of you have more in your accounts than we projected.
And that’s precisely why we meet once a year to check in on your plan.
The problem with starting with the details of “how” is very similar to the problems you’d encounter if you started to build a house without stopping to design it first. Even if you somehow manage to get the foundation poured properly and the walls and roof attached to each other, starting with design first is the only way you’ll end up with a home worth living in.
The math had been done and yet… both Ben and Leslie felt like they were missing some key information. Had they asked all the questions? Had they considered all their possibilities? Are there other factors that a professional planner might consider? Is there more to retirement planning than projections? Isn’t retirement planning just about the math?
The particular sequence of market returns that you'll enjoy throughout your lifetime starts when you're born, ends when you die, is entirely outside of your control, and, if you're not careful, will heavily influence when you start investing, how you'll do it, and your outlook on life when you turn those investments into income.
Old Age Security is the closest thing to a universal basic income we have in Canada, and more than 95% of seniors get it. For more than a third of Canadians, it’s a major piece of their income pie.
Knowing how it works, even if you aren’t old enough to get it, is going to be relevant to you someday, I can almost guarantee it.