Longevity & Aging

No doubt about it: at some point we’re neither semi-retired, findependent or fully retired. We’re out there in a retirement community or retirement home, and maybe for a few years near the end of this incarnation, some time to reflect on it all in a nursing home. Our Longevity & Aging category features our own unique blog posts, as well as blog feeds from Mark Venning’s ChangeRangers.com and other experts.

Retired Money: David Aston’s The SleepEasy Retirement Guide

Posted By |

My latest MoneySense Retired Money column is one of the first review of financial writer David Aston’s first book, The SleepEasy Retirement Guide. The subtitle bills the book as answering “the 12 biggest financial questions that keep you up at night.” Click on the highlighted text to retrieve the full column: Good News — Your RRSP is probably in better shape than you think.

Aston is a long-time freelance financial writer, and is also a MoneySense writer. I got to know him when I was the editor and always enjoyed editing his popular Retirement column in the magazine. Now 63, after a corporate career spanning management consulting, corporate financial planning, and operations, Aston turned to financial journalism, which he has now been doing for 12 years.

As I note in the review, I had a small role to play in the creation of this book, since I introduced David to the publisher: Milner & Associates Inc., which is also the publisher of Victory Lap Retirement, coauthored by myself and Mike Drak.

In the case of Aston’s new book, I have to say it seems to have been a good piece of literary matchmaking. In due course, we hope to run some excerpts and/or blogs from David here on the Hub.

A nice feature of the book are the many charts and tables that spell out just how much money you need to accumulate to retire at various ages, whether a “barebones” el cheapo lifestyle, or a high-end luxury one defined as $100,000 in annual income for couples ($80,000 for singles) or the vast swath of retired lifestyles in between. Whether you’re single or half of a couple, all the numbers you need to project finances into your future golden years are there. For most of the calculations in these charts, Aston created simple Excel spreadsheets.

No need for $1 million unless you want a deluxe Retirement

Financial writer and author David Aston

And, as is often made clear at MoneySense.ca, you don’t necessarily need $1 million to retire, although you will need that much and more if you are counting on a deluxe retirement with all the bells and whistles (exotic travel once or twice a year, two cars in the garage, eating out regularly, etc.). Continue Reading…

Retired Money: Can an RRSP or a RRIF ever be “too large?”

Posted By |
MoneySense.ca

My latest MoneySense Retired Money column looks at a problem some think is a nice one for retirees to have: can an RRSP — and ultimately a RRIF — ever become too large? You can find the full column by clicking on the adjacent highlighted headline: How large an RRSP is too large for Retirement?

This is a surprisingly controversial topic. Some financial advisors advocate “melting down” RRSPs in the interim period between full employment and the end of one’s 71st year, when RRIFs are typically slated to begin their annual (and taxable) minimum withdrawals. Usually, RRSP meltdowns occur in your 60s: I began to do so personally a few years ago, albeit within the confines of a very conservative approach to the 4% Rule.

As the piece points out, tax does start to become problematic upon the death of the first member of a senior couple. At that point, a couple no longer has the advantage of having two sets of income streams taxed in two sets of hands: ideally in lower tax brackets.

True, the death of the first spouse may not be a huge tax problem, since the proceeds of RRSPs and RRIFs pass tax-free to the survivor, assuming proper beneficiary designations. But that does result in a far larger RRIF in the hands of the survivor, which means much of the rising annual taxable RRIF withdrawals may start to occur in the higher tax brackets. And of course if both members of a couple die with a huge combined RRIF, their heirs may share half the estate with the Canada Revenue Agency.

For many seniors, the main reason to start drawing down early on an RRSP is to avoid or minimize clawbacks of Old Age Security (OAS) benefits, which begin for most at age 65. One guideline is any RRSP or RRIF that exceeds the $77,580 (in 2019) threshold where OAS benefits begin to get clawed back. Of course you also need to consider your other income sources, including employer pensions, CPP and non-registered income.

Adrian Mastracci

“A nice problem to have.”

But the MoneySense column also introduces the counterargument nicely articulated by Adrian Mastracci, fiduciary portfolio manager with Vancouver-based Lycos Asset Management. Mastracci, who is also a blogger and occasional contributor to the Hub, is fond of saying to clients “A too-large RRSP is a nice problem to have!”

Retirement can last a long time: from 65 to the mid 90s can be three decades: a long time for portfolios to keep delivering. A larger RRIF down the road gives retirees more financial options, given the ravages of inflation, rising life expectancies, possible losses in bear markets, low-return environments and rising healthcare costs in one’s twilight years. These factors are beyond investors’ control, in which case Mastracci quips, “So much for the too-big RRSP.”

 

An outline of the various types of life insurance policies

Posted By |

By Lorne Marr, CFP

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

There are a variety of life insurance policies available in Canada: the best type of plan depends on the insured’s needs and budget. The following is only a snapshot of the different types of plans.

In general, life insurance policies are classified according to two criteria:

  • By length of coverage
  • By medical exam requirements

Let’s look at each of this classification in detail.

Types of life insurance based on coverage length

Life insurance in Canada is generally grouped into two major types, if it is about coverage length: temporary insurance and permanent insurance.

Here is a breakdown of these insurance types and below you will find a detailed description of each type:

Term life insurance type

Term life insurance policies cover short-term needs. Term coverage is the simplest form of life insurance. It provides the largest benefit for the minimum amount of premium. The insured can use the benefits offered by this coverage to pay off debt or to fulfill any other need. The premiums on these policies start off low, but increase as the insured gets older. Term policies can typically last for 10 years, 20 years or 30 years, but Industrial Alliance offers a Pick-a-Term policy: the insured can pick his/her Term from ten to 40 years.

If you are interested in Term Life Insurance, click here to get a Term Life Insurance quote.

Permanent life insurance type

This type of life insurance provides insurance protection till the policy matures, as long as the insured pays the premiums on time. The four major types of permanent insurance are Whole Life, Universal Life,  Limited-Pay, and Term 100. Continue Reading…

The ultimate guide to safe Withdrawal Rates in Canada (for any Retirement age)

Posted By |

By Kyle Prevost, for MillionDollarJourney

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Most Canadians approaching retirement have two questions:

1.) How much can I take out of my investment portfolio each year if I want to be guaranteed not to outlive my money?

2.) Once I know the answer to my first question, can I live on that much money, plus whatever government benefits or private pension plan I might get.

The truth is that there are a TON of variables that go into answering these two questions for each person.  BUT the best that we’ve come up with so far is the “4% rule of thumb”.

That said, our 4% number (much more discussion on what this actually means below) depends on you optimizing your portfolio and withdrawal strategy.  If you’re embracing early retirement, and are looking at a retirement horizon of 30, 40, or even 50+ years, the 4% rule of thumb can still working surprisingly well for you!

Before we get to a discussion on the details of this handy tool and how it might apply to you, I should note that after talking to several financial experts in Canada, we all agree on one general observation about Canadian retirees:

It was really hard to get people who had been determined savers to spend their money!

Turns out that flipping the switch from a safe & investment mindset to an “enjoy life and spend nest egg” mindset is not as easy as one might initially think.

You’ve been reading MDJ for years, have used your Questrade DIY discount brokerage portfolio to accumulate a solid nest egg that includes your TFSA, RRSP, and perhaps even a non-registered account.  Now comes the time to start your retirement drawdown or withdrawal strategy. Surprisingly, when it comes to discussing Canadian safe retirement withdrawal rates, and and talking to folks who have retired at all ages, spending their retirement savings represented a massive mental strain for them.  I guess (as someone who has never retired or sold investments to pay for retirement) that I always thought that saving for retirement would be the hard part. Isn’t spending supposed to be more fun than squirreling away?

It turns out that once you get into that savings mindset, it can be hard to flip the switch back to enjoying spending the fruits of your labour.  This is especially true for folks who are looking at an early retirement withdrawal rate or strategy, because they are much more likely to have been super-aggressive savers during their time in the workforce.

Since this will be my first post for MDJ, I wanted to make it a real beauty.  I didn’t go into it expecting the topic to be so deep and full of variables! Afterall, the concept seems simple enough right?

How much can I take out of my investment portfolio each year, if I need that nest egg to last for 30, 35, 40, or even 50 years?

Personally, much like Frugal Trader, I’m hoping to retire sooner rather than later, so this question had particular relevance for me.  After diving into the math on this topic, it turns out that there are many things to consider when looking at how long your retirement savings will last, and it’s actually much more difficult to get a 100% mastery of, than the math involved with building an investment portfolio.  Use the table of contents links below to navigate the article if you’re short on time, or are only interested in one aspect of the extended article.

The 4% Retirement Withdrawal Rule

What the 4% Rule Means for Your Magic Retirement Portfolio Number

Potential Problems of the 4% Rule

How Has the 4% Rule Done In the Past

If I Want to Retire Early or do this whole “FIRE” Thing – Does the 4% Work for Me?

What Could Force My Retirement Into a Worst-Case Scenario?

Fees Suck – Get Rid of Them to Up Your Chances

Will The Returns of My Portfolio Look Like the Last 100 Years?

PWL Capital & Vanguard & the Shiller CAPE ratio

If Lower Returns Are the New Normal – How Does This Affect Me?

Sequence of Return Risk 

Avoiding the Worst-Case Scenario: Handling the First Ten Years to Reduce Your Risk

How Does OAS and CPP Factor into Safe Withdrawal Rates?

Emergencies or Tax Changes

Conclusion

The 4% Retirement Withdrawal Rule

Ok, so let’s maybe start with the rule of thumb that advisors have used when looking at retirement drawdown plans for a while now.

Back in 1994 a financial advisor named William Bengen looked at the last 80 or so years of markets and retirement, did a bunch of math, and arrived at a concept we now call “The 4% rule”.

The basic idea of the 4% retirement withdrawal plan is that someone could safely withdraw 4% of their investment/savings portfolio each year and – assuming a 60/40 or 50/50 split of bonds/stocks in their portfolio – they would never run out of money.  This idea of withdrawing a certain percentage of your portfolio to fund your retirement is called the Safe Withdrawal Rate (SWR). The math behind this magic 4% figure means that if you have the nice round $1 Million investment portfolio that we all dream of, you could safely pull out $40,000 the first year, and then adjust for inflation and withdraw 4% plus inflation after that. (So if there was 2% inflation between year one and year two, you could now withdraw $40,800.)

Bengen, and another highly influential study took their rule and retroactively applied it to retirees from every single year from 1926 to 1994.  They found that nearly 100% of the time (depending on what was in the investment portfolio) people could retire, and withdraw 4% of their portfolio for 30 years of retirement – and not run out of money.  In fact, a large percentage of the time, if retirees followed the 4% rule, they not only didn’t run out of money, they finished life with more money than when they started retirement!

Keep in mind, these authors didn’t worry about OAS or CPP, or a workplace pension, or even the tax implications of different types of withdrawals.  They were simply trying to come up with a useful rule of thumb for how much a person could safely withdraw from their retirement portfolio.

What the 4% Rule Means for Your Magic Retirement Portfolio Number

If you can safely withdraw 4% of your portfolio to fund your retirement, then the simple math tells us that if you can accumulate 25x your annual retirement budget, you no longer have to work. Continue Reading…

Retirement planning programs revisited

Posted By |

More than a year ago I wrote a column for the Financial Post about a handful of Canadian retirement income planning software packages that help would-be retirees and semi-retirees plan how to start drawing down from various income sources: Click on the highlighted text to retrieve the full article: How you draw down your retirement savings could save you thousands: this program proves it.

The focus of the FP piece is Cascades but you can also find a MoneySense piece I wrote from late 2018 that looked at Viviplan, and one I wrote for the Globe & Mail last November that described Cascades, Viviplan and Doug Dahmer’s Retirement Navigator and BetterMoneyChoices.com.

Dahmer has been writing guest blogs on decumulation here at the Hub almost since this site’s founding in 2014. See for example his most recent one, or the similar articles flagged at the bottom: Top 10 Rules for Successful Retirement Income Planning. Dahmer says he’s pleased that others are waking up to the need for tax planning in the drawdown years: “Cascades provides a very good, easy-to-use introduction to these concepts.”

There may be as many as 26 distinct sources of income a retired couple may encounter, estimates Ian Moyer, a 40-year veteran of the financial industry and creator of the Cascades program described in the articles.

When he started to plan for his own decumulation adventure, six years ago, he felt there was very little planning software out there that was both comprehensive and easy to use. So, he hired a computer programmer and created his own package, now called Cascades.

Continue Reading…