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My latest MoneySense Retired Money column focuses on a free retirement calculator called PERC, plus the accompanying new third edition of Fred Vettese’s book, Retirement Income for Life: Getting More Without Saving More.
You can find the full column by clicking on the highlighted headline: Retirement Income for Life: Why Canadian retirees love Frederick Vettese’s books and his PERC. Alternatively, go to MoneySense.ca and click on the latest Retired Money column.
As the column notes, I have previously reviewed the earlier editions of the book but any retiree or near retiree will find it invaluable and well worth the C$26.95 price. Also, there is a free eBook offer.
PERC of course is an acronym and stands for Personal Enhanced Retirement Calculator.
PERC is itself a chapter title (chapter 15 of the third edition) and constitutes the fourth of five “enhancements” Vettese describes for getting more without saving more. Vettese developed PERC while writing the first edition in 2018: it is available at no charge at perc-pro.ca.
In another generous offer, anyone who buys the print edition can get a free ebook version by emailing details of proof of purchase to ebook@ecwpress.com.
I reviewed the previous (second) edition of Fred’s book for the Retired Money column back in October 2020, which you can read by clicking on the highlighted headline: Near retirement without a Defined Benefit pension? Here’s what you need to know.
We also looked at the first edition two years before that: A guide to having retirement income for life. According to Fred, the biggest change in the new third edition (published in April 2023) is that “the recognition that inflation may rear its ugly head again. Hence we need to avoid inflation risk in addition to longevity and investment risk.”
So back to PERC. You can try a stripped-down version for free but if you want the full treatment with multiple scenarios, the price is a reasonable $135, plus tax. You can enter the basics of your financial situation and that of your spouse (which Fred recommends) in less than a half an hour, and PERC then generates a summary of your likely future retirement income.
The full MoneySense column goes into more depth on my personal experience with PERC.
