I would like to know if the Canadian Govt permits our RIF and TFSA funds to hold US securities exclusively. Is there a percentage required to be kept in Canadian?
In addition to the risk of ruin common to all investment portfolios including RRSPs there is an additional risk in an RRIF due to the requirement to draw down the fund annually. The amount that has to be withdrawn is set as a percentage of the value of the fund on January 1st.If the value of the fund on the date the withdrawal is made is less than it was on January1st then the fund will be depleted faster. The inverse is also true.Since the...
I know that much retirement planning involves guessing how long we might live. Most actuarial tools tend to lump everyone together but I am sure life companies have very sophisticated tools.
The best one that I have found so far is from Wharton , because it considers many of the same lifestyle factors that insurance companies include. I also like it because it gives the lower and upper quartiles for a range of projected lifetimes.
From the New York Times and so slanted toward US retirees, but still of interest:
According to a report this year from Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, 57 percent of baby boomers say they plan to move to a new home in retirement. When asked which type of community they were likely to choose, 39 percent said a small town, like Chapel Hill, or a rural community. The next choice was a 55-and-older community (27 percent), followed by a...
My work in long term care over the last fifteen years has given me a lasting and deep respect for front-line workers - personal support workers, registered practical nurses, RNs, physiotherapy staff, even administrative and cleaning staff, all of whom look after the elderly every day and try to make their lives meaningful. They often develop a close attachment to the people they look after and have over the years taught me a great deal about the...
Speaking with someone last night who is currently unemployed and is dipping into his RSP to make ends meet. Of course every time he takes money out he's hit with admin fees by the bank.
He can convert a portion of his RSP to a RIF and draw down a monthly amount to fill the gaps, allowing the remainder to stay in the registered account and avoiding the fees.
My questions is, when he finds full time work and no longer needs the money from the...
Now that TFSA has a 10k limit, does anyone regret contributing the max to their RSP? It seems to me that most Canadians will only be able to take advantage of one or the other and not both. I am lucky to have been able to max both, although in future years I can see where it might be difficult to continue down that path. I plan on giving priority to my TFSA.
I also wonder what kind of health I will be in at age 71. Sometimes when I contribute...
I’m a 55 year old dual citizen born in Canada and naturalized in the U.S.
I expect to retire soon and am trying to come up with an approach to residency and citizenship that will enable me to (a) access the Canadian health care plan; (b) maintain my right to U.S. SS benefits; and (c) avoid onerous (sort-of dual) taxation and paperwork hassles associated with a low seven figure nest egg that is simultaneously regulated by both the U.S. and...
A friend asked me this question and I don't know the answer.Can any of you help? He is aged 74 a retired physician with a professional corporation that has now been converted to a holding company.There is about a million dollars,maybe a little more, in retained professional earnings which are invested in a GIC at 3.5%.
1.Can he pay himself the approximately 35 thousand dollars interest that the corporation earns as a continuing salary or bonus?...
I am 30 years old and my financial advisor brought up a few interesting points the other day. How TFFR works is once I pass away, my pension payments will stop and my wife will not see any of my pension, UNLESS I take a reduced pension payment. If I take a reduced pension payment, the payments will continue until my wife's death. Currently I am on a term life insurance policy. He recommended I convert to a whole life insurance policy to allow me...
I have 2 registered accounts (LIRA & RRSP) with similar asset allocation and composition. I was hoping for insight as to whether LIRAs and RRSPs can be consolidated for simplicity of statements, account management and reduction in individual account fees/commissions.
I thought I read somewhere in the past that a LIRA may be consolidated into an existing RSP once you turn 55ish, but after a quick google search I cannot seem to validate this...
Good morning, Im not sure this is the correct forum or not. I have a client who earns at 58 years old approx $65K annual in pension. He's sold his home and will be left with approximatley $400K to invest. We are topping up his TFSA but are also considering making an RSP contrbution. Does this make sense with part of the money? I realize he will have CPP and OAS (clawbacks) to deal with but am I just essentially deferring income to another year...
For several years now the USA has allowed the transfer of a US 401k retirement account into a Canadian RRSP. Has Canada reciprocated yet? I have Canadian RRSP funds that I should move to the USA now that we live in the USA permanently. Can I move them into a 401k without penalty (other than the exchange rate)?
See here Good news for clients with 401(k)
Jacqueline Power / April 25, 2012 at Advisor (dot) ca
With the market crash a locked in RRSP at Invesco Trimark was low enough to unlock so I decided to move it over to my TDW self-directed RRSP account which happens to be a SPOUSAL. I do have my own NON SPOUSAL RRSP but it's at another institution that isn't very convenient to trade through.
I transferred the funds in kind from Invesco Trimark but TDW made me submit a “letter of direction” saying I understand the tax implications by comingling...
It discusses that for some forms of dementia the first symptoms are acting irrationally or emotionally and not always loss of memory. These forms of dementia can be very dangerous to a DIY investor as you are more likely to make foolish decisions, or become exposed to scammers.
I know we have talked about spouses who have no interest in investing but I had never considered this issue. I am not sure how...
My aunt was terminated after 10+ years from one of the big 5 Banks last year and while she was provided with severance, she believes that she also qualifies under something called grow-in rules (if years of service + age = 55+, the employer is supposed to provide early retirement pension at 60 as if she had worked with the employer until that age). She is 45 and has been with that bank for 11 years.
I'm dealing with a pension plan that offers a 'temporary annuity' as an option. This supplements the 'bridge' to age 65, at the expense of reduced payments after 65. It's described here
An example is given on page 35:
100% joint life: Pension to age 65 = $1834, Pension after age 65 = $1115
100% joint life + temporary annuity: Pension to age 65 = $2190, Pension after age 65 = $931
I think getting money out of the pension faster can have a...
What happens if you are a resident of some province like BC and then travel around Canada but never stay in any province more than 3 months to qualify for provincial coverage? Eventually your home coverage will run out (24 months of consecutive travel every 5 years). Does this mean you fall through the cracks and even though you pay taxes to your home province and are a Canadian citizen you would never qualify for health insurance anywhere?...
Years ago, I built a spreadsheet to calculate how much money I would need to retire. I would update it regularly.
One of the biggest factors in knowing 'when you have enough to retire' is to look at your spending habits and determine how much you want to spend in your retirement years. For example, in today's dollars, I have estimated that my wife and I will need about $66,000 annually to retire.
My employer offers DC pension, with matching contributions. Employer charges some basis points (~0.xx% fully disclosed) per year to manage the account.
The mutual funds are offered by one of the big financial institutions. The MER of the mutual funds are embedded in fund prices. In other words (to my understanding) the MER is no disclosed. There is no fund codes or anything that I can use to look up the MER and other information from the FI.
I've been in a private sector DB plan for about 23 years, with 9 to go (age 46) before my plan's '85 points date', which would roughly coincide with my 55th birthday. The plan is fairly healthy and 50% indexed from age 60. I'm considering leaving my employer to take a job in public service, where I'd join the fully indexed federal plan. I'm considering taking the CV from my private sector plan to diversify a bit (my wife is also in the...
I got laid off not a long ago and my employer has sent me a letter about my pension benefits. It has six options and four of them are related to monthly payments, one is the deferred lifetime pension and the last is the locked-in retirement savings. My pension amount is less than $30,000 and I may work for at least 20 more years.
1. Should I go with the deferred pension or the locked-in savings option, or is there any other better...
Don't have enough money to retire? Don't worry, welcome to the new world of working past 'normal' retirement age.
The Semi-Retirement Myth
We don't want old white guys and if you can't find a job you're a slacker or a loser .
I was hoping I could get some FWF advice/guidance on this. To date, it's the biggest dollar value decision I've made. And as far as financial savvy, i'm kind of on my own (no friends or DH interest/expertise).
I am leaving my employer at the end of June and will not be returning to work. I have an Omers NRA 60 defined benefit pension to decide what to do with. I always thought I would defer it to age 60 but a colleague left in October...
The common answer to this question is approx. $25 per month towards an age-65 retirement pension, but the true answer is that it can range from as little as $0.00 to as much as approx. $100 per month.
A friend requested a CPP estimate, using the form from
After several months, she got a letter that said:
The retirement pension estimate shown below is based on your earnings and contributions made to the Canada Pension Plan to date and calculated using the anticipated retirement ages indicated on your request.
At age 60 you will have earned a retirement pension of approximately $474 per month.
At age 65 you will have earned a retirement...
If you put in your maximum over the years ($36,500) and now your portfolio is worth $70,000. Can you withdraw $20,000 and just put it back in three months later? Or if you withdraw $20,000, can you only put back in $5,500 the following year when your contribution limit increases?
My wife and I are mid 30's with kids, each of our RRSP's is around $35,000, both maxed out. She loses a lot of contribution room each year because of her pension contributions and I'm self employed so don't usually pay myself a salary and more often take dividends, which varies wildly from year to year. I have little job security, she has boatloads. She will retire with a teachers pension, I obviously will not. At this point should we move her...
Suppose a person age 55 will get a defined benefit pension with a bridge that will pay $24000 per year until age 65 and $18000 after that. It's indexed to inflation, so these amounts are current today's dollars into the future. It's expected that a reasonable rate of return for this person's financial portfolio is 4% AFTER INFLATION. If they live to age 95, should the present value be calculated as (assuming end-of-year cash flows, and their...
My wife's employer was offering to wire transfer a part of her bonus into her TD DI self-directed RRSP account.
But TD said that can't be done.
Can anyone confirm this is correct?
Seems odd to me this can't be done.
We have to take a cheque with a form letter TD provided that her company's payroll department will have to fill out.
What does the forum think about the strategy of over funding a universal life insurance policy as an alternative to a TFSA, since a TFSA is not advantageous for Americans - Does anyone have insight as to the investment potential into a $100K UL policy w/ an $800 annual premium - i.e. how much cash you can sock away in there and put into mutual funds?
Here's a good summary of the tradeoffs of using a UL policy in this fashion -
I split this out from the average tax rate discussion as it is a bit of a tangent. I also could not find anything about this previously. In the other thread Shakespeare and Springbok both mention withdrawing from RRSP/RRIF to feed TFSA's
........I have an RRSP from which I withdraw more than the RRIF minimum in part to feed a TFSA. The TFSA and LRIF are growing and the RRSP is shrinking.
This has me thinking, is there a MTR where it would be...
A new toy to play with:
ESPlannerBASIC Canada is a free educational tool that helps take much of the guesswork out of financial planning.
It calculates how much you should spend, save, and insure each year to maintain your living standard. It can also show you how changing jobs, contributing to retirement accounts, having children, moving homes, retiring early, waiting to collect pension benefits, and other personal financial decisions will...
If someone were so inclined -- especially those who'd like a hands-off, wake-me-in-30-years Rip Van Winkle strategy -- would it not be tempting to go with a very simple/simpleton approach and use a low cost mutual fund company like Steadyhand or Mawer?
I note that Steadyhand has some decent discounts both for larger amounts and firm loyalty:
. Hit the fee calculator at the bottom and then plug some numbers in (with loyalty years added as...
For some time now the target date for my wife and I to retire was age 55 (we are 43 now). Our plan was to defer CPP until age 70 and OAS until age 72 to maximize payouts from those programs. However, as I delved deeper into potential future CPP payouts I came to realize that the 10 years of zero earnings between age 55 and 65 will make that planned deferral less attractive, since only 8 of those years could be dropped out and the 2 additional...
Greetings all,
Conventional wisdom is that Americans shouldn't open a TFSA account due to fact that the US IRS doesn't yet recognize them as retirement accounts and the onerous reporting requirements.
However, since the US recognizes RRSPs I am wondering if a TFSA would make sense assuming:
1. The USA IRS will recognize TFSAs as tax deferred accounts similar to IRA some-day
2. If #1 – there may a mechanism to recover the taxes paid to the US...
I live in Montreal. My apartment is lovely and under rent control. I am downtown. Markets are close and pose no parking problem. However, some of my friends are moving, others are entering dotage and some have died. I have no family here, but I do have a lovely GF. I like to live here. My son lives in Toronto and is pressuring me to move there while I am still able to enjoy life. :D He states that should I fall ill or become frail, whatever, he...
Being anywhere from 5-10 years from retirement (largely dependent on my portfolio), I thought it might be educational to get a perspective on retirement life from those of you who are currently experiencing that lifestyle. Here are some sample questions:
What do you enjoy most about being retired?
Is retirement life more or less expensive than you figured?
What's the most important consideration when preparing for this lifestyle?
While some others here are looking for ways to increase yield in the fixed/quasi-fixed side of their portfolios (I'm thinking here of the convertible debenture discussion, for example), I've decided to do the opposite.
I retired 16 mths ago at age 62. I'm now comfortable believing that the aggregate of assets we hold in fixed income (together with prospective CPP and OAS, and spouse's small DB pension) are quite enough to fund our retirement....
I'm not sure if this type of topic has been discussed before but I have had some thoughts about potential uses of RRSPs and TFSAs after retirement.
For example, one thought that I had, was to accumulate savings in an RRSP up until the start of retirement and forgo TFSA savings until after retirement. In my case this is practical as I am currently in a high bracket but need only be in the lowest upon retirement. I could then over-withdraw from...
I have been hearing about personal pension plans for incorporated individuals ( ie I have a small incorporated business of which I am a share holder). Are these worthwhile or are these just another scheme to separate me from my money?
Thanks
I am currious how members of the board structured their assets prior to retirement.
Our Case: 5 YEARS TO GO.
No debt, no mortgage, house and cars are reletavely new so no large expenses to shunt money towards.
Two Pensions. AB Teachers pension and Canadian Armed Forces pension
TFSA (GIC's)
RRSP's (Bonds) we should make a good return on the tax spread differential so we are not concerned about overly high returns.
Non taxable accounts (dividend...
We have multiple RRSP accounts spread over two brokerages. I am planning on withdrawing from some of them varying amounts each year over the next decade (Depending on any/how much supplemental income I make, and tax thresholds etc.) The brokerages charge $25 to withdraw from RRSP but nothing to withdraw from RRIF. I have a question about the mechanics of RRSP to RRIF accounts that some of you may know the answer to.
Help please ... I don't understand what this article is saying.
I have $130k in Locked-in RSP's from my past job, and about $90k in my current DC pension. I'm still working and contributing to it as is my employer. At 60 years old, under what circumstances would it be advantageous for me to withdraw early from the $130k?
Thanks for pointing me to any additional information or advice.
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