Retirement

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Are You Saving Enough?

One of the keys to a comfortable, stress-free retirement is ensuring that there are sufficient funds to finance your lifestyle. Are you saving enough during your working years to finance your retirement? Find out by following the steps outlined below.

See Where You Stand

If you haven’t created a projection, now is the time to do so.

Try the calculator in Create a Retirement Scenario, ask your financial planner for one, or check out calculators provided through your bank or employer. Do a reality check to see if you are on track. Assess what you need to do over the next five years in order to retire as you have planned. Use ProsperiGuide’s.  My Five-Year Action Plan worksheet to show how you will allocate money between saving, lifestyle spending and debt repayment. Review your progress annually. You may need to adjust your plan depending on the progress you’ve made.

Ask “What If?”

Run more than one scenario. Play around with the numbers to answer questions such as: What if you needed more income? What if you retired earlier? What if you could save more? What if your investments earned more? Understanding the effect of these variables on your retirement savings will help you with any decisions regarding the timing of your retirement.

In 2015, 49% of couples could not agree on a planned retirement age.

Are You and Your Partner on the Same Page?

As your vision of retirement starts to take shape, be sure to share your ideas with your spouse or partner, if you have one. Discuss whether you plan to move or stay put and how you think you’ll spend your time, and consider common goals.

Can You Live Off Your Projected Retirement Income?

Estimate your projected retirement income, two or three years before retirement. (You can use the Current and Future Expenses  worksheet for this purpose.) Adjust it for differences in your current and projected after-tax expenses, then try living on that income for six months or a year: effectively take it for a fiscal test drive.

Use the Bank of Canada's inflation calculator to see what a basket of goods could cost in ten, or twenty, years.

Investment Distributions Calculator

This calculator helps you determine either how large or how long periodic distributions can be taken out of an investment before it runs out. Enter the number of years you need the distributions to last, and this calculator will determine the amount you can take out each period. Enter a periodic distribution, and this calculator will determine how long before your balance runs out.

Information and interactive calculators are made available to you only as self-help tools for your independent use and are not intended to provide investment or tax advice. We cannot and do not guarantee their applicability or accuracy in regards to your individual circumstances. All examples are hypothetical and are for illustrative purposes. We encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding all personal finance issues.

Are You Saving Enough?

Have you thought about your retirement needs? Try our survey. Click the button below to start.

Begin Survey

Service Canada: Canadian Retirement Income Calculator

 

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