Part 1: Defining the attributes of your successful retirement community
Who says you have to go on living in the same location when you retire? The choice is yours. City or country retirement is ultimately a personal decision. But it draws significantly on your prior life, and the skills and personal attributes you can bring to the retirement community you choose. How you retire is…
If you build up the money in your TFSA while you’re working, you can draw from it tax-free any time
K.M. wrote to ask if she should stop making registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) contributions and instead focus on her tax-free savings account (TFSA). With a little personal information from K.M., we decided it would be best for her to focus on her TFSA. Here’s why: K.M. works in a job she’s likely to leave…
One of the real pluses of being an Empty Nester is that you are no longer on view as a role model 24/7
Free at last, free at last! The children have grown up and moved away, your house is your own to do with what you will and your schedule is now open to anything you wish to pursue. So why are you so divided in your feelings? Empty Nest syndrome hits when your daughter or son…
Can you afford to hold off and increase your payments later? Will you need more CPP and OAS later in life? And how long do you expect to live?
Most people know they can start collecting their Canada Pension Plan (CPP) at age 60, even though they’ll get smaller monthly payments than if they waited until 65. Many people just want the money now and don’t care about any added benefits to delaying CPP and Old Age Security (OAS). The standard CPP and OAS…
There’s no hiding from the success tax, but several things can help legally reduce or even eliminate the amount your estate or your heirs pay
There’s no official estate tax in Canada but we do have what I call the success tax. It's what we pay if we’ve been financially successful in a lifetime of investing and asset accumulation. The more successful you’ve been, the greater the tax could be. If you have assets that will be taxable when sold or when deemed to have been…
Those who booed retiring Indianapolis Colt Andrew Luck should be ashamed of themselves. Athletes aren’t warriors created by central casting for our weekend enjoyment
Too many sports fans view athletes as robots designed to play games for their entertainment. They sit in the stands or on their sofas, a cold beer in their hands, and yell at injured players for being “too soft” and “not tough enough.” They think jocks should just “suck it up” and get on the…
Give yourself some time to evaluate options. Be honest with your ego and let your imagination troll through deep waters
A lot of my friends are retiring. And there are many retirement models being thought about, reviewed, argued and applied or avoided. But it doesn’t really appear to me that any of them were exhaustively analyzed before selection. In fact, many seem to be derived from previous family practice (i.e. what parents did), simply made…
Canadians’ savings are sheltered and foreign investors are reluctant. Laundered money fills a crucial investment gap
You could make a case that in the absence of illegal laundered money, there would be almost no risk investment capital in Canada. The problem with laundered money is huge. Recent estimates put the value of laundered money in Canada at $46.7 billion; other more realistic estimates have it in the range of $130 billion.…
Authors describe an evolving economy that includes people working into their 80s, based on a life expectancy of 100 years
Living to 100 years old used to be an amazing and rare accomplishment. Three-digit birthdays were worthy of a letter from Queen Elizabeth. But today’s children five years old or younger have a 50 per cent chance of making it to 100. This amazing fact is pointed out in a book by Lynda Gratton and…Unbefriended,’ these isolated seniors require more help to safeguard their access to basic daily needs, including companionship, and improve their quality of life
By Stephanie A. Chamberlain and Carole A. Estabrooks University of Alberta What happens when a person grows older and can no longer make health and financial decisions for themselves – but also doesn’t have family or friends who can make those decisions on their behalf? Health and social services use a hard-hitting term to describe…