Experiencing unemployment in the years right before retirement can be an extremely distressing and difficult situation to navigate. Cutting your spending to a bare-bones budget will likely be critical and those who have an emergency fund already saved will certainly weather this storm better than those who do not.
Maria Dawes
In many ways, it will depend on your situation and the type of pension you’re accessing. But some forethought and extra planning can be helpful to best manage your retirement income tax situation, as well as your estate tax liabilities.
Choosing exactly when to retire is an intensely personal decision that requires many parts of your life to align. Considerations need to be made for finances, health, mental fortitude and how much passion you still have for what you do. Connecting with a financial advisor who can help you put together a retirement plan is the first step to getting your ducks in a row.
At some point before or during retirement, most people will start seriously thinking about when they should downsize their home. In reality, this can be a very complex question and the solution is not a one-size-fits-all answer.
I cannot stress strongly enough how important it is for everyone to have a valid will, as well as to select a person to act as Power of Attorney for them.
A good steward thinks generationally. While Proverbs 13 supports leaving an inheritance to your children, I believe that what this ultimately looks like requires a great deal of wisdom.
With the baby boomer generation hitting retirement, determining how much wealth needs to be accumulated before big life events, such as retirement, is a question that I spend a lot of time working through with individuals and couples.
As a Portfolio Manager and Certified Financial Planner, I commonly see people who believe all their registered accounts (i.e., LIRA, LRSP, RRSP, RRIF, etc.) will end up going to their children when both spouses die.
Matthew 22:21 tells us, “…give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” And so right out of the gate, I want to say that those who are paying high taxes may not be bad stewards of their material resources.
