Thing is, it doesn't matter, the government has imposed it. I think it's a great government policy. Most people don't save for retirement. So we'll have to pay them out of general revenue, or dramatically increase MAID. Having a decent government run pension is a good idea. The fact that is well managed, or that your payout/contribution isn't great is mostly irrelevant to the larger policy objective. The larger policy objective is that we've saved over half a trillion dollars for people... Debating CPP is dumb ..read more

If have a lump sum that I will not touch/add to. I want to add it to my retirement plan, so I plan to max out my tfsa and rrsp limits, then just get mutual funds through my investment guy. I'm 50, so plan to let it sit for 10 years, then I'll need to draw on it for income in retirement. Should I pull enough out each year to max out my rrsp and tfsa space? thanks in advance ..read more

Seems there's enough folks who are / hope to live outside of CAnada if they can find a country that is low-cost, offers quality services (ie. health care). However, there are some who continue to live Canada permanently and vacation occasionally ..read more

People may mention in CMF, in various other topic threads their age. What age did you retire from paid work? If you are still working, drop any comments when you hope to retire. Age that you retired, did it meet your original plan? If no, key reasons that changed the retirement year? (Arrrgh! I wanted modify 1 of the poll choices to paid "temporary" (from short-term) for consistency's sake ..read more

Hi, Long story short, I accrued a small amount in a DB pension. As such, I'm eligible to transfer it (about 1500) to an RRSP. This GC website seems to suggest the transfer will not affect this year's deduction limit (I have about 5k limit) Generally, amounts you transfer directly to your RRSP do not affect your RRSP deduction limit. However, you may need to include an amount in income and claim an offsetting deduction. [URL... Transfer small pension amount to RRSP, effect on deduction limit ..read more

Is the march 26th payment for March or is it for April ..read more

it is meeting certain visitors in public space in one's home city --after being online. Ok. No one from CMF (Somehow, we are an understandably restrained bunch of folks here. Money discussion among "strangers" causes introversion/ aversion in person). Just returned from walk, chat and meal with 2 folks from Chicago here in Calgary. 1 is blogger which she and I have read / commented on each other's blog over past decade. She came with a distant friend. Blogger... entertainment home city --but a different twist ..read more

Quite honestly, I'm spending more money in retirement so far compared to working full-time last 4 years. Coffees/snacks with friends, fitness, art course and vacation trips out of province.. I will have to pay for dental, other stuff later. I do not see myself flaking out while I can still self-invest re my finances. So this is why I'm glad not to have business fashion needs now. (And I seldom went to paid biz lunches with work colleagues.) Yes, that's why I am super... Whoever said retirement living is so much cheaper ..read more

So how many here have their portfolio getting larger after they retired? By retired I mean you are not working at all and have no other income other than pensions, savings, TFSA, and CPP/OAS ..read more

Life expectancy in Canada is about 82 years. But we all know that living up to 82 years doesn't mean living healthy up to 82 years. There's this indicator called health-adjusted life expectancy and basically it's about 3-8 years less than life expectancy. Also, I see people in their mid-70s who are healthy, fully autonomous, but they are stuck with some chronic pain (arthritis for instance or knee pain) and their quality of life is starting to decrease. Based on that, there isn't that... Life expectancy vs health expectancy ..read more