Will some Canadians stay frugal and keep saving – even after the pandemic?

An interesting report from BNN Bloomberg suggests that a significant chunk of us Canadians plan to carry on being savers – and trimming back on spending – once the pandemic is over.

The report cites recent Scotiabank research, which found that 36 per cent of those surveyed “are planning to eliminate unnecessary spending from their lifestyle,” and a further 28 per cent “will continue to build their emergency fund.”

Scotiabank’s D’Arcy McDonald is quoted in the article as saying there is a “record number of deposits in Canadians’ bank accounts.” He further states that this stash of cash “presents a huge opportunity, especially for the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic, like travel and hospitality.”

In plainer terms, he’s expecting Canadians will spend that cache of cash on things they haven’t been able to do, like jumping on a jet plane, or even taking friends out for dinner. And the research seems to bear that out – but with more than a third of respondents promising NOT to spend money like they did before, and nearly 30 per cent more putting money in long-term savings, one wonders if it will play out like bankers and politicians expect.

A higher savings rate is never a bad thing. As recently as 2017, according to the CBC, the national household savings rate was about 4.6 per cent, and 65 per cent of Canadians said they were saving for retirement.

Jump ahead to 2020, and – according to the National Post – we have a national savings rate of 28.2 per cent, and an estimate cash stockpile of $90 billion. And that number solely looks at savings accounts, the article notes – if invested dollars were counted, the number would be even higher.

Are any of the excess dollars being earmarked for retirement?

It would appear so. According to the Canada Buzz blog, the average registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) balance in Canada is around the $100,000 mark – it averages $92,000 and change in the Prairies and hits $116,000 in Alberta. B.C. weighs in at $96,000-plus and Ontario leads at $128,000.

The pandemic has been a nightmare for some of us, who have seen jobs and paycheques dry up, or who have been forced to close businesses. Retirement savings is of course not a priority for this group. But if you are someone who has managed to keep working throughout the crisis, and have built up some extra savings, don’t forget about your retirement savings account. Those dollars will be handy for the retired, future you.

The Saskatchewan Pension Plan, celebrating its 35^th year of operations, is of course a logical destination for any excess cash you may want to earmark for the future. SPP invests the contributions on your behalf, and at retirement, can convert your invested dollars to a retirement income stream. Check them out today!

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Recent changes to the federal Old Age Security (OAS) program, including two one-time extra payments of $500, and a plan to increase the program’s payout by 10 per cent for those 75 and over, shouldn’t impact Ottawa’s ability to sustain the program.

So says Sheila Block, chief economist for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), Ontario branch.

On the phone to Save with SPP from Toronto, Block notes that unlike the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), OAS isn’t funding through contributions and investment returns like a private pension plan – it’s a government program, paid for through taxation. So, she says, if planned changes go ahead there is “absolutely… the capacity for the government to afford it.”

While OAS is a fairly modest benefit, currently about $615.37 per month maximum, Block notes that it has an important feature – it is indexed, meaning that it is increased to reflect inflation every year.

“This acknowledges that a lot of retirees’ pension plans are not indexed,” she explains, or that they are living on savings which diminish as they age. An indexed benefit retains its value over time.

Many people who lack a workplace pension and/or retirement savings will receive not only the OAS, but also the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS), which is also a government retirement income program. OAS and GIS together provide about $16,000 a year, which is helpful in fighting poverty among those with lower incomes, she explains.

“OAS was not designed to support people on its own,” she explains. “And the GIS is an anti-poverty measure that supplements OAS. As we see fewer people with defined benefit pensions or adequate retirement savings, there is an argument to increase OAS, for sure.” But, she reiterates, the OAS is more of a supplement than it is a program designed to provide full support.

As well, she notes, many getting OAS and GIS also get some or all of the CPP’s benefits.

Save with SPP noted that much is made about the OAS clawback in retirement-related media reports. But, Block notes, in reality, the threshold for clawbacks is quite high. The OAS “recovery tax” begins if an individual’s income is more than about $78,000 per year, and you become ineligible for OAS if your income exceeds about $126,000, she says.

A 2012 research paper by CCPA’s Monica Townson, which made the case then that OAS was sustainable, noted that only about six per cent of OAS payments were clawed back.

Citing data from the Canada Revenue Agency, Block notes that today, only about 4.4 per cent of OAS payments are “recovered” through the recovery tax.

We thank Sheila Block for taking the time to talk with Save with SPP.

Retirement security has traditionally depended on three pillars – government programs, like CPP and OAS, personal savings, and workplace retirement programs. If you don’t have a workplace pension plan, you’re effectively shouldering two of those pillars on your own.

A program that may be of interest is the Saskatchewan Pension Plan. This is an open defined contribution program with a voluntary contribution rate. You can contribute up to $6,600 per year, and can transfer up to $10,000 from your registered retirement savings plan to SPP. They’ll invest the contributions for you, and when it’s time to retire, can help you convert your savings to income, including via lifetime annuity options. Check them out today!

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TFSAs are great, but may not be ideally suited for retirement savings: MoneySense

Writing in the Toronto Sun, MoneySense writer Joseph Czikk opines that the rise of the Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) may spell trouble for the venerable Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP).

He writes that the TFSA has been “a huge hit” since its inception in 2009, with more than two-thirds of Canadians now the proud owners of accounts.

“But,” he writes “there’s reason to suspect that the TFSA’s popularity is growing at the expense of the RRSP, and if that’s true, it should lead many Canadians to rethink how they plan to invest for retirement.”

Before 2009, he explains, the RRSP was the chief retirement savings tool for Canadians.

“RRSP contributions aren’t taxable, which incentivizes people to top up the accounts every year. The more money you put into your RRSP, the less tax you’ll pay,” the article notes.

When Canadians stop working, the article explains, they “generally convert their RRSP balance to a Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF), which they then draw from to cover expenses.” Money coming out of the RRIF is taxable, but “the idea… is that you’ll probably be in a lower tax bracket in retirement than you were in your career, meaning you’ll get to keep more of the money than you otherwise would have.”

Then, Czikk notes, “along came the TFSA,” which works opposite from an RRSP. No tax break for putting money into a TFSA, but no taxation when you take it out, the article adds.

There are tax penalties for robbing your RRSP savings before retirement, but with the TFSA, not so much.

“You can see how such an account — which could be drawn upon like any bank account and which sheltered capital gains — would become popular,” he writes.

“And so it went. Just eight years after TFSAs came on the scene, their aggregate value rocketed to match 20 per cent of RRSPs, RRIFs and Locked-In Retirement Accounts (LIRAs).”

But, the article says, there are unintended negative consequences with the TFSA.

Quoting The Canadian Tax Journal, the article notes that $4 of every $10 that would otherwise have gone to an RRSP are now going to TFSAs. The number of Canadians contributing to RRSPs is in decline. And, the article says, that’s a problem.

Research from BMO suggests that Canadians need about $1.5 million in retirement savings to retire comfortably, the article says. And while for some a TFSA could get you there, the fact that there are no withdrawal rules is posing problems, the article says.

Prof. Jonathan Farrar of Wilfrid Laurier University is quoted in the article as saying “we’re seeing that … a lot of people are not using it for retirement. People are using the TFSA as a bank account instead of an investment account, from which you make a very rare withdrawal.”

“Part of the genius of the RRSP is how it disincentivizes people from taking money out before retirement. The TFSA lacks that aspect,” the article adds.

If you rob your retirement nest egg before hitting the golden handshake, the article concludes, you’ll have to rely more on government income programs like the Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security. The government is thinking about creating a TFSA that has withdrawal rules more like an RRSP to address this problem.

Save with SPP once spoke with some Australian colleagues. There, everyone gets put in a mandatory defined contribution pension plan where their employer makes all the contributions. But, as with a TFSA, there aren’t any strict rules on withdrawals – so you could take all the money out and buy a house, for instance. In a strange paradox, a country with one of the highest rates of pension plan coverage has experienced senior poverty and a heavy reliance on the means-test Age Pension – and the lack of withdrawal rules may be to blame.

TFSAs are awesome, for sure, but perhaps not ideally suited for retirement savings. The tried and true approach may be a better path. The Saskatchewan Pension Plan operates similarly to an RRSP, but has the added feature of being a locked-in plan. You can’t crack into your SPP early, meaning there will be more there for you when you don’t have a paycheque to rely on.  Be sure to check out SPP – delivering retirement security for 35 years – today.

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Grow Your Money, by Bola Sokunbi, is part of a series from CleverGirl Finance on helping women manage money, in this case, investments.

And while women are the intended audience, there’s a lot of great advice for everyone in this well-written book, which while U.S. focused, does explain Canadian investing and retirement ideas as well.

Sokunbi starts by saying those who are fearful of investing should realize that “investing is like learning a different language.” And once you are familiar with that language, “you can get the hang of it, and really grow your money.”

After all, she notes, the only ways to make money are by working or investing. The latter can be a lot less difficult, the book notes.

Women, who traditionally earn between 58 to 87 per cent of what men earn, typically end up with $430,480 less than men over their working lives. “This is not okay,” writes Sokunbi.

Worse, while women are better savers than men, they tend to be very conservative, put 70 per cent of their savings in cash, and may not sign up for retirement savings plans at work, the author notes. That can mean leaving free money on the table, she warns.

Sokunbi provides an overview of the U.S. and Canadian stock markets, and then explains how compounding – whether it is interest, dividends, or capital gains – can help your investments earn more money. She explains the rule of 72 can tell you how quickly you can double your money through compounded rates of return – if you are averaging a five per cent rate of return, you can double your money in 14.4 years, she notes.

She sees a few conditions you need before starting off on investing, including have a steady income, the ability to meet your financial obligations, emergency savings, and no high-interest debt.

Good choices for beginning investors are managed mutual funds, index funds, and exchange-traded funds, she explains. With managed mutual funds, “a fund manager… make(s) investment decisions for the fund and set(s) the fund objectives, with the main goal of making money” for investors. Index funds are “passively managed,” where its component investments match the components of a market index. Exchange-traded funds are similar (passive) but may be focused on other market sectors and indices.

Index and ETF funds – passive – have lower investment costs, typically less than one tenth of one per cent. A managed mutual fund is generally in the one to two per cent range because you are paying for active management, she explains.

You can invest with a full-service broker, a discount broker, or an online broker/robo-adviser, she says. Again, fees are based on the level of service.

When researching what to invest in, look at the company or fund’s financial situation and future plans, its historical performance, its objectives and its expenses and fees, writes Sokunbi.

Another good idea is to practice before you put your toe in the water – most financial institutions offer “practice simulation accounts,” where you can try your investment ideas before you buy.

Things not to do include waiting around to invest (“time is your biggest asset and the best time to start investing is right now”), getting emotional with investing, timing the market, expecting “overnight returns” on investments and not thinking about taxes for the long term.

This is a great read. The tone is friendly and informative, there are charts and examples, and even testimonials to move you along from concept to concept. It’s well worth checking out.

The Saskatchewan Pension Plan operates much like a managed mutual fund, but with fees of less than one per cent. That low investment management fee means more money in your SPP account, particularly over time. Why not take advantage of the SPP as a key retirement tool today, as the plan celebrates its 35^th anniversary in 2021?

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Knowing what you really need as retirement income is key: My Own Advisor

Poll after poll seems to confirm the idea that Canadians think saving for retirement is a good thing – whether or not they are actually doing it.

But the My Own Advisor blog notes that unless you really understand what your retirement income needs are, you could actually be saving too much for retirement.

The blog starts by rolling out the party line on retirement saving – “live within your means; maximize savings to registered accounts like the registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) and tax-free savings account (TFSA) – then consider taxable investing;” then keep investment costs low.

“Rinse and repeat for 30 years,” the blog notes, and “retire with money in the bank.”

All good. However, the blog warns, there is an important question you must know the answer to before you begin drawing down your retirement income – “how much is enough?”

“When it comes to you, only you know what you need or want from retirement,” the blog explains. And figuring this out is not easy – the blog says it is akin to “putting together a 10,000-piece jigsaw puzzle.”

The blog says you need to thinking about the overall picture – your income from all possible source. If you have a pension at work, will you take it as soon as you can? When should you draw down your RRSP assets? Or should they be kept intact and rolled into a RRIF? Should you consider an annuity?

The blog then asks when you should start accessing any TFSA funds, the Canada Pension Plan, and Old Age Security. “Dozens more questions abound,” the blog says.

Some people, the blog says, “don’t know any of these answers, and err on the very conservative side.” The blog then publishes a nice exchange between the blogger and a retired reader in Germany, who makes two key points – “you don’t need as much as you think,” and “your cost of living steadily decreases as time wears on.” The reader also states that “every senior I’ve spoken with reminds me they are living on substantially reduced incomes, but with no differences in their standards of living.”

These are all great points, and very accurate, based on what we’ve observed since leaving the full time workforce nearly seven years ago. None of our friends and neighbours have had to make radical changes in their lifestyles due to retiring, but we all certainly spend a lot more time talking about taxes than we used to! So you do tend to just adjust to the reality of living on less, and after a while, it’s OK.

The article mentions annuities as an option – and if you’re a Saskatchewan Pension Plan member, they are an option for you as well. There are a couple of great things about annuities. First, you know exactly what you’ll get each month – and can provide for survivors if you wish. Second, you don’t have to worry about the markets – whether they are up or way down, you get the same income. Third, it’s a lot simpler for tax planning – your income is known in advance, not based on some percentage of your declining assets. Check out SPP today.

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With an end to the pandemic in sight, we are all hopeful that things are about to start returning to normal.

One trend that’s been happening since last year, reports Global News, is “young adults (being) forced to move back in with their parents.”

Factors like campus closures or lack of employment are reasons why the kids may return to the nest. Another factor might be the fact that housing is so unaffordable these days.

What should parents do to make the best of such a situation?

Noted financial author and commentator Kelley Keehn recommends setting “some ground rules” before the kids move back in.

“Are they paying rent? If they’re unemployed are they looking for work? When they do get back on their feet do they need to pay back the bank of mom and dad?” she states in the article. If these details aren’t clear right off the top, “resentment can set in,” the article warns.

The trend of kids returning home is big south of the border as well, reports the Huffington Post. Numbers of Americans aged 18 to 34 returning home are rising, and parents – who might have been thinking of downsizing – are now thinking about going bigger on their homes to make room for the kids.

A total of 26 per cent of millennials live with their parents in the U.S., up from 22 per cent before the recession of 2007, the article notes.

But there’s good news – the kids moving home are taking advantage of the situation to boost their education, and ideally snare a better job, the article concludes.

The PsychCentral blog says there can be a lot of positives for the relations between parents and kids when they move home, but parents need to stay calm about the unexpected change.

“Don’t freak out,” the publication advises, and blame the kids for not trying hard enough to be independent. Have conversations about “what is OK and what isn’t OK” in your house, and remember your kids aren’t teenagers and will be expecting more freedom than in the past. Try to make sure the kids are contributing, even in some small way, towards the costs of living, and set up a timetable for their stay, the article adds.

WebMD expands on that point, advising us not to “fall back into mommy mode” and realize that the now adult kids have “different attitudes, needs, and eating, sleeping or partying habits than they did when they were younger.”

Save with SPP can add this important thought for parents – the kids are almost certainly doing this move as a last resort. Few adult children truly want to move home. So, if you do get a second chance to live with your kids, make the most of it – you’re helping them to get ahead in life by doing so.

Do your kids have a pension plan at work? If not, the Saskatchewan Pension Plan may be a smart option for them. A truly end-to-end retirement program, SPP takes your contributed dollars, invests them professionally and at a low cost, and then can convert those invested savings into a lifelong pension when you reach the golden handshake. SPP has been securing retirement futures for 35 years now – check them out today.

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“Mind shift” on taxation needed when you enter retirement

Writing in the Sarnia Observer, financial writer Christine Ibbotson notes that taxation – fairly straightforward before you retire – gets a lot more complicated after you retire.

“Managing your taxes during your working years is relatively generic,” she writes. “You maximize your registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) contributions, purchase investments that attract the least tax possible on investment income or buy real estate to increase your net worth.”  The goal with taxes is get them as low as possible, she explains.

It’s a different ball game in retirement, Ibbotson notes.

“As you transition into retirement, the tax planning process shifts onto withdrawing assets, and doing so in the most tax-efficient manner,” she explains. This requires what she calls a minor “mind shift” for most people, the article notes.

“Most are preoccupied with minimizing current taxes each year. But this cannot be at the expense of your long-term objective for maximizing after tax income for your entire retirement (often estimated at 25 to 40 years),” she notes.

For that reason, Ibbotson says retirees need to get a handle on how the various types of income they may receive are taxed.

“There are three main types of taxation to consider: interest income, dividend income, and capital gains. All are taxed differently, so this makes it easier to structure your portfolio more efficiently when you are creating your plan with your advisor,” Ibbotson writes.

“As a general rule you want to place income that is going to be unfavourably taxed, (interest income) into tax-sheltered products such as tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs) or RRSPs. Investment income that generates returns that receive more favourable tax treatments (dividends or capital gains) should be placed in non-registered accounts.”

If you are retiring, it’s critical that you know what your income is from all sources – government retirement benefits, a workplace pension, and “anticipated income” from your own savings. This knowledge can help you to “avoid clawbacks as much as possible,” she explains.

Other tax-saving suggestions from Ibbotson include the ideas of Canada Pension Plan/Quebec Pension Plan “sharing,” splitting employer pension plans for tax purposes with your spouse, and holding on to RRSPs, registered retirement income funds (RRIFs) or locked-in retirement accounts (LIRAs) to maturity. Those age 65 and older in receipt of a pension (including an SPP annuity) will qualify for the federal Pension Income Tax Credit, another little way to save a bit on the tax bill.

“Simply put, paying less tax translates into keeping more money in your pocket, allowing you to enjoy a better quality of life,” she concludes.

This is great advice. Save with SPP can attest to the unexpected complexity of having multiple sources of income in retirement after many years of having only one paycheque. You also have fewer levers to address taxes – while you might be able to contribute to an RRSP or your SPP account, it’s probably only on your earnings from part-time work or consulting. You can ask your pension plan to deduct additional taxes from your monthly cheque if you find you are paying the Canada Revenue Agency every year.

The older you get, the more you talk about taxes with friends and neighbours, and many a decumulation strategy has been mapped out on the back of a golf scorecard after input from the other players!

Wondering how much your Saskatchewan Pension Plan account will total when it’s time to retire? Have a look at SPP’s Wealth Calculator. Plug in your current account balance, your expected annual contributions, years to retirement and the interest rate you expect, and voila – there’s an estimate for you. It’s just another feature for members developed by SPP, who have been building retirement security for 35 years.

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We’re forever hearing about “rules of thumb” when it comes to retirement, so today, Save with SPP will attempt to bring a bunch of these thumbs of wisdom together in one place.

A great starting point is the Retire Happy blog, where Ed Rempel rhymes off some of the most popular rules.

He speaks of the “70 per cent replacement rule,” where it is said that the “right” level of retirement income (this rule is widely disputed) is 70 per cent of what you were making before you retired. As Rempel notes, under this rule, a couple making $100,000 would thus need $70,000 in retirement.

(Another possible origin of this rule is the defined benefit pension world, where pensions normally provide two per cent of what you made at work per year you are a plan member. In the old days, membership was capped at 35 years – the math adds up to 70 per cent.)

Next, Rempel speaks of the four per cent rule of thumb. This rule suggests that the right amount to withdraw each year from retirement savings is four per cent of the total; a safe withdrawal rate to help you avoid running out of money later.

The “Age Rule,” writes Rempel, is the idea that 100 minus your current age is the percentage of your overall portfolio that you should invest in stocks. The thinking here is that the older you are, the less exposure you should have to risky investments – you should be gradually shifting over to fixed income.

Rempel also talks about the “cash buffer” rule – keeping enough cash to tide you over for two years, so you can “draw on it when investments are down,” and the idea of delaying Canada Pension Plan payments until 65 (some say 70) to get more than you would at 60.

A final rule from Rempel is the “sequence of returns” rule, the idea of investing conservatively to avoid losses during the drawdown stage.

A great list from a great blog!

We found a few others.

At Forbes magazine there is talk of the “25 times” rule. Basically, if you know what level of income you want to have in retirement – let’s say $50,000 – this rule tells you you need to save 25 times that amount before you retire. That’s a daunting $1.25 million.

We remember hearing this one decades ago as the “20 times” rule. Perhaps inflation has made the thumb bigger?

Over at Investopedia, “a good rule of thumb for the percentage of your income you should save is 15 per cent,” we are told. Other thumb guidelines include choosing “low-cost investments,” where management expense fees are as low as possible, and a Warren Buffett rule, “don’t put money in something you don’t understand.”

The article talks about exchange-traded funds as being examples of low-cost investments. Save with SPP likes to note that while ETFs have lower fees than most mutual funds, buying stocks and bonds directly is a way to not have any management fees.

Putting it all together, there are an awful lot of thumbs here, more than the two we usually depend on. That’s because there are a lot of moving parts to saving for retirement and then living off the savings. From figuring out how much you’ll put aside, on to growing that amount via investing, and on to finally “decumulating” your savings and enjoying the income, it can be quite an effort.

If you’re not a retirement geek who happily plots and schemes over spreadsheets on a daily basis (guilty glance in mirror), there is another way to manage all this in a one-stop, set it and forget it way. Why not consider joining the Saskatchewan Pension Plan? They’ll take your retirement savings and grow them under the watchful eyes of investment professionals (for a very low fee). When it’s time to retire, they can turn those saved, invested dollars into a lifetime income stream. And they’ve been doing it for an impressive 35 years. Check them out today!

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A staggering $1 trillion in Canadian inheritance money will be transferred this decade

Writing in the Financial Post, columnist Jason Heath notes that we are headed for all-time records when it comes to inheritances in this country.

“Estimates of expected Canadian inheritances over the next decade are as high as $1 trillion,” he writes, adding that that figure could be driven even higher by stock prices and real estate values.

While articles (and books) have been written about the idea of “dying broke,” it appears most Canadians don’t follow that view. Heath notes that 47 per cent of adults over 55, in a 2019 survey by Merrill Lynch and Age Wave, feel that leaving their kids an inheritance was “the right thing to do.” Similarly, he writes, 55 per cent of millennials felt their parents had an obligation to leave them an inheritance.

The idea of leaving money for the kids isn’t always talked about in retirement planning circles, notes Heath.

“Many people spend their working years scrimping and saving to be able to afford to retire. Inheritance pressure after retiring may limit spending in retirement. It insinuates that workers need to save for not only retirement, but also their apparent inheritance obligation to their children,” he writes.

If you are going to be receiving an inheritance, Heath suggests you not be in a rush to make decisions about it.

“Some recipients see it as a windfall and spend it frivolously. Others see it as blood money and feel a great burden when they inherit,” he explains.

He recommends doing nothing with the inheritance for a time – leave it in the bank for six months, he suggests.

If you are on the giving end of an inheritance, you can consider giving money to the kids while you are still around to see them enjoy it, Heath adds.

“Some people would rather see their family enjoy an inheritance while they are still alive. Making gifts to children or grandchildren can be a great way to do so. There are no tax implications of a gift of cash to an adult child or grandchild,” he explains.

Just be sure, he warns, that you are not “passing along too much too early… so as not to risk your own financial security.”

The article goes on to look at some of the complexities of leaving an estate – “the choice of beneficiary designations, use of trusts, implementing an estate freeze, or insurance strategies can… reduce tax and probate costs.”

Did you know that benefits from the Saskatchewan Pension Plan may be payable to eligible beneficiaries upon your death?

If you die before you retire, the balance in your SPP account will be paid to your beneficiary.

If you die after you retire, any benefits payable depend on your choices at the time of retirement.

The SPP Retirement Guide provides details on the three types of annuity you can choose from when you start your SPP pension. While the life only annuity doesn’t offer survivor benefits, the refund life annuity can result in a payment to your beneficiary if you die before receiving annuity payments equal to your account balance at the time the annuity was chosen. The joint and last survivor annuity provides a pension equal to 100, 75 or 60 per cent of what you were receiving to your surviving spouse.

If you choose to transfer your benefits out of SPP when you retire, no death benefits are available from the plan.

These survivor benefits can ensure that a measure of the security SPP has been delivering for more than 35 years can continue to a beneficiary or spouse. Check out SPP today!

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Recently, Save with SPP got an opportunity to speak with long-time pension expert Dr. John Por, whose 40-year career in pensions includes consulting work with large U.S. and Canadian pension boards and offering expertise on pension risk policy. He has also researched the tricky “decumulation” stage in which savings are turned into retirement income.

Our far-ranging interview covered decumulation, spending in retirement, frugality, advice on saving for retirement, and annuities.

Decumulation

Dr. Por says common mistakes with decumulation – the stage where retirement savings are used to provide retirement income – can include problematic asset allocation, lack of appropriate goal setting, high investment costs and, often, setting a withdrawal rate that’s too high or taking out too much money early in retirement.

So is there a correct withdrawal rate?

“At one point in time, maybe 20-25 years ago, four per cent was said to be the right withdrawal rate,” he explains.

Decumulation “depends on future interest rates, the stock markets, inflation, life expectancy and income needs,” says Dr. Por. A “correct” rate “is therefore unknowable.”

“It depends on the reigning circumstances, both personal and market,” he explains. “Who could have predicted, even five years ago, the current existing zero or the negative real rate of bond returns?”

“The problem is, though we desperately want to find a magic formula, how can you do this – we don’t know how it will be (in the future); no one knows.”

Noting the volatility in the stock markets in just the last couple of years, he notes that “even a Nobel Prize winner professed not knowing where the markets will go in the next 10 years, or how to invest your money after retirement.”

“This, of course, has not kept the retirement or investment industry from providing copious, and often prudent, advice, it simply means that looking for a, or the, magic bullet, or the infallible sage, will not be successful,” he adds.

Spending in retirement

While decumulation carries a lot of unknowns, much more is known about how much retirees actually need, Dr. Por says.

He says research by noted pension actuary Malcolm Hamilton shows that people need far less “replacement income” in retirement than the 75 per cent figure bandied about by the industry. 

Hamilton has for many years said the research suggests not everyone needs to save “heavily” for retirement, because of the existence of government income programs for retirees and lower costs once you are retired. (Here’s a link to a Globe and Mail interview with Malcolm Hamilton.)

Dr. Por agrees, calling an overall 75 per cent rule “misguided.”

“While this may be true for low-income people, they are supported by the above-mentioned government programs, so for them the 75 per cent is not a stretch, people at higher income levels are not likely to need 75 per cent of their earned income to pursue an age-appropriate lifestyle,” he says.

“One of the most important steps to understanding (retirement spending) is… knowing how much money you need to survive,” Dr. Por explains.

Rather than going through “painful” pre-retirement budget forecasting, he recommends a simpler approach.

“How much do you save in a month? If the answer is zero, your retirement budget will be what you spend now, minus what you won’t have to pay in retirement.” This can include things like your mortgage, tax savings when you earn less, childcare and education expenses, Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance, and so on. 

It’s a common-sense issue, he says. Individuals must decide “how much is necessary (spending) versus how much you would like to have.”

This knowledge is crucial for retirees, who have extremely limited options in dealing with income shortfalls, he explains. 

Working Canadians needing more money could “work harder – get a job that pays better, spend less, save more, take more investment risks, etc.… but when you are retired, you don’t have the same tools,” he explains.

 “Lifestyle becomes the main tool, you can cut back on your lifestyle (to save money), which is difficult,” he says. “Another tool still at your disposal is taking on more investment risk in retirement, but, if you’re not successful, it would easily lead to a further diminished lifestyle,” Dr. Por adds.

Frugality 

At 74, Dr. Por says he is “still engaged” and “living frugally.”

In this context, he defines frugality as bringing your lifestyle and realistic earning capability (and not your hoped-for future earnings) into a healthy balance. 

Living frugally is a key way to make your money last longer, and also that when in financial trouble, the cutback would be smaller thus less painful. Big expenses in the early years of retirement should be avoided, he says, because you may need your retirement savings for decades. “

While at age 65 it is hard to envisage how long you may live” he explains, “you may easily live beyond age 90.”

For example, he adds, if you are married, “the probability that either you or your spouse will live to age 93 is about 50 per cent. You can live for a very, very long time.” 

Working after retirement is a way to support your retirement spending and to keep your mind active, he says.

“Some people still work part-time after they stop working full time. You don’t realize how important your work is … not that many people spend their time well in retirement,” he says.

“Apart from the income work provides, it also structures your day, can add meaning to your existence after retirement (admittedly not everybody needs it), and equally important, it helps you maintain your links with the outside world and friends,” he says. His observation is that most people (especially men) form the majority of their extra-family relationships through work, and once they retired such contacts tend to fade away over time,” he says.

Dr. Por recommends that everyone consider living frugally at any age; he sees it as a great lifetime habit to get into.

Saving for retirement

While some people suggest you should save for retirement from early in life until the end of your career, Dr. Por says that view isn’t usually realistic.

“You can’t save in your 30s and 40s – you are paying for your kids’ education, your mortgage. So, save what you can, if you can, but (know) you may not be able to,” he advises. “No heroism is called for, as you also have to live a reasonable life.”

The optimum time to save “is in your 50s, and then, you can save 20 to 40 per cent,” he says. By then, “your children will be out in the world, your mortgage is paid… you can save.”

For savers, equities add the most value, but of course, it depends on the environment you happen to fall into. Bonds don’t provide as much income and growth, Dr. Por explains.

Pay close attention to investment fees, he advises. “With exchange-traded funds (ETFs), you can control costs – the management expense ratios are low.” However, financial advisers may not suggest this investment because they can make higher commissions on other products, Dr. Por says.

“Even a fee of one percent can, over 30 years, reduce your available assets significantly,” he says.

What you want to avoid is being forced to sell securities when the market is down, thus Dr. Por likes the concept of having a cash reserve to tide you through periods of market decline. 

“If you take on extra risk… by putting more money into equities, you should also have a cash reserve fund worth three to five years of spending,” he says. If equities perform well, you may wish to extend such cash reserves to cover longer periods. Overall, Dr. Por says, a chief problem with retirement saving is that most people “look at it as an investment issue,” and become focused on today’s investment risks, interest rates, equity return rates, and so on. Instead, you should be thinking about the income your investments will generate when you stop working. 

What’s going on today with investment risks and other factors “is not relevant 30 to 50 years out,” when you will be drawing income from your investments, he advises. Your focus should be on that long term, and not on volatility or return rates in a given year, Dr. Por says.

Annuities

Dr. Por talked about the “annuity paradox”. While financial experts like annuities, most people refuse to follow such advice. Most people shy away from the idea of taking a large lump sum of money – say $1.5 million – and turning it into an annuity that pays $60,000 a year. He noted that when he mentioned the concept to his wife (a highly educated professional, an MD), she refused the idea saying that “… if we die soon for whatever reason the children will get nothing.”

Also, retired people want to have cash available for future expenses, and, not always unreasonably, are afraid of inflation, and the potential extinction of the financial institution, which issued the annuity. 

But, he added, “annuities later in life is a good idea”. When you are getting too old to run your money – say by your late 70s or 80s – that’s the time to consider an annuity, he says. The older you are when you convert to an annuity, the cheaper the annuity is to buy. And today’s low interest rates make the conversion to annuities expensive. “The interesting phenomenon is though”, he added, “that when interest rates were exceptionally high, say in the late 1990ies, people still did not buy annuities, nor did the advisers promote the idea.”

Finally, he noted the importance of discipline. He speaks from experience, and says that had he followed all the major precepts mentioned in this piece, he would be now in a much better financial position himself. “Know your needs, be prudent in your expectations, live frugally, create a plan or direction and stick to it while making adjustments, if needed,” he advises.  

We thank Dr. Por for taking the time to speak with us.

Celebrating 35 years of operations, the Saskatchewan Pension Plan is a full-service retirement plan. SPP will invest the money you contribute, and at the time you retire, gives you the option of converting your invested savings into a lifetime annuity. Why not check out SPP today?

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