Having a will is something that we seem to know is very important, yet don’t seem to find the time or money to get rolling on.

According to the CBC, citing research from 2017, “more than half of Canadians don’t have a last will and testament,” with 18 per cent saying they can’t afford one, and five per cent feeling they don’t have time to make one.

Another reason given by some, the article continues, is that they don’t think they have “enough assets to make the process worthwhile.”

But, points out the Savvy New Canadians blog, having a will is very important.

“Thinking of your own mortality can be scary, but death is an inevitable part of life and being prepared is one of the best ways to bring you and your loved ones some financial peace of mind,” the blog advises.

The blog offers five key reasons why we should get a will done:

• A will “protects your financial assets and investments.”
• It “ensures your relationships are recognized,” meaning it sets out who you want to inherit your money and possessions, instead of leaving it up to the government to figure out.
• It “guarantees a plan” for any minor children.
• While there is no estate tax in Canada, having a will can help minimize “estate administration taxes,” such as your final income tax returns and, in some cases, a probate fee.
• It lets you leave “legacy gifts” to charities or non-profit organizations.

Writing for Waterloo News, published by the University of Waterloo, estate planning lawyer Keith Masterman talks about the problems that can crop up when someone dies without a will.

“If you die without a will, you are said to die intestate. The ramification can be dire. You do not choose your beneficiaries; your estate will be distributed according to a government scheme. The scheme is set out in provincial legislation and what your loved one will receive depend on the province where you reside,” he warns.

As an example, he notes that “in all provinces, a surviving spouse will inherit at least a portion of an intestate estate,” but what they get depend on what province they live in.

“British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Nunavut and The Northwest Territories all recognize a common-law partner as a spouse. In the other provinces—Manitoba, Ontario, PEI, Newfoundland and Labrador and the Yukon—only a married survivor is recognized as a spouse,” he writes.

This can be complicated for those of us who marry, separate, and then live common-law with a new partner, he explains. Depending on where the individuals involved live, the common-law partner might be disinherited if their partner dies without a will, notes Masterman.

While most think getting a will is prohibitively expensive, the CBC article suggests that it doesn’t always have to be.

“These days, we have more and arguably easier options than ever before when it comes to will preparation: will and estate lawyers, businesses that offer fixed prices on lawyer-provided services, will kits, will-preparation sites and even DIY legal forms that are available for free online,” the CBC suggests.

So, what’s involved in doing up a will?

According to Canadian Living, you need to have an executor in mind, someone who “carries out the directives in the will, making sure whatever you decided upon happens.” It’s typical, the magazine reports, for “a trusted friend or relative” to be chosen as executor, or a lawyer.

You also need to appoint people who can act on your behalf if, in the future, illness or injury prevents you from making decisions. One such “power of attorney” should be appointed/named to look after your finances, and another for your health. The article says it is typical for two different people to be picked for these roles.

If you have young kids under 18, Canadian Living notes that a will can be used to “name a guardian” for your kids. Without this guardianship being set out in a will, it would be up to the courts to decide where your kids will live.

As for divvying up your estate, “if you don’t have a will, the government will decide who gets what,” the article advises. “In most cases, the surviving spouse inherits the first $200,000 of an estate and the rest would be split between living parents and children,” the article adds.

Other advice from Canadian Living includes the fact that “only an original will” is valid – not a photocopy, and that once you do your will, you should update it after “any major live event, such as divorce, death, birth, or change to your economic status.”

While getting a will done can by a lawyer can costs hundreds of dollars, and up to $1,000 if you have a complicated situation, Canadian Living concludes that “whatever the cost, it’s worth it. You don’t want a judge deciding your estate’s fate.”

Just as having a will is important, so too is saving for retirement. Not many of us have a retirement savings program at work. If you’re saving on your own for retirement and have some registered retirement savings plan room, why not kick the tires on the Saskatchewan Pension Plan?

SPP can be a do-it-yourself retirement savings for you. You decide how much to contribute, and SPP does the rest – investing your contributions in a professionally managed, low-cost pooled fund. And when it’s time to retire, you can choose such options as a lifetime monthly SPP annuity payment, or the Variable Benefit, where you decide how much to take out, and when! Check out SPP today!

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Those taking CPP at 60 worry about their health, finances: Wealth Professional

We frequently hear or read that waiting to take the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) later in life – say, age 70 – will lead to a greater monthly payment.

Yet, reports Wealth Professional, most people choose to start CPP at age 60, despite the fact that they will get a 36 per cent reduction on their payments.

“An informal survey conducted by The Globe and Mail found that the most popular age to take one’s CPP benefits is 60, with 34 per cent of the respondents saying so. This was followed by those aged 65 with 19 per cent and those aged 70 with 16 per cent. This coincided with the data from Statistics Canada that also found that nearly 40 percent of Canadians who were born between 1940 and 1950 began to take their CPP benefits at the age of 60,” Wealth Professional notes.

That’s despite having payments at age 60 decreased by “0.6 per cent every month (before age 65), amounting to 7.2 per cent annually and a maximum reduction of 36 per cent at age 60,” the magazine continues.

The article quotes recent research from Toronto Metropolitan University’s National Institute on Ageing (NIA) as saying “those who take their pensions at 60 instead of waiting until they turn 70 can possibly lose a total of $100,000 (in) retirement income.”

The NIA report found that a mere one per cent of us wait until age 70 to get the maximum benefit, which represents 42 per cent more than what you would get at age 65, Wealth Professional reports.

There are plenty of good reasons why people don’t wait for a greater benefit, the article continues.

“The Globe and Mail survey found that the reasons behind this included the need for financial coverage of living expenses, having health problems or family history of health issues with the expectation of not having a long retirement, as well as the uncertainty of life. Some were also concerned about the possibility of the CPP being compromised in the future, with many citing the departure of Alberta from the CPP for the Alberta Pension Plan,” the magazine reports.

Some used the “why turn down money on the table” argument, taking CPP at 60 and then hoping “they will be able to make more than the government will be providing them down the line,” the article notes.

Some felt taking a lower CPP payment would keep them in a lower tax bracket, the article adds. Those waiting to start CPP at age 65 and beyond “stated that the reason behind this was to increase the payout of their benefits.”

If you don’t have a workplace pension plan or personal retirement savings, you would have to keep working until 65 or 70 to get the greater benefit. If you aren’t working after 60 one would think the CPP would be an immediate need.

Since, as the article says, the maximum CPP benefit in 2024 is $1,364.60 per month at age 65 (that’s before taxes), you might want to be able to bolster that modest amount with your own savings. If you’re not sure how to grow your savings, fear not – the Saskatchewan Pension Plan is ready to help. You decide how much to contribute, and SPP does the heavy lifting of investing your hard-saved dollars in a professionally managed, pooled fund run at a very low cost.

When it’s time to collect, you have the options of choose a lifetime annuity payment each month, or the flexibility of SPP’s Variable Benefit, where you decide how much to take out in income.

Check out SPP today!

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For many of us, running our household money can be a “learn as you go” stumble, as we find out that not paying off credit cards, or spending more than we earn all the time, are bad things.

Victoria Botvinnik’s How To Adult Money offers up insightful information on every phase of the complex world of personal finance. It’s like having a friendly accountant coaching you through.

On credit cards, she writes that “credit cards are a great thing to have if you know how to use them without being used and abused by them.” She warns that credit spending “hurts a lot less… than (to) hand over hard-earned cash,” and that making only the minimum payment each month means “you’re not really paying down the debt much, if at all.”

We should have two credit cards, not a bunch, she adds.

On pension plans at work (such as defined benefit or defined contribution plans), Botvinnik makes the point that if there is an employer match to your pension contributions, it’s definitely worth joining up. “The employer match happens when your employer helps contribute to your retirement. It’s generally done in the following way: you promise to contribute a certain percentage of your salary to this plan and your employer will match it up to a point. This is fantastic and you should take advantage of it as soon as you’re allowed to.”

Looking at accommodation, she raises the interesting point that renting is not always “throwing money away” as some contend. She backs that up with a chart, showing that buying a condo for $350,000 is not necessarily better than renting it for $1,800, because renters don’t pay a down payment, mortgage interest (possibly for up to 30 years), property taxes, legal fees and home inspections (this cost is incurred when you buy and when you sell), maintenance, and condo fees. Renters just pay rent and renter’s insurance.

“In this scenario, as long as the rent was under $2,350, renting is the better option,” she concludes. She says you need to think about whether you plan to stay in your current job and current community for a long time, or not, before buying. If you think you’ll be there for at least 10 years, she says buying can make sense.

She takes a look at the “whys” of debt, which when the book was written, worked out to $1.67 of debt for every dollar Canadians earn.

We go into debt, she explains, for necessities, such as “somewhere to live, a car to get you places, and potentially schooling to get a job.” Fine. But, she notes, there are other causes of debt, such as “eating out and going on expensive vacations” we can’t afford. “Some of these actions may be small but add up over time, like buying lunch every day.”

Getting married or having kids can “create higher than normal expenses for a year or so, which many households handle with debt.” Finally, “legal issues” like not paying taxes or parking tickets “can turn into a real issue if you don’t pay attention or accidentally make a mistake,” she warns.

To get out of debt requires a plan. You can use the “snowball technique,” paying minimum payments on all debts and adding extra to the lowest one. When that’s gone, apply more extra to the next lowest one.

Alternatively, you can target debt with the highest interest first, the “Avalanche technique.” Pick one, and develop a plan, a “timeline for becoming debt free using current budgeted savings per month.”

In a chapter on the 10 per cent rule (spend 90 per cent of what you earn and save the rest), she notes that the “rule of thumb” amount might not be enough for lower income earners, and may be too much for higher-income earners. “If you’re planning to retire on an income similar to the one you have right now, you’ll likely need to save more than 10 per cent. If you’re happy to retire on less than your current income, you’ll need to save less than 10 per cent.”

No matter what your retirement savings number is, the earlier you start, the better, she writes.

The book is filled to the rafters with great information. There’s a section on how to set up a budget, which looks at the “envelope system,” where you put cash aside to cover specific expenses, or the 50/30/20 system, where 50 per cent of your budget is for necessities, 20 per cent is for debt repayment/savings, and “no more than 30 per cent of the cash you take home should be spent on non-essential lifestyle items like eating out, shopping, etc.”

The very detailed investment section helps you determine your appetite for risk, and gives a detailed look at all the various savings vehicles (registered retirement savings plans or RRSPs, TFSAs, non-registered accounts) and investment types (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, and more).

Do you want to be an active investor – picking your own investments? Or passive – someone who buys index-related investments? The book fully explains the pros and cons of each approach.

There’s a summary section near the end of the book, titled Six Months To Being Awesome With Money, that puts it all together for you.

This is a great book, highly recommended, and fully Canadian, that would make a great addition to your financial planning library.

If you don’t have a retirement savings program at work, the Saskatchewan Pension Plan may be the plan for you. Any Canadian with unused RRSP room can join, and you decide how much to contribute – less when you are facing tight times, more when times are better. SPP will invest your contributions in a pooled fund, professionally managed at a low cost. When it’s time to retire, you can collect monthly lifetime SPP annuity payment, or move to our Variable Benefit option, where you decide how much to take out, and when!

Check out SPP today!

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Do our brains work against us when it comes to saving?

Writing for CNBC, Jasmine Sukanin reports that our barriers to saving for the future may be all in our head.

What now?

“There are the many psychological pitfalls our minds are subject to when it comes to saving, investing and taking the actions that will benefit us long-term,” she notes.

If, she writes, retirement is something that is far away for you – maybe 30 or 40 years from now – “many would rather treat themselves to things they can enjoy right now instead of socking away money for a future that’s decades away.”

This, she explains, is called hyberbolic discounting, and refers to the fact that most of us prefer decisions leading to immediate rewards rather than decisions leading to future rewards.

Another factor that can cause our brains to reject a new plan, like starting to save, is that “people often have a tendency to stick with their current situation, since it is easier to keep things as they are than it is to take steps to make a change,” she writes.

This, she writes, is called the status quo bias.

“People tend to say, `yeah, whatever’ to situations where sticking with their default or current circumstance doesn’t immediately hurt them or cause a large loss. So they continue paying $10 for a gym membership they don’t use, let the dirty clothes pile up in the corner of their room and let the package sit until it’s past the return date,” she explains.

Summing up this one – it’s easier to do nothing than it is to start something new, even if that new thing is saving for retirement.

A related condition identified in Sukanin’s article is called the planning fallacy.

“We tend to underestimate how long it will take to complete a future task, often despite knowing that previous similar tasks have taken longer to complete than planned,” she explains.

In a retirement saving scenario, this results in people who “put off saving for retirement until their 30s and 40s, thinking that they should be able to amass as much as they’ll need for their golden years in just two decades.”

So, we think we can play catch up on retirement saving. But, Sukanin continues, that “catch up” thinking is joined by another problem, which is not knowing how much we need to save for retirement.

“According to the Journal of Accountancy, 54 per cent of (American) people underestimate how much money they will need to retire. Underestimating how much money you need for retirement and how long it will take you to save that money can be a recipe for an underfunded nest egg,” she warns.

So, we tend to live in the now with money decisions, don’t like making changes (like saving) and/or put our saving off until our middle years, making it hard to save enough. Phew!

It’s important to start saving for retirement, at any age. If you have a retirement program at work, be sure you are contributing as much as you can.

If you don’t, take a good look at the Saskatchewan Pension Plan. Once you join SPP, you decide how much to contribute, and SPP does the rest, providing low-cost, pooled investing with professional management and a sparkling track record.

And when you actually do retire as an SPP member, you can choose to receive a lifetime monthly annuity payment, or take advantage of SPP’s Variable Benefit, where you decide how much to take in income, and when!

Check out SPP today!

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We read all the time about “active” and “passive” management of investments. While it sounds like one type is for those that jog and work out, and the other is for people comfy on their couches, the actual meaning is a little different. Save with SPP had a look around to find a good explainer or two.

Writing for Bankrate via AOL, Dr. James Royal writes that “active investing is what you often see in films and TV shows. It involves an analyst or trader identifying an undervalued stock, purchasing it and riding it to wealth.”

“It’s true – there’s a lot of glamour in finding the undervalued needles in a haystack of stocks. But it involves analysis and insight, knowledge of the market and a lot of work, especially if you’re a short-term trader,” he continues.

On the other hand, he notes, “passive investing is all about taking a long-term buy-and-hold approach, typically by buying an index fund. Passive investing using an index fund avoids the analysis of individual stocks and trading in and out of the market. The goal of these passive investors is to get the index’s return, rather than trying to outpace the index.”

So the Coles Notes on this are as follows – an active management approach involves you (or an advisor) actually picking investments that you think will beat the market’s returns. Passive means you aim to duplicate the market’s returns, usually by buying index funds that consist (unsurprisingly) of all the funds on the various index.

So, is one approach better than the other?

A recent New York Times article suggests that over time, the passive approach tends to work out the best.

“Over the last 20 years, stock pickers have had a dismal record. Most haven’t come close to beating the overall stock market,” writes Jeff Sommer.

“But occasionally, there are exceptions. In some periods, stock pickers rule, and the start of this year was one of those times. In fact, it was the best January for actively managed stock mutual funds since Bank of America began compiling data in 1991. It wasn’t just that they turned in handsome returns for investors. The entire stock market did that. The S&P 500 and other stock indexes set records during the month,” he notes.

The article goes on to say that stock pickers seem to do best when markets are doing the worst – such as the 2008/9 credit crisis. Passive investing does well at most other times, he points out.

A Forbes article on the topic makes the point that active investing requires much more of an effort.

“You can do active investing yourself, or you can outsource it to professionals through actively managed mutual funds and exchanged traded funds (ETFs),” the article notes. However, the article notes, you need to be watching your holdings all the time.

“Without that constant attention, it’s easy for even the most meticulously designed actively managed portfolio to fall prey to volatile market fluctuations and rack up short-term losses that may impact long-term goals,” Forbes reports. “This is why active investing is not recommended to most investors, particularly when it comes to their long-term retirement savings.”

On the contrary, “because it’s a set-it-and-forget-it approach that only aims to match market performance, passive investing doesn’t require daily attention. Especially where funds are concerned, this leads to fewer transactions and drastically lower fees. That’s why it’s a favorite of financial advisors for retirement savings and other investment goals.”

No one likes to talk about investments unless they are winning. It’s like bingo – you hear when your friends win the big jackpot, but otherwise, you don’t. We have heard horror stories from friends who went for the home run with things like Bre-X, or Nortel, or cannabis stocks, and of late, bitcoin.

Whatever approach you personally choose for your own investments, we recommend that you seek the advice of a professional investor. The portfolio you construct on your own may be fine, but will almost always benefit from the oversight of a pro.

If you’re a member of the Saskatchewan Pension Plan, you are already benefitting from professional investment advice. The SPP balanced fund returned 7.73 per cent, on average, since its inception more than 35 years ago. While past returns are of course no guarantee of future rates of return – no one can predict the future – it’s nice knowing that SPP’s investing history has been so positive. Check out SPP today!

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Follow these tips to help get yourself out of debt

There’s no question that personal debt is a barrier for those of us wanting to put a little money away for the future. But, writes Christopher Liew for CTV News, there are a few ways that can help kick-start your drive to leave debt in the rearview mirror.

First, he writes, you have to fully understand what your total debt is, and from all sources – student loans, credit card debt, personal loans, auto loans, and mortgages.

The interest rate on these debts should help you set priorities for paying them off, he notes.

“Mortgages and student loans typically have lower interest rates, so paying them off quicker may not make as big of a difference. As long as you’re making your minimum monthly payments, I would prioritize paying off high-interest debt first, as the compounding interest can cost you a lot of extra money in the long run. This is how credit card companies trap you,” he explains.

Liew offers up five debt-reducing strategies.

You can consolidate all your debts into one loan, “typically with a lower interest rate. This strategy can simplify your monthly payments and potentially reduce the total amount of interest you’ll pay over time,” he notes.

Another idea is to get a side job to make higher debt payments, he explains.

Side jobs that you could consider so you can pick up a few extra bucks include food or grocery delivery companies, being a ride share driver, waiting tables or bartending on weekends or looking for freelance jobs.

You can also, Liew writes, try to negotiate better terms with your creditor.

“Approach your lenders to discuss options like lowering interest rates, waiving fees, or modifying repayment plans. Be honest about your financial situation and be ready to present a case for why the adjustment is necessary,” writes Liew.

“Successful negotiation can lead to reduced payments or interest rates, making your debt more manageable and accelerating your journey to being debt-free,” he adds.

You could look at cutting your living expenses to free up more money to pay down debt, he writes.

A whopping “51 per cent of Canadians under 35 are living beyond their means,” notes Liew, citing research from the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan.

You can cut costs by trading in “your newer car for a more affordable used car,” cutting back on streaming subscriptions, “your personal shopping habits,” and “eating out and ordering in.”

The dollars you save by cutting back on life costs can be redirected to debt reduction, Liew explains.

Finally, you can always go ask your employer for a raise.

“One of the simplest ways to get out of debt quicker is to increase your income, and one of the easiest ways to increase your income is to ask your employer for a raise,” Liew writes.

“While some companies give out raises on a steady annual basis, others are a bit more stingy and wait for their employees to come to them first.”

Once you have taken control of your debts, you’ll have more money to put away for the future. An ideal place to put those hard-earned dollars is the Saskatchewan Pension Plan. Find out how SPP has been helping Canadians save for retirement since 1986! Check out SPP today!

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Among the many strange aspects of life during the recent pandemic was the “work from home” boom. Office buildings stood empty, nearby convenience stores and food courts closed, and there was no “rush hour” traffic update on the morning news. Everyone was at home.

But that may be changing.

A recent CTV News report sums up how different things were during the pandemic.

COVID-19 caused “a mass exodus to remote work that had never been seen before,” the broadcaster reports. In 2016, “only seven per cent of workers in Canada said they `usually’ worked from home,” the article notes. As recently as early 2022, that number had soared to 24.3 per cent, or nearly one quarter of all workers.

But people are starting to “trickle” back to the office, CTV reports. The “working exclusively at home” number dropped to 20.1 per cent in May of last year, although there were still 11.7 per cent of workers in “hybrid” work arrangements (some hours at home, some at the workplace) as recently as November.

There are a couple of issues that have arisen due to remote work, reports Global News.

First, there seems to be a disconnect between what employers want – a return to work in the office – and what employees want – to be able to continue to work from home.

“A quarter of Canadians who usually work from home would like to work from home more, while one in eight would like to work from home less — which the report says is a challenge for employers,” Global reports, citing information from Statistics Canada.

“A mismatch between employees’ preferences for telework and the hours they work from home may negatively affect employee retention,” reports Global, again citing the Statistics Canada report.

The second issue is that offices in downtown centres, such as Toronto, are experiencing record vacancy rates.

According to the Financial Post, “the vacancy rate for downtown Toronto office buildings reached a record high at the end of last year as a flood of largely empty space from newly completed projects hit the market.”

“The downtown office vacancy rate in Canada’s financial capital rose to 17.4 per cent as nearly 58,100 square metres of new space came to market during the fourth quarter, according to data released Tuesday by brokerage CBRE Group Inc.,” the Post reports.

“The poor performance of the Toronto market helped push Canada’s national downtown vacancy rate to its own record last quarter, hitting 19.4 per cent, the data show,” the article notes.

COVID-19 is cited as the chief reason for the vacancies, as well as the fact that major office construction projects can take years, the article adds.

Because office towers take many years to construct, Toronto’s still working through office projects that began before the pandemic.

“With the city accounting for nearly half of all new office construction nationwide, Canada’s net-absorption rate, or the pace that office space gets leased when it becomes available, would have been positive without the impact from Toronto’s new supply, the data show. Instead, that rate was negative in the period,” the article concludes.

Some observers fear that the business of building and leasing office space may have been permanently damaged due to the COVID-related work-from-home trend.

The Canadian Press reports that “the COVID-induced work-from-home shift has ravaged the office market as many employers re-evaluated their office footprint. Firms have also looked at reducing their real estate holdings as a way to rein in expenses to help cope with the current weaker economy.”

“It is likely that 10 to 15 per cent of demand has been permanently destroyed with (work-from-home) trends,” Maria Benavente, vice-president and real estate-focused portfolio manager at Dynamic Funds, tells The Canadian Press.

This strange, once-in-a-lifetime (hopefully) situation may take a while to play out. It will be interesting to see if the trickle of “in-office” workers begins to become more of a river, correcting the problem of office vacancy and breathing life into downtown businesses that are supported by office workers. Or, will people fight for the right to work from their dining rooms? Stay tuned!

Wherever you work, saving for retirement is important. If you are lucky enough to have a workplace savings program, be sure you are taking part to the maximum. If you don’t, and are saving on your own for retirement, you may want to consider joining the Saskatchewan Pension Plan.

Open to any Canadian with registered retirement savings room, SPP’s voluntary defined contribution plan delivers expert investment management at a low cost, using a pooled fund. SPP will grow your savings, and when it’s time to put work behind you, you can choose between a lifetime annuity payment each month, or SPP’s Variable Benefit program. Find out why SPP has been helping Canadians build secure retirements since 1986 – check them out today!

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Answer these questions to see if 2024 is your year for retirement: Ibbotson

Writing in the Winnipeg Free Press, noted financial writer Christine Ibbotson outlines ways you can confirm whether or not you are ready to hit the silk, and start your retirement.

She says she is frequently asked about retirement before 65 by folks who dream of “finally being free” of work – even the at-home variety.

But, she says, there are things to ask yourself before taking the retirement plunge.

“Is all your debt paid off,” she asks – credit cards, mortgages, lines of credit and car loans?

Next, she asks, “are you really ready to give up working, or are you just tired of your current position and need a change?”

A third thought is this – is someone else depending on your current income? “Will you need to support anyone other than yourself? If so, for how long, and how much will that cost annually?”

Do you have the flexibility to “downsize your residence or move to a less-expensive area to lower your monthly expenses,” she asks.

Are you clear on what your retirement income will be, she asks. “Will you have a consistent monthly revenue stream that is long-lasting and able to sustain you during times of uncertainty? Preferably in addition to Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security government benefits.”

She asks if prospective retirees have any upcoming “large future expenditures” they have yet to save up for – and if the expense can be cancelled.

Do you have a realistic budget for retirement income, she asks – one that is as exact as possible, is costed out in today’s dollars, and factors in inflation and taxation?

Finally, she asks about socialization – do you belong to any clubs or social organizations, and have you factored in the cost? And do you have a plan on how to fill in your retirement hours? “Does your retirement partner want the same things as you and are they willing to make the same sacrifices to retire early?”

This is one of the best pre-retirement quizzes we have ever seen, and we sure wish we had read it years ago when we planned our own retirements.

We did get estimates from our pension plan at work about how much our retirement income would be, and they advised us to do a “net to net” comparison on income. This is key, since your pension is almost always less than what your work wages were – and usually is taxed at a lesser rate. So, know your take home pay after retirement to help you plan.

If you don’t have a workplace pension plan, don’t worry – the Saskatchewan Pension Plan may be just the thing you’re looking for. SPP is open to any Canadian with registered retirement savings plan room.

You decide how much to contribute each year – contributions are tax-deductible like an RRSP – and SPP does the heavy lifting of investing and growing your savings in a large, professionally managed, low-cost pooled fund. At retirement, your choices include the possibility of a lifetime annuity, or SPP’s Variable Benefit which allows you flexibility in how much income you want to collect.

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For Carole Fawcett of Vernon, BC, it’s time for seniors across Canada to let governments of all stripes know that the current retirement benefits available to older Canadians aren’t sufficient – and many seniors are facing poverty in their golden years.

Fawcett, a freelance writer and editor and a retired counsellor, spoke recently to Save with SPP by telephone and email.

She agrees that government programs like the Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security, and the Guaranteed Income Supplement were, when first created, “expected to `supplement’ the pensions that people would get from their job when they retired.”

“People used to stay with one company forever, so they built up a good pension. But now… very few people have pensions or can afford to put money aside for when they retire, as they were too busy just trying to exist,” she notes.

For that reason, Fawcett, and her group TINCUP, hope to get the word out to politicians and citizens that current government benefits just aren’t enough.

“I am hoping that with our demonstrations and creating awareness that something might change. We can only hope,” she says. “I also plan to contact media that broadcast to all of Canada – in hopes of getting attention for seniors. We also plan to write to politicians. We will be heard!”

We asked how life is for people who are 100 per cent dependent on programs like CPP, OAS and GIS.

Fawcett said seniors living solely on benefits can manage – barely – if they own their own residence. “Seniors who have to pay rent would be in dire straits. One fellow I met said he got $1,700 a month from his pension, but his rent was $1,800 a month. He has to dip into his savings in order to live somewhere. This means his savings won’t last that long,” she explains.

She knew of another senior who had to live in her car for 14 months – including the winter – before she could be placed in emergency housing.

“I interviewed a woman who was `renovicted,’ she adds. “She had lived in the apartment for 20-plus years, is a senior, and was told she had to leave. They said their son was going to move in and that they were going to do renovations. She took them to court and she lost. I still don’t know how that happened. She found another place one year ago and now has been evicted once again. She doesn’t know what she will do.” She is 73 years old, notes Fawcett, calling it a “sad situation.”

“A lot of seniors are living ‘small’ and I’m sure there is a lot of misery behind many a door,” she notes.

While she is supportive of efforts to house refugees and the homeless, Fawcett said our impoverished seniors also need governments to increase the level of support they are given.

The goals of the TINCUP movement, notes Fawcett, are as follows:

• Creating awareness for all as to how low senior pensions are – below the poverty line.
• Getting attention of politicians (provincial and federal) and hope that they will increase pensions up to the level of poverty – as many seniors live below that level.
• More medical coverage for many health issues.
• Encourage people to treat seniors with respect.
• Tapping into the Boomer generation’s ability to make changes.

Fawcett explains that “health care needs to be affordable for seniors. Someone who lives in Kamloops and has to have cancer treatments in Kelowna has to pay for gas in order to get to the cancer treatment facility,” she explains. Medications for cancer can be very expensive. If you are on a tight budget, that can lead to tough choices, she says, noting that “we shouldn’t have to choose between healthy food or hearing aids.”

Fawcett adds that seniors should have better access to allied health services like massage, physiotherapy, and chiropractic care.

On respect, Fawcett says that whenever she gets called “dear, sweetie, or honey” by a younger person, that person gets a short lecture on why such names are condescending and disrespectful to seniors. “They get a little talk from me,” she says with a laugh.

On the power of Boomers, Fawcett notes that her generation “made a lot of changes – and we can do this again. Look at the women’s movement, the Viet Nam war, control over our bodies, and nuclear war. If we join together, we will be heard once again. We are tired of being unheard, invisible, and ignored, and given barely enough money to live with respect.”

“We are angry, and we won’t be silenced anymore,” she says.

Fawcett says her movement is focused on retirement income adequacy.

“There are many seniors who are living below the poverty line. The poverty line is approximately $25,750, and lots of seniors don’t even get that. It would be great if the government would top up the very low-income seniors,” she notes.

“It’s not like we are asking for trips to the Caribbean. We just want enough money to live on with respect. So that we can afford a cup of coffee or a lunch out occasionally with a friend. Everyone is more than horrified by how many seniors are living belove the poverty line,” she concludes.

A TINCUP website and social media presence are both in development; anyone interested in finding out more can contact Fawcett at Ca*****@sh**.ca.

We thank Carole Fawcett of TINCUP for taking the time to speak with us.

The Saskatchewan Pension Plan has been helping Canadians save for retirement since 1986. SPP is designed for those of us who don’t have a retirement program through work. Find out how SPP can help individuals save for retirement – or how it can be deployed as a pension plan in the workplace! Check out SPP today.

Join the Wealthcare Revolution – follow SPP on Facebook!

Childcare workers in Nova Scotia get pensions, wage hikes

Licensed childcare workers in Nova Scotia are about to receive not only pay raises, but pensions and benefits, reports Global News.

The Nova Scotia Minister of Early Childhood Development called the move “a milestone in the professionalization” of the sector, Global reports.

“We understand that having a strong, stable early-learning … system means implementing programs and benefits that support the recruitment, retention and recognition of staff,” Minister Becky Druhan tells Global.

In Nova Scotia, the total cost of the wage/pension/benefits package is estimated to be $111 million, with the province providing $75.7 million and Ottawa providing the rest, the article notes.

Wage increases of “$3.14 to $4.24 per hour” will begin in April, and follow wage increases rolled out in 2022. The goal, reports Global, is “making working in childcare a more attractive option for those considering a career.”

The wage increases, reports the CBC, will help employees with their share of contributions to their new pension plan, operated by the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology Pension Plan (CAAT).  The benefits plan is operated by “the non-profit Health Association of Nova Scotia,” the CBC article notes.

“Once they’re enrolled, (early childhood educators) will contribute five per cent of their pay to each plan. Full-time child-care workers will see between $66 and $124 deducted for the new health benefits each paycheque, and another $80 to $100 for the pension plan,” the CBC reports.

CAAT’s DBplus pension plan is open to any Canadian employer. Save with SPP spoke with CAAT’s Derek Dobson on the progress of the new plan a couple of years ago.

Offering pensions and benefits to employees has long been viewed as a great way to attract and retain employees.

Did you know that the Saskatchewan Pension Plan’s voluntary defined contribution pension plan is not just for individuals, but can be offered as a company pension plan by Canadian employers?

With SPP, there are multiple options for employers who want to offer a pension plan for their team.

Employers can set up a “start up” pension plan, where a one-time employer contribution is made to individual employee SPP plans. Alternatively, you can set up a “employer match plan” where any contributions made by employees receive a matching employer contribution. There’s the “basic pension plan” option, where the employer offers the plan, and the employees contribute (no employer match), and the “performance pension plan,” an incentive-based retirement program.

Full details can be found here. Find out how SPP can help your employees save for retirement, with a flexible array of plan designs! Check out SPP today.

Join the Wealthcare Revolution – follow SPP on Facebook!