Can there really be too much frugality?

All of us are looking for ways to get things for less. Thanks to a tip from a line dancing pal we were able to find a speaker we can use at dance class on for half price at a discount centre 30 minutes south of us.

We look for bargains, use coupons and get discounts – but can the frugality thing be taken too far?

Writing for CTV News, Christopher Liew says yes.

“While there’s nothing wrong with being frugal, there’s a darker side when saving becomes an obsession. Being overly frugal can negatively impact mental health, relationships, and your overall quality of life,” he warns.

“If you’re like most, you’ve no doubt experienced inflated grocery costs, rental rates, fuel expenses, and more,” he continues. “In fact, 69 per cent of Canadians reported that they were concerned about their ability to absorb an unexpected expense of $1,000 or more, according to a recent study by survey giant Ipsos.”

Liew’s list of “the best ways to be frugal” includes:

•  Using coupons when shopping for groceries
•  Cooking at home instead of eating out
•  Cutting back on entertainment spending
•  Decreasing streaming subscriptions
•  Thrifting instead of buying new items

Such steps can save you “hundreds of dollars per month, which is money you can put towards bills, saving for retirement, or simply building your emergency savings fund,” he explains.

So when does frugality become a negative? Liew explains it well.

“Unfortunately, almost all good things can become negative when taken to the point of obsession or excess – including frugality,” he writes. He cites a recent poll by Dialogue (partnering with Environics) that found that 28 per cent of us are “struggling in daily life” due to financial stress, while 27 per cent “are seeing their work suffer” because of it.

That can lead to “the concept of loss aversion in behavioural economics, where the fear of losing money outweighs the pleasure of gaining it,” the article continues. “This anxiety can lead individuals to adopt overly frugal habits, which may cause them to hoard savings rather than spend on necessary or enjoyable experiences.”

What are some signs to watch out for?

Liew says excessive frugality can lead to “strained relationships… constantly refusing social outings or being overly concerned about every expense can lead to conflicts and feelings of resentment.”

You also miss out on good experiences, he writes. “Avoiding spending money on activities like travel, dining out, or cultural events can limit personal growth and enjoyment of life,” warns Liew.

There are also health risks by those who don’t want to spend more for better food, or a gym membership. “Cutting corners on your health can lead to even more financial problems later in life,” the article notes.

Liew’s prescription for more healthy frugality involves having more flexible budgets, setting spending priorities, and – if it still isn’t working out – getting professional financial advice.

His final tip is to “automate” your savings – rather than having to remember to save each month, or payday, use technology to do it for you, through pre-authorized contributions to your savings plan.

The Saskatchewan Pension Plan is a flexible partner when it comes to setting up your retirement savings. You can set up pre-authorized contributions from your bank account that can, for example, coincide with your paydays. Money gets popped into your SPP before you even notice it; you are paying your future self first. Alternatively, you can set up SPP as a “bill” via online banking and contribute that way. You can even make contributions online via a credit card!

Get SPP working for you!

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Many old-school financial tips just don’t hold up today: CTV

All of us have, at some point in our lives, been taken aside by a well-meaning parent, sibling, or friend to receive can’t-miss financial tips, designed to help us move forward with fiscal fitness.

Only problem, reports CTV News, is that a lot of those tried-and-true bits of advice no longer really hold up.

Remember hearing “CPP won’t be there for us in the future,” popular in the 1980s and 1990s?

The CTV report quotes Jason Heath of Objective Financial Partners, who states that many of us worry the feds can help themselves to CPP money and spend it on something else. In fact, he reports in the article, “the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is a Crown corporation and independent of the federal government, with a portfolio of roughly $600 billion in assets. The latest report from the office of Canada’s chief actuary, which reviews the CPP’s sustainability every three years, said the pension fund remains sustainable for more than the next 75 years.”

CPP will be “there” for this writer starting in October.

Another rule that gets questioned is that “contributing to an RRSP… saves on taxes.” What?

“Heath says using RRSP contributions to get the biggest tax refund possible is not necessarily the best approach for people in low tax brackets and can hurt them in the long run when they withdraw those savings at a higher tax bracket in retirement,” the article reports.

“Sometimes, it’s OK to pay a little bit of tax, as long as you’re paying at a low tax rate,” he tells CTV. He suggests that for some of us, using TFSAs – where there is no tax impact on the withdrawal side – might be a better long-term approach.

Another idea that gets questioned is the “50-30-20” budget, where “50 per cent of the paycheque is for needs, 30 per cent is for wants, and 20 per cent is for savings.”

Jessica Morgan of Canadianbudget.ca tells CTV that while this idea might have worked well in the past, now, “because of (the) high cost of living (and) high cost of housing in Canada, it’s a bit harder to make things fit in that proportion.”

She instead recommends a “zero-based” budget, “which means assigning a `job’ to every dollar, even if it is being put aside for savings – and not leaving any dollar unused.”

Interesting.

The article concludes by busting a couple of other myths. Investing, the article said, is not complicated. And the seemingly no-brainer view that owning a home is better than renting can be questioned, the article notes. In some instances, renting may be the better approach, helping you avoid costly maintenance, closing costs, mortgage interest and repairs.

If there’s a takeaway here, it’s to think of the pros and cons of any approach you are considering for your money. We’ve even seen challenges, in various financial publications, of our Uncle Joe’s belief that you should bank 10 cents of every dollar you earn, and then live on the rest. Some say that’s too high, others, too low. So, think it all through before deciding on an approach that works best for you.

An approach that works best for your future you is saving for retirement. If you don’t have a pension plan at work, the Saskatchewan Pension Plan may be the savings partner you’ve been looking for. SPP will invest your savings in a low-cost, professionally managed, pooled fund – and when it’s time to retire, a lifetime monthly annuity or the more flexible Variable Benefit are among your options.

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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By now, any of us who drive a gas-powered vehicle are experts in what inflation means. It’s when something that cost $60 in the winter costs $100 five months later.

Are there any tactics we can employ to help spending our hard-earned/hard-saved dollars more effectively during this crazy period of runaway prices? Save with SPP took a look around to see.

An article from Global News discusses the plight of mostly retired Mike and Marylou Cyr of Campbell River, B.C.

They are, the article notes, living on a fixed income consisting of workplace pensions and government benefits (the Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security), Mike is still working a little. The couple looked first at reducing the costs of their insurance premiums, and switching to a cheaper telecom plan, the network reports.

With gas prices jumping $50 a tankful, the couple is now planning to sell off one of their vehicles and sharing the other, Global tells us. The other big jump for their spending is food, which has gone up more than $100 a month already, the article reports.  “I am very concerned with the inflation, the rising food costs, as well as the rising gas costs. I think those are two main things,” states Marylou Cyr in the article.

So to fight that, the Cyrs are growing their own veggies and have four laying hens to supply their own eggs, the article says.  “Maybe I’ll start canning again like our parents and grandparents did and store everything for the winter,” she tells Global. “If I could get a cow in the yard, I might do that, but I can’t.”

OK – trim insurance, telecom, go to one car, and grow your own food. Run some cattle if you can. What else can a person do?

According to CTV News, there are other ways to save on food. The network says folks are trying to buy grocery items that are on sale, buying items you use regularly in bulk, and targeting the groceries you use up rather than those you often throw out are good approaches.

Another way to save is through pooling costs, states University of Saskatchewan associate professor Stuart Smyth in the CTV report. “For example, (if) you’re buying 20 pounds of meat, but you’re splitting that up between three to four households, you’re saving some money that way,” he tells CTV. He underlines the importance of being a little more selective in shopping – target items that you tend to fully consume, rather than those you wind up throwing out. (An example in the Save with SPP home is yogurt; we always buy some because it is supposed to be good for us, and then almost never eat any before it expires.)

In addition to gas and food, other categories of consumer goods have been affected mightily by inflation, reports the Globe and Mail.

Meat is up 10.5 per cent versus 2021, and surprisingly, meat alternatives “like faux burger patties or plant-based ‘chicken’ nuggets” are 38 per cent more expensive than meat, the Globe notes.

Household appliances are up 23 per cent over the last two years, the article continues, and buying a typical soup and sandwich lunch “costs nearly $18 on average, up 24 per cent.” Other items that are particularly impacted by inflation include the cost of new homes and of housing in general.

We can’t fully protect ourselves from inflation. Following some of the steps outlined in these reports will at least help trim your spending.

Tips from Save with SPP’s own experience include shopping for clothes at consignment stores – you always pay less than at retail stores – and trying to brown bag lunch rather than having that $18 soup and sandwich. Friends like making fun of our $4 sand wedge from Value Village, but it gets us out of the bunkers right enough. All of these steps can help you save a few dollars, perhaps even enough to put away for retirement.

It’s interesting to read associate professor Smyth’s description of pooling purchases of meat. The same concept of “pooling” is a key way that the Saskatchewan Pension Plan reduces investment costs for its members. If you buy a stock on your own, there’s a fee for buying it and later, a fee for selling it. There might also have been annual fees to maintain your account. With SPP, you pool your savings with those of others in one big fund. That lowers the management costs to less than one per cent. It’s a great way to save on the cost of investment management, and SPP has an outstanding track record of steady investment returns. Check out SPP – available to all Canadians with RRSP room – today!

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It’s clear that the pandemic – which we all hope is entering its final phase – has made many Canadians rethink the idea of living in a big, crowded, city.

But, as people sell their condos and townhouses and move to larger living spaces in the nation’s smaller towns, cities, and rural areas, experts are predicting this mass migration may cause problems in the labour market.

According to a report by Julie Gordon of Reuters, published via Yahoo! News, “the pandemic-driven exodus… has depleted a core age group of workers from the already tight labour market.” This, her story explains, may drive up wages as companies struggle to replace these “missing” job seekers.

The folks leaving the cities are typically younger people with young children, the report notes. The exodus, she explains “has shifted mid-career workers – a key segment of the labour force – out of big cities, making it difficult to find established talent in sectors where in-person work is essential or preferred.”

The article notes that most people leaving are in their 30s and 40s – Vancouver saw 12,000 people leave the city in 2021, Montreal lost 40,000, and Toronto witnessed an eye-popping 64,000 people moving away.

It’s not just the pandemic that’s prompting people to pack up. The cost of housing is another huge factor. The average Toronto condo costs $1.2 million, while the average price for a detached house in the Ontario suburbs is “just” $800,000, the article notes.

A report in the Globe and Mail notes that nationwide, 3.8 million of us – or about one in 10 Canadians – are living in smaller urban centres.

Smaller centres are benefitting from the urban exodus, the article reports. Over in B.C., the city of Squamish has grown by an amazing 21.8 per cent in one year, and now has more than 24,000 new citizens. Other small centres experiencing big growth are the Ontario towns of Wasaga Beach, Tillsonburg, Collingwood and Woodstock.

“With the pandemic, the capacity of Canadians to do more (remote) work has certainly encouraged some Canadians to really move to these smaller urban centres and leave maybe larger urban centres,” states Laurent Martel of Statistics Canada in the Globe article.

A CTV News report says it’s not just affordability and a healthier, more open space that is attracting Canadians to rural areas.

“We’re seeing small cities, including small cities outside the orbit of large metropolitan areas showing some robust growth,” Tom Urbaniak, political science professor at Cape Breton University, states in the CTV report.

“This signals to me that Canadians are looking for some flexibility, places reputed for their quality of life and are finding it easier to work from different places.” In fact, the article adds, for the first time in more than 40 years, the Maritimes’ population grew at a faster clip than the Canadian Prairie Provinces.

Getting back to the land can breathe new life into smaller communities. Consider the wonderful efforts of Brad and Kendal Parker in restoring a 107-year-old farmhouse in rural Harris, Sask.

The CBC reports the Parkers left Saskatoon and took on the renovation of an old farmhouse that had been boarded up for 70 years.  Descendants of the folks that originally built the house in 1915, the Parkers say, are thrilled the old place is getting a new lease on life.

“It’s really something. One of the grandchildren shared a painting with me of the original homestead,” Kendal Parker tells the CBC. “They tell me it’s so wonderful this house is coming back to life and to have children running around.”

Building a new home is great, and so is building a retirement future. The Saskatchewan Pension Plan can help with the latter goal. It’s a great resource for anyone who doesn’t have a retirement program at work – or does, but wants to augment it. You can contribute up to $7,000 a year towards your retirement future through SPP! Check them out today!

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More than three quarters of older Canadians fretting about retirement finances: NIA

Is retirement a concern for Canadians – especially those aged 55 to 69 who are approaching or have begun their “golden years?”

New research from the National Institute on Ageing at Toronto’s Ryerson University, reported on by CTV News, suggests that a significant majority of older folks are indeed quite worried.

According to the CTV report, the research found that “77 per cent of Canadians within the 55-69 age demographic are worried about their financial health.” As well, CTV notes, “79 per cent of respondents aged 55 and older revealed that their retirement income – through RRSPs, pension plans and Old Age Security – will not be enough for a comfortable retirement.”

The NIA research found that people were worried about the cost of long-term care in the latter part of their retired life.

While 44 per cent say the plan is to “age at home,” the data suggests that many don’t realize how expensive long-term care at a facility would be.

“Nearly half of respondents aged 45 and older believe that in-home care for themselves or a loved one would cost about $1,100 per month, while 37 per cent think it would cost about $2,000 per month,” CTV reports.

“In reality, it actually costs about $3,000 per month to provide in-home care comparable to a long-term care facility, according to Ontario’s Ministry of Health,” the broadcaster explains.

It’s essential that Canadians know the true costs of long-term care as they plan for the future, says Dr. Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald of the NIA.

“Canadians retiring today are likely going to face longer and more expensive retirements than their parents – solving this disconnect will need better planning by people and innovation from industry and government,” she tells CTV.

Dr. MacDonald suggests one step we can take early in retirement to help us fund unexpected care costs later is deferring our Canada Pension Plan or Quebec Pension Plan payments until age 70.

Dr. MacDonald spoke to Save with SPP on this topic in detail earlier this year.

“Someone receiving $1,000 per month at age 60 would receive $2,218.75 per month if they wait until age 70 to begin collecting,” the article notes. Another source of income for long-term care costs could be the equity in your home, the article concludes.

Save with SPP has gone through this, with both our parents having had to receive the help of a long-term care facility to battle health issues in their latter years. Fortunately our parents had always been savers, and their retirement income was sufficient to handle these unexpected costs. Will yours?

If there’s a retirement savings program available at your workplace, consider joining it and contributing at the maximum possible level. If your employer doesn’t offer a program, refer the boss to the Saskatchewan Pension Plan. They can help set up a retirement program at businesses large and small. Check out SPP, marking 35 years of delivering retirement security, today!

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How to hang on to any “pandemic cash” that may be pilling up

While some of us have had to struggle to make ends meet during the pandemic, others have – somewhat ironically – seen their personal savings shoot to new heights.

A report by CTV News looks at how some of us may have to adjust our budgets as COVID-19 restrictions begin to taper off.

The article notes that by the second quarter of 2021, Canada’s savings rate rocketed up to 13.1 per cent, more than double the previous year’s savings rate.

“Even Canadians’ credit card debts have been dropping, with rates hitting a six-year-low in June due to reduced spending,” the article informs us, citing data from Equifax.

You read that right. Credit card debt is dropping.

“Across the board in all age groups, we’re starting to see people pay more than they actually spend on a credit card, which is a real positive behaviour change in terms of consumers,” Rebecca Oakes of Equifax tells The Canadian Press in the article.

That’s great, but when things return to “normal,” will we still be saving and paying off debt?

CTV suggests a few things to do with any extra cash you may have accumulated as normality begins – and there are more tempting things to spend your money on than during the locked-down pandemic.

Finance expert David Lester is quoted in the article as suggesting one destination for extra bucks would be an emergency fund, which should be enough to cover “six to nine months of expenses.”

Next, Lester tells CTV that your retirement piggy bank should not be neglected in the rush to spend, spend, spend.

“It could go into your tax-free savings account (TFSA) or registered retirement savings plan (RRSP), but we should just get used to saving 10 to 15 per cent” for retirement, he states.

If you spend with a credit card, Lester says it’s important to pay off the card each month, and to avoid letting a credit balance begin to grow.

He recommends that you pay off credit card balances first, as soon as you get paid, “and then going to zero (balance).”

If you are setting a budget for the world after the pandemic, be realistic, adds Lester.

There were a lot of things we couldn’t do – many of them expensive – that we may not want to spend as much on post pandemic, he explains. We lived without them for a long period of time, Lester tells CTV.

“Maybe it was travel, maybe it was movies, maybe it was having coffee at home, or not buying expensive clothing,” he says in the article. “So see what you really don’t miss and go back through that budget line-by-line and see what you don’t have to add back on now that things are opening up. We don’t want to go back to that bad spending that we were doing before.”

Our late Uncle Joe frequently would pull us aside and recommend the 10 per cent rule – bank 10 per cent of your money off the top, and live on the remaining 90 per cent. “You will never have any problems,” he said. It’s very sensible advice.

Pay yourself first, the old adage goes. And if you are putting away that cash in a retirement account, you are paying your future self first. You’ll be making life easier down the road, because you’ll be entering retirement with money in the bank and at the ready. A great way to pay your future self first is to set up an account with the Saskatchewan Pension Plan. They’ll invest your savings, at a low cost and a historically strong rate of return, and at the appropriate time, will help you convert those savings into retirement income. After all, they’ve been delivering retirement security for an impressive 35 years!

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COVID did a number on the retirement rate, but it’s climbing again

One unexpected side effect of the pandemic was a dampening of people’s plans to retire.

According to new research from RBC, covered in a story from CTV News, there was an unexpected drop of 20 per cent in the retirement rate last year – likely due to COVID-19.

RBC’s Andrew Agopsowicz tells CTV that the dip “was likely a result of uncertainty about retirement savings as the pandemic arrived.”

“It’s what held people back,” he affirms in the story.

But – perhaps an indicator of better times ahead – retirements are starting to return to normal levels, he notes.

“The return to normal could be a good period for people to make a decision they were probably going to be making (anyway),” Agopsowicz states in the story.

There has been a general rise in retirements over the last decade as the boomer generation hits age 65, the story notes, and “that trend will continue for several years.”

A fringe benefit of the boomers getting out of the workforce may be “a near-term labour shortgage for some types of jobs,” Agopsowicz tells CTV. This will be due to a trifecta – boomer retirements, a low national birthrate, and lower levels of immigration, the story states.

In mid-July, CTV reports, Statistics Canada reported that the Canadian economy added 230,700 new jobs, “as restrictions put in place to slow the pandemic were rolled back across the country.”

Savings may have to last a long time

If you are among those planning to log out for the last time in 2021, Money Control outlines some of the steps you may want to consider to ensure your retirement stash isn’t exhausted before (ahem) you are.

Most retirees will live beyond age 85, the article notes. “We could live for up to 30 years or more post our retirement… (and) women live longer than men,” the article states.

With that in mind, you should plan for your investments to outperform inflation, the article says. If you can’t get there with fixed-income investments, “investing in equity will give you long-term growth; in between, there will be volatility.”

So, putting these two bits of information together – the stampede towards the workplace exit for boomers will soon resume its normal pace. The nest eggs boomers have built, and that younger folks are still building, will need to last for maybe 30 years. And while conventional wisdom suggests that the older you are, the less exposure to risky equities you should have, inflation hasn’t been a factor for a while but could one day reappear.

One answer is a “balanced fund” approach, where experts position their fund with exposure to both fixed income and equity, making strategic moves in advance of emerging trends. A great example is the Saskatchewan Pension Plan Balanced Fund, which has produced an average rate of return of eight per cent since its inception 35 years ago. While past returns aren’t a guarantee of future performance, the idea of having someone else decide when to get in or get out is a sound one – you can instead focus on your golf game or line dancing steps. Check out SPP today.

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A few years ago – before the pandemic – Global News reported that Canadians were cutting back on charitable giving.

Citing research from the Fraser Institute, Global reported that in 2017 Canadians donated just 0.54 per cent of their income to charity – less than half of what Americans donated (1.25 per cent) in the same timeframe.

Given the severe economic mayhem the pandemic has wrought upon us, Save with SPP wondered if charitable giving has taken an even further plunge.

It sounds like a recovery in charitable giving is underway, states an article posted in the Globe and Mail.

According to the article, authored by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), “in the 12 months since March 2020 when the pandemic was declared, more than three-quarters of Canadians who had given previously to charity continued their philanthropy and gave larger gifts than in past years.”

And while only 70 per cent of Canadians made charitable donations in 2017, 76 per cent did in 2020, and “the average size of the gifts was much higher – up from $772 in 2017 to $965 in 2020,” the article adds.

The AFP’s chair Susan Storey is quoted as saying “Canada is a phenomenally, uniquely generous nation, and philanthropy, at its core, is about helping others and strengthening communities,” she says. “So, it’s not surprising that for those that could give, they did – and generously.”

The Canada Helps website says that while “year over year” giving grew, the overall rate of giving is expected to decline about 10 per cent due to COVID-19.

This site suggests that our charitable giving is more targeted during tough economic times.

Canada Helps reports that Canadians gave 1.6 per cent of their income to charity; however, the percentage of Canadians who make donations is down from the level of 24 per cent it reached in 2007.

Charities have had to be resourceful during the COVID-19 pandemic, when traditional avenues, such as displays in malls or street corners, weren’t available. Online donations are one solution, and in Ottawa, local branches of the Royal Canadian Legion used a drive-thru approach for last fall’s poppy campaign, reports CTV News.

“I think it’s a great idea. First off you don’t have the older veterans out in the cold and wet, obviously it’s keeping them safe from the people in the stores and malls,” Richard Coney tells CTV, praising the idea of a drive-thru poppy campaign.

Donations to Indigenous Peoples’ Charities – for example are up 2.25 per cent, as are donations to social services charities (up 2.2 per cent) and health charities (1.8 per cent).

If you’re able to help out the charity of your choice – and maybe have had to cut back due to the pandemic’s impact on your finances – consider resuming your contributions now that we are emerging from the darkness of the pandemic. There’s a lot riding on it for a lot of people.

Similarly, if you’d had to cut back on retirement savings during COVID-19, gear back into it as soon as you can. A nice feature of the Saskatchewan Pension Plan for its individual members is that you can gear up your contributions when times are good, and gear down when they aren’t. The flexible SPP – celebrating its 35^th year of operations — is open to accepting monthly pre-authorized contributions, or a little bit at a time through the “online bill payment” section of most banks. It takes many small steps to complete a journey, after all!

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