Stay the course on your retirement savings plans, experts say

If you’re a retirement saver, these past few months of pandemic-related market turmoil have no doubt raised your blood pressure and caused concern.

Experts tell us to take a deep breath, and to remember this crisis will eventually end, and things will move back to normal, reports The Record.

“While many Canadians may be panicking as they watch their retirement funds drop by tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, financial experts say it’s important to stay the course regardless of how close to retirement they are — and even if they’ve already finished working,” The Record reports.

“I would certainly encourage all of us to take a big collective deep breath,” states Karin Mizgala, co-founder and CEO of Money Coaches Canada, in the article.

If you aren’t planning to access the savings for retirement income any time soon, you should “stay the course” on your retirement plan, Mizgala tells The Record.

And even if you are withdrawing funds from your retirement savings, it’s important to put the market downturn in perspective, financial author Kelly Keehn says in the article.

“It’s not like you have to cash it all out the year that you retire, and I think people forget that,” she tells The Record.

If your funds are in a Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF), the federal government is planning to put new rules in place reducing the amount you have to take out. (Full details on this rule change are covered in this article in Advisor’s Edge).

As well, the article says, you can choose to defer your withdrawals until later in the year, when markets are expected to start rebounding.

Noting that markets lost 35 per cent of their value in 2008/9, and then fully recovered and increased in value, Keehn makes an important conclusion.

“The takeaway is: If this was causing you sleepless nights, maybe in the future you need to adjust your risk tolerance and your risk exposure. But it doesn’t mean acting on it now. That’s for darn sure… This is not the time to make those changes,” she tells The Record.

If you are a member of the Saskatchewan Pension Plan, there’s a feature of the plan you should consider if, as Kelly Keehn says, the markets are causing you to worry and lose sleep. With SPP, one of your options at retirement is to receive some or all of your savings in the form of a life annuity. With an annuity, you get the exact same amount each month, regardless of whether markets are up or down. And you’ll get that amount for life – and can provide for your survivors too, if you choose to. It’s an option that offers peace of mind, so check it out on their website today.

Written by Martin Biefer
	Martin Biefer is Senior Pension Writer at Avery & Kerr Communications in Nepean, Ontario. A veteran reporter, editor and pension communicator, he’s now a freelancer. Interests include golf, line dancing, classic rock, and darts. You can follow him on Twitter – his handle is @AveryKerr22