Practical guidance to help you make informed decisions about your retirement.
Get answers drawn from published RetireSmartCA articles, with links to the sources. Educational information, not personalized financial or tax advice.
Estate Planning
Your will leaves your TFSA to your children, but the bank still lists your late spouse. Learn how Ontario beneficiary designations, probate, multiple beneficiaries and minor children affect the outcome.
Pensions
The Pension Income Amount can reduce federal tax on eligible retirement income. Learn the 2026 credit value, what qualifies before and after 65, provincial amounts, and how couples can use transfers and pension splitting.
Pensions
Your pension is 65% higher than your spouse’s. Learn when pension income splitting is allowed, how to elect it using Form T1032, and why transferring the maximum 50% may not be the best choice.
Pensions
A dual-pension couple weighs a permanent pension reduction against 60% survivor income, a $5,000 monthly budget and alternatives including TFSA savings, life insurance and estate planning.
Drawdown Sequencing
Retiring at 60 with $1.2 million and withdrawing $70,000 a year? An early market decline can put pressure on your plan. See how cash plus a four-rung GIC ladder can bridge ages 60–65 without selling growth investments to fund planned spending.
Drawdown Sequencing
The same couple, the same $1.4 million, but a $10,000 monthly income target before tax. See how gross cash flow differs from spendable income, what changes in the withdrawal plan, and why the early-retirement bridge still matters.
Drawdown Sequencing
With $300,000 in non-registered investments, $300,000 in TFSAs, and $800,000 in RRSPs, can a couple retire at 55 on $10,000 a month after tax? A candid look at sustainability and withdrawal planning for ages 55–65, 65–70, and 70+.
Strategy
Should you turn part of your savings into a personal pension? Learn how Canadian annuities work, where to buy one, the trade-offs, how to choose your timing, and whether to fund the purchase from registered savings, a locked-in account, non-registered investments or a TFSA.
Strategy
Why do planners use returns near 6% when the S&P 500 has delivered much more? What Buffett actually recommended, why withdrawal timing matters, and practical strategies for Canadians before and during retirement.
Tax & Withdrawals
Withdrawing from an RRSP before mandatory RRIF payments begin can sometimes smooth retirement taxes. Learn what changes at 71, how the strategy works, and when early withdrawals could backfire.
Government Benefits
Understand how CPP pension credits build your benefits, what happens to those credits after separation or divorce, and why credit splitting is different from sharing a CPP pension.
Strategy
Start with your spending, not your salary. A simple way to set an after-tax retirement-income target, with a free Excel planning template.
Government Benefits
Each month you delay CPP past 65 increases your benefit by 0.7% — but the math on whether it's worth it depends on longevity, other income, and your tax bracket.
Government Benefits
Old Age Security starts to get clawed back once your net income exceeds a threshold. Here's how the recovery tax works and what you can do about it.
Tax & Withdrawals
Converting your RRSP to a RRIF at 71 unlocks forced minimum withdrawals that rise with age. If your balance is large, they can dwarf your spending needs.
Strategy
Most retirees draw tax-deferred accounts last to defer tax. But for Canadians with large RRSPs, drawing earlier can cut lifetime tax by filling low brackets every year.
Strategy
29 years in a defined benefit pension, turning 55 next year. Should you take the commuted value as a lump sum or leave it in the plan? Here's a plain-English weighing of both sides.
Estate Planning
The value of your TFSA on the day you pass is tax-free. But what happens to the growth after that depends on who you named — and whether you named anyone at all.
Drawdown Sequencing
A retirement sequencer's whole claim is beating the 'naive' order. Here's the plain-English difference between conventional and tax-smoothing drawdowns — and why 'optimized' doesn't always mean less tax.
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