Overlooked retirement income and planning considerations

Overlooked retirement income and planning considerations

I’ve updated this overlooked retirement income and planning considerations to reflect some current thoughts. 

Check it out!

I’ve mentioned this a few times on my site: there is a wealth of information about asset accumulation, how to save within your registered and non-registered accounts to plan for retirement. There is far less information about asset decumulation including approaches to earn income in retirement.

Thankfully there are a few great resources available to aspiring retirees and those in retirement – some overlooked retirement income and planning considerations I’ve written about before:

One of my favourite books about generating retirement income is one by Daryl Diamond, The Retirement Income Blueprint. 

An article about creating a cash wedge as you open up the investment taps.

A review about The Real Retirement.

These are six big mistakes in retirement to avoid.

A review of how to generate Retirement Income for Life.

Can you have too much dividend income? (I doubt it!)

Other resources and drawdown ideas:

Instead of focusing on the 4% rule, you can drawdown your portfolio via Variable Percentage Withdrawal (VPW).

A reminder the 4% rule doesn’t work for everyone. Some people ignore the 4% rule altogether.

My retirement income and planning considerations:

As I get older, I’m gravitating more and more this aforementioned “bucket approach” for retirement income purposes.

My bucket approach consists of three key buckets in our personal portfolio to address our needs:

1. a bucket of cash savings
2. a bucket of dividend paying stocks
3. a bucket of a few equity Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).

Bucket 1 = Cash Savings

Simply put, life happens. So, to help with emergencies in semi-retirement, to ride out bearish markets for at least a year with cash, I/we will keep ~ 1-years’ worth of living expenses in cash throughout retirement. Your mileage may vary!

Further Reading:

How much cash should you keep? Why?

A Cash Wedge is a great way to manage stock market volatility.

Bucket 2 = Dividend Paying Stocks

Simply put, I like getting paid to be a shareholder. I enjoy seeing cash flow into my account for doing absolutely nothing but remaining to be a shareholder in many dividend paying stocks. So, I/we intent to “live off dividends” using a portfolio of approximately $1 million once we’re debt free while working part-time in semi-retirement.

Bucket 3 = Equity ETFs

While I love dividend paying stocks, I know there is a bigger world out there beyond many “TULF” stocks I focus on. A recap of dependable “TULF” stocks to consider for your portfolio, including some in Canada:

• “T” for telecommunication companies (think Bell, Telus)
• “U” for utilities (think Fortis, Emera, Algonquin Power, Brookfield Renewable Partners, and others)
• “L” for low-yielding dividend growth stocks with growth potential (think Canadian National Railway, Waste Connections, Nutrien, Metro, Alimentation Couche-Tard, Brookfield Asset Management, and others), and last but not least everyone’s sector favourite in Canada for dividends,
• “F” for financials (you know the names and ticker symbols: RY, BMO, CM, TD, BNS and others).

Beyond these types of stocks, I own low-cost ETFs for extra diversification and growth from around the world. This way, via my hybrid-approach to investing I get paid via dividends and I get some growth via my ETFs.

Passive and active investing can exist in harmony.

Read on beyond my bucket approach for how you might organize your portfolio and treat various income sources, avoid making mistakes in designing your retirement income portfolio. 

Overlooked retirement income and planning considerations

1. Treat government benefits like CPP and OAS as fixed income

You’ll see in my bucket approach above there is really no mention of any Canada Pension Plan (CPP) income or Old Age Security (OAS) income. That’s because while we expect this income to fund some of our retirement needs – it’s more of a safety net.

Given both government benefits also include some inflation protection (CPI), I personally consider CPP and OAS very bond-like. For this reason, I have a tilt towards equities in our personal portfolio and likely always will. This tilt exposes me/us to more market volatility but it should also provide us with better (higher) returns over time than fixed income.

I believe the more you can tilt your portfolio to hold more equities during retirement, including those that pay dividends or distributions, the more retirement income you could potentially generate.

2. Treat workplace pensions as another form of fixed income

My wife and I are both very fortunate to have some workplace pensions to draw from in our future. My pension is a defined benefit (DB) pension plan. That means my benefits (income) is defined in my financial future based on my contributions now. My wife’s plan on the other hand is a defined contribution (DC) pension plan. That means her contributions are defined today but her total portfolio value at the time of retirement is at the mercy of market success using certain investment funds. 

Although these pensions are for the most part secure, I know anything can happen in our financial future so we save and invest on our own to supplement any pension risks.

If you have DB workplace pension you can rely on I would consider this pension a “big bond”. This is because your benefit is defined, like CPP and OAS. 

If you have a DB pension, then consider taking on more investment risk for more potential reward in your portfolio to increase retirement income; using stocks or low-cost equity Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).

3. Be ready to manage the psychological shifts with asset decumulation

Up to now, you’ve been busy saving and investing in your asset accumulation years. You’ve been told to “SAVE FOR RETIREMENT!”, “PLAN AHEAD, YOUR FUTURE SELF WILL THANK YOU!”, and more.

Asset decumulation years will be totally different.

In retirement there is likely no longer a mortgage to pay (at least this is our plan). Entering retirement, if you have kids, they might have left the house by now. That means helping them financially with their post-secondary education costs is no longer needed.

In retirement you no longer have wardrobe expenses for work. You don’t have the same commuting costs. My point is – you might have more money than you think!

I believe one easy mistake many folks planning for retirement make is any estimate on how much you need to save to retire. If someone needs $50,000 per year and has saved $1 million for retirement, they may think their savings will only last 20 years. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

While the 4% rule isn’t perfect it remains a very good rule of thumb.

Why the 4% rule is actually (still) a decent rule of thumb

$1 million generating 4% will of course generate $40,000 in the first year, meaning a $50,000 withdrawal will reduce the account balance by just $10,000. Depending upon how your money is invested, and any future sequence of returns, $1 million may support $50,000 of annual withdrawals for 30 years or more.

In fact, things could be so successful that 50% of the time using the 4% rule, you will “double your wealth”.

That means 50% of the time (market returns willing) you will finish with almost X3 wealth on top of a lifetime of spending using the 4% rule.

I suspect for many Canadians when people go from saving aggressively using their RRSP to converting some or all of these assets into a Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF), there’s a major psychological shift that occurs. This is because retirees feel the need to maintain the value of the assets they’ve worked so hard to build. This psychological shift might be difficult for some retirees to overcome.

The reality is, even a modest RRSP/RRIF portfolio of $400,000, saved up by age 65, that portfolio value inside an RRSP can generate some decent retirement income.

Combine this income with other assets and any government benefits (CPP, OAS) and many investors may not need to worry about not having enough – depending upon their income needs to cover expenses of course.

To help you with your psychological shift – play with a few FREE retirement calculators such as my personal favourites here. 

4. Tax efficiency is important but not everything

Unlike your current working years or years leading into retirement, taxes will often not be withheld at the source like they are with employment income. By planning the accounts that should be drawn down first, investors can alter and potentially optimize the amount of tax they must pay. Investors can absolutely smooth out taxes over time and ensure they are not incurring a huge tax bite in their later years – when dependable retirement income might be vitally important for health reasons.

Mind you, financial decisions shouldn’t be made on tax implications alone.

For what it’s worth, even though we’re not semi-retired yet, we believe the following withdrawal strategy could work for us and might work for you as well.

My retirement income and planning draw down order

Humm…

I’m thinking this could work well for us:

“NRT” = Non-Registered (N) then RRSPs (R) then TFSAs (T).

What does that mean?

N – Regarding non-registered accounts

• We intend to work part-time in our 50s and “live off dividends” to some degree from this account. 

R – Regarding RRSPs/RRIFs

• In our 50s and 60s, we’re going to do something unconventional – we’ll start withdrawing assets, slowly, from our RRSPs. This will help smooth out taxes over a period of decades given other assets we hold. Based on account values now, our RRSP assets should last into our early 70s.   

T – Regarding TFSAs

• We don’t intend to touch our TFSA assets in any early retirement.
• We will let our TFSA assets compound over time.
• By our early 70s, with part-time work done, with taxable assets likely sold, and most of our RRSP/RRIF assets likely depleted as well, our plan is to live off income from mainly any government benefits (CPP and OAS) and TFSA income/withdrawals. The latter will be tax-free!

A reminder these are some of the key reasons for taking your CPP and OAS as late as possible:

• you don’t necessarily need the money to live on now (consider exhausting RRSP assets before age 65 or 70);
• you have good reason to believe that you have a longer-than-average life expectancy (we hope so!);
• you are concerned about market risk to your savings portfolio (yes, as we get older in our 50s, 60s and 70s, I don’t want to deal with finances as much since this shouldn’t be the time to worry about money);
• you aren’t concerned about leaving a large estate – so you use up some or all personal assets before taking government benefits (correct).

Here’s when you should consider taking your Canada Pension Plan (CPP).

Should you consider deferring your Canada Pension Plan?

5. Like taxes, death is part of life and planning for it is important

Sadly death will happen to all of us. This makes planning for it important for your spouse and family as part of estate planning.

Related to taxes, based on my readings, pre-retirees tend to overestimate the tax they will pay in retirement.

Someone earning $100,000 of salary will generally pay 25-30% average tax depending on their province or territory of residence, and 35-45% marginal tax on their next dollar of earnings. In retirement, someone with $50,000 of income would pay at most 15-20% average tax across the country, and depending on the sources of income, it could be close to zero! 

Income like eligible pension income, capital gains, and Canadian dividends are eligible for tax credits or reduced income inclusion rates. Married couples can also split income more easily in retirement to minimize their combined family tax.

If you want to know how best to structure your accounts, to name beneficiaries for tax planning and estate purposes, check out this comprehensive post here:

Beneficiaries for TFSAs, RRSPs, RRIFs and other key accounts

When it comes to life insurance, I wrote about a number of life insurance products in plain language here.  I believe retirees need to consider liquidity requirements for the spouse or family to pay off all debts and/or replace any income that would stop upon death.

Retirees also need to identify their Powers of Attorney (PoAs) and executors, including what’s going to happen if they’re incapacitated.  Retirees should strongly consider keeping a list of financial information that is current; documenting bank accounts and investment accounts and pension accounts in an easy-to-find location for their family members. 

Learn all about Wills and get a promo code in fact, to update your own Will, from this article here. 

Overlooked retirement income and planning considerations summary

If you haven’t already gleaned this from my article I hope you’ve noticed a few things above:

• We’re far from being retired yet but we feel the importance of planning for it. This makes the process of any retirement planning far more important than the real outcomes that might occur years from now.
• We’re looking at our retirement plan as a holistic exercise that includes elements like taxation impacts, estate planning and more beyond generating retirement income. 

We’re thinking about these things because we believe it’s the right stuff to think about. Ultimately you need to determine what’s best for you personally and financially. I hope these overlooked retirement income and planning considerations have helped you out. 

Stay tuned to more blogposts on retirement income and planning as my thinking matures.

What’s your income plan for retirement?  Do you have one?  Are you already there and accomplishing your needs and wants? 

Further Reading:

There are also dozens of Retirement stories and essays you can learn from here.

Enjoy some FREE retirement calculators such as my personal favourites here. 

Don’t forget healthcare in retirement. Here are some healthcare benefits for retirees to consider.