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Stock news for investors: Spinoffs, acquisitions, and market moves Oct 3rd
Here’s a round-up of news for Canadian investors this week.
Maple Leaf Foods
TMX group
MEG Energy
Stella-Jones
Algoma Steel
Featured RRSP Accounts
featured
EQ Bank
Build .... More »
How job changes can affect your taxes + MORE Mar 28th
Landing a new job or being laid off from your current position can be life-changing—whether it’s an exciting transition, a tough stretch or a chance at a fresh start. But months after the dust settles, people often forget that job changes can also impact that year’s tax return. Expe.... More »
Severance, pensions and unemployment at 65: Should you apply for a pension if you get laid off? Aug 17th
Q. I just got laid off because of restructuring, but I got a package from work that will have me getting paid until February 2021. I am 65 as of March 2020. I did not apply for my pensions yet. If I apply now will it be deducted from my unemployment in February? Should I wait to apply for a pension.... More »
How foreign withholding taxes affect returns + MORE Jul 29th
In our newly revised white paper, Justin Bender and I explain the hidden cost of foreign withholding taxes on U.S. and international equity ETFs. I gave an overview of the most important points in my previous blog post. Now let’s look at one of the more subtle ideas: how those taxes affect your pe.... More »
Am I on track to retire in 10 years? + MORE Nov 18th
(Photo by Amanda Skuse)
The current situation
Shannon Jimenez, 47, lives in Chilliwack, B.C. with her husband Hector, 55. She’s a part-time customer service rep while Hector is a manager. “We’ve spent the last 25 years building up the equity in our home and in our Mexican rental property so sa.... More »
How to get money out of Locked-In Retirement Accounts
– moneysense.ca
Unless you qualify due to extraordinary circumstances, you may need to draw down your locked-in LIRA money slowly (Geoff George/Getty Images)Q: I have a LIRA and have been told that each province has strict laws on when I would be able to withdraw funds. I am 63 years old and would like to asses some of the money from the LIRA to pay off some debt.—Pete
A: LIRAs or Locked-In Retirement Accounts are also known as locked-in RRSPs. They are locked in because the money in a LIRA comes from a defined contribution (DC) or defined benefit (DB) pension plan when you leave your employer. Pensions are meant to be paid out over time, so when pension money goes into an RRSP account, it is locked in to make sure it lasts.
You are correct, Pete, that there are restrictions on LIRA withdrawals. Typically withdrawals cannot begin before the age of 55 and you must change your LIRA into a LIF (locked-in Life Income Fund) or LRIF (Locked-in Restricted Life Income Fund) to begin withdrawals. Minimum and maximum withdrawal amounts can be taken each year thereafter according to either your age or your spouse’s age–depending which you choose to base the withdrawals upon when you establish the account…
Working to live better, longer
– moneysense.ca
(Corbis)Whenever I suggest in a blog that investors might want to rethink early retirement, I usually hear from a few readers who insist that after 30 or 40 or more years in the workforce, they have a “right” to spend their last decade or so in the pursuit of leisure.
Readers are of course perfectly free to reject exhortations to “just keep working” but if I end up in email correspondence with them, I may reply that my stance is not predicated on the desire to give the financial industry still more assets to place under management.
Rather, it’s based on my growing perception that life expectancies are on the rise and the pace of medical breakthroughs in biotech and gene therapy does not appear to be slowing. As long ago as 1998, Dr. Ben Bova wrote a book that takes longevity to its reductio ad absurdum: immortality. His book Immortality bears the subtitle How Science is Extending Your Life Span – and Changing the World.
True, Bova is also a prolific science fiction writer but it’s worth reading his take on the future of molecular engineering, regeneration, telomere research, reverse aging, gene therapy and the rest of it just to open one’s mind to the possibility our biblically allotted three-score-and-ten or three-score-and-twenty (70 and 80 respectively) may be underestimating 21st century science…
