Retiring in a down market + MORE Oct 6th

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Q: We have investments that are set up with a fund advisor and we have a cash account that is currently not invested at all. Our plan is that we will be retired on the 30th of October this year. My question is: should we use the cash to live off of for a period of time to give our investment account time to recover from this downturn?
—David
A: Retirement funding can be challenging. While you’re working, there’s generally a steady stream of income coming in to fund your expenses. Most people have government pensions like Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security in retirement to provide at least a base for their income, but less and less of us are retiring with a gold-plated workplace pension that replaces our salary.
For those who are funding retirement in part with their investments, sometimes it can be tricky to figure out which account to draw upon. In your case, David, your concern is whether to draw investments or cash…

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This article is a continuation of a series on my site, about living off dividend or distribution income.  To check out the first article in this series click here.
A short while ago on My Own Advisor I wrote a controversial post about the intent to live off dividends and distributions from our portfolio.  I know some investors don’t agree with my approach, for example, readers have mentioned the following to me:
“The trouble with a “live off the dividends” approach is that I’d have to save too much in order to create my desired retirement income. For example, I’d need to save between $2.5M and $3M in order to generate $90,000 per year in dividend income. Alternatively, I could get the same $90,000 per year by simply withdrawing from a portfolio of $1.45M (assuming 5% annual growth and the portfolio lasts 30 years).”
“Your universe starts to shrink if you demand an average dividend rate of 4% or higher from your stocks…

Company’s stock caught in industry-wide downdraft amid accusations of ‘price gouging’ by competitors

The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade and investment deal is unlikely to pass on significant cost savings to Canadian shoppers buying groceries or cars, experts say, despite opening up more free-trade in those industries.

Wishing you bought shares of Canadian Oil Sands before stocks skyrocketed? If you’re a Canadian mutual fund holder, chances are you probably own a fair amount already.
Stock prices soared more than 50% on Monday after Suncor Energy launched an unsolicited $6.6 billion bid for Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. this week.
TD Asset Management is the largest shareholder of the energy company, owning roughly 5% of common stock, meaning that the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who hold TD mutual funds may have received the Canadian Oil Sands bump.
Best mutual funds 2015 »
TD Dividend Growth, TD Monthly Income or TD Dividend Income funds are the largest mutual fund shareholders in Canadian Oil Sands, according to Morningstar. Other funds with holdings in Canadian Oil Sands are managed by Deutsche Asset & Wealth, Franklin Advisers Inc. and CIBC to name a few.
According to Doug Warwick of TD Asset Management, the spike in Canadian Oil Sands stock price indicates that there is “a lot of value out there…