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How does a spousal RRSP withdrawal work? Feb 8th
I bought a spousal RRSP in December 2019 and I plan to withdraw from it this week. Is it considered to be my income or my spousal income? I called CRA four times but no one could answer this question for me.—Tom
Spousal RRSP withdrawal rules: Timing matters
Tom, the rules around the ti.... More »
The right way to use a spousal RRSP May 20th
Q: I earn $30,000 per year at a part-time job and collect $48,000 in pension. My husband still works and earns $85,000 annually, but has no pension. Should I contribute to a spousal RRSP to lower his income and improve his retirement portfolio?
— AnnMarie Wolf, Toronto
A: Spousal RRSPs are a grea.... More »
How to stay the course with your retirement plan during market volatility + MORE Apr 11th
Three days of wild market volatility sparked by U.S. tariffs is enough to cause any investor stress, but for those in retirement, the plunge can be extra difficult.
Markets have taken a nosedive after U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping global tariffs last Wednesday (April .... More »
Skipping the starter home for the next size up? Be financially savvy about it May 4th
Taking on too big a debt load can leave first-time buyers house poor, unprepared for retirement and stressed by ordinary purchases for things like car repairs and vacations, Lesley-Anne Scorgie writes..... More »
Why I’m taking OAS right at 65 + MORE Aug 19th
During the “Victory Lap” stage of life between full-time employment and traditional “no-nothing” retirement, a key strategy is deciding when to commence receipt of various streams of income.
This commonly occurs in one’s 60s. As you move from a salaried single stream of income to the “mu.... 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…
