How the Dow Jones industrial average and other major indexes fared on Tuesday + MORE Jun 23rd

Q: Buying non-contributory service in a defined benefit pension plan is a no-brainer when you’re young, but how about near retirement? I can purchase 6 months of non-contributory service for $8,000. It will take 11 years after retirement to break even, with $60 added to my monthly pension. I’m 56 and hope to retire at 62. Is the buyback worth it? —Wanda Davis, via emai
A: Pat Johnston is a Principal at Pension Strategies Inc., in Calgary. He says you need to know how the pension will be paid. Is it for your lifetime only? Or your spouse’s too? Second, if your life expectancy might be less than “standard,” the value of the added pension would be reduced. Estimated investment return and income tax rates also come into play, complicating the math even further. Then there is the psychology. Johnston recommends that you think about the “value you put into the comfort of the additional income security, regardless of how long you live.” That alone might be enough to push you in one direction or the other…

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Summer is here and that means Canadians will be going out and spending time with friends and family—but, apparently, not saving money.
A new survey by Tangerine reveals that 52% of Canadians adopt a more relaxed attitude when it comes to spending during the warmer months, blowing their funds on entertainment and vacations. A whopping 83% said that this spike in spending would impact how much they could save.
On average, Canadians plan to spend about $5,605 in the summer time, according to a BMO Summer Spending Survey—with 61% relying on credit cards to pay for these splurges. The biggest single expense? Vacations and trips with an average spend of $2,038 .
All this spending leads to two, related problems: savings slowing to a trickle and Canadians acquiring even more debt. According to Dr. Moira Somers, a financial psychologist, this more carefree money mindset occurs because normal routines change in the summer, causing you to become less conscious of your spending…

Stocks made small gains Tuesday as investors waited for a deal between Greece and its creditors. Greece faces defaulting on its debt without new loans, but it appears that the country is making progress toward sealing a deal.
For the day:
The Dow Jones industrial average added 24.29 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 18,144.07.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 1.35 points, or 0.06 per cent, to 2,124.20.
The Nasdaq rose 6.12 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 5,160.09.
For the week:
The Dow is up 128.12 points, or 0.7 per cent.
The S&P 500 is up 14.21 points, or 0.7 per cent.
The Nasdaq is up 43.09 points, or 0.8 per cent.
For the year:
The Dow is up 321.00 points, or 1.8 per cent.
The S&P 500 index is up 65.30 points, or 3.2 per cent.
The Nasdaq is up 424.04 points, or 9 per cent.
The post How the Dow Jones industrial average and other major indexes fared on Tuesday appeared first on Canadian Business – Your Source For Business News.

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This article was originally published on Benefits Canada. 
When I get ticked off with something a man does, I usually say, “Well, they die sooner.” And that’s true: Statistics Canada’s 2009 numbers put life expectancy for men at 79 years, compared with 83 for women. But will women have enough retirement income to enjoy those longer lives?
Maybe not. The mean average personal income for women is 25% lower than it is for men. Statistics Canada’s 2011 data show a similar gap: in Ontario, the gap was 26% for full-time workers. In other words, for every $1 a male worker earns, a female worker earns just 74¢.
Aon Hewitt’s 2015 Universe Benchmarks report finds that while a similar percentage of women and men participate in company retirement savings plans, women have an average of US$75,140 in their plans, versus US$127,190 for men. On average, women contribute about 7.1% of pay, versus 8.0% for men. Much of this is due to differences in pay rates.
There are employment factors, too…