How To Get Retirement Ready
Open a retirement account. If you have access to a GRSP, you should at the very least contribute the amount of money your employer is willing to match. You should also open a RRSP if you don’t already have one. A RRSP is one of the most popular ways to save for retirement in Canada and it comes with nice tax benefits. Learn more about RRSPs and GRSPs.
Avoid paying high fees. Fees are like savings termites they’ll chew right through your savings. When you invest with Wealthsimple, we charge a 0.5% management fees when you invest up to $100,000 and 0.4% when you deposit more than $100,000. That’s significantly less than the 2% fees paid by traditional mutual fund investors in Canada.
Make smart moves. Begin saving for retirement as early as you can and take advantage of the power of compounding. Create a budget that includes retirement savings, learn how investing works, discover smart retirement strategies and understand what it takes to retire early.
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Turning Your Savings Into Retirement Income
You’ll need to decide how you want to convert your savings and investments into retirement income. You should start thinking about these things before you retire so you can have a better understanding of what your options are and how much money you may have.
Some options include:
- converting an RRSP into a Registered Retirement Income Fund
- buying an annuity
- investing your money in other products, such as stocks or bonds
- withdrawing your savings as cash
You may be able to convert some of your retirement savings into income before you retire. This can help you transition from working to retiring.
Think about your other sources of retirement income before deciding how to use or invest your savings. Your other sources of retirement income can impact the amount of money you receive from government benefits and pensions that are based on your income.
For example, lets say you are a Canadian with a low income and receive the Guaranteed Income Supplement . If you withdraw a large amount of money from an RRSP or an RRIF, then you might not be considered low income for the next year. You may receive a lower GIS payment, or you could no longer be eligible for the GIS in that year.
If you think you may earn a low income when you retire and will qualify for the GIS, then a TFSA may be a better savings option for you than an RRSP.
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Am I Eligible To Retire
Perhaps one of the most important things to be aware of when considering retirement is whether or not you meet the retirement eligibility requirements for your plan and retirement group.
You may be financially and mentally prepared to retire, but you need to meet the age and service eligibility requirements set by OPERS to take that next step.
What Is A Good Monthly Retirement Income
Median retirement income for seniors is around $24,000 however, average income can be much higher. On average, seniors earn between $2000 and $6000 per month. Older retirees tend to earn less than younger retirees. It’s recommended that you save enough to replace 70% of your pre-retirement monthly income.
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What Will I Be Paid By Social Security
Now that we’ve got the overlying factors out of the way, we can get down to the specifics: What will Social Security pay me when I retire?
Thankfully, Social Security doesn’t pull your benefit out of thin air. Rather, it uses a benefit formula with values that change annually, based on your first year of eligibility to claim benefits — i.e., age 62 — to determine your primary insurance amount . The first number you’ll need to know is your average indexed monthly earnings, or AIME. This figure is determined by averaging your 35 highest-earning, inflation-adjusted years, then dividing by 12 to arrive at a monthly figure.
Once calculated, your AIME is then applied to Social Security’s three-part formula, which looks like this in 2019 for folks born in 1957:
- 90% of the first $926 in AIME
- 32% of AIME greater than $926, but less than $5,583
- 15% of AIME greater than $5,583
As a reminder, you’ll want to use the bend points that are applicable to your first year of Social Security eligibility and not the bend points above if you weren’t born in 1957. Don’t worry, the SSA takes cost-of-living adjustments into account if using bend points from a previous year.
Added together, this median income individual born in 1957 would receive $1,366.52 a month.
Do You Pay Taxes On 401k After Retirement
A withdrawal you make from a 401 after you retire is officially known as a distribution. While youve deferred taxes until now, these distributions are now taxed as regular income. That means you will pay the regular income tax rates on your distributions. You pay taxes only on the money you withdraw.
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S To Retiring Comfortably
How Much Should I Save For Retirement
How much you need for retirementdepends on the age at which you plan to retire, and how much money you think youll need each year in retirement to be comfortable.
Most people plan to retire between the ages of 65 and 67,according to Gallup. No two retirees budgets will look alike, but most can expect to have recurring expenses like housing, transportation, food, and health care. Retirees are also likely to spend less annually than they did when they were working. The Bureau of Labor Statistics notestotal annual expenditures averaged $49,279 among age 55 and older households. Those 55 to 64 spent $56,267, while the 75-and-older group spent $36,673.
To move beyond the averages, a retirement budget should factor in how theyre used to livingthat is, what their pre-retirement income affords them. Retirement planners, as a rough rule of thumb, say people need about 80% of the income they earned while working in retirement.
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It’s Not About Money It’s About Income
One important point when it comes to determining your retirement “number” is that it isn’t about deciding on a certain amount of savings. For example, the most common retirement goal among Americans is a $1 million nest egg. But this is faulty logic.
The most important factor in determining how much you need to retire is whether you’ll have enough money to create the income you need to support your desired quality of life after you retire. Will a $1 million savings balance allow you to create enough income forever? Maybe, but maybe not. That’s what we’re going to determine in the next few sections.
Pensions Social Security And Other Allies
Traditional pensions are estimated to supply less than 19% of retirement needs, according to the Social Security Administration .
Add that to the 39% or so a year you might expect from Social Security, and youll probably still fall far short of yourgoal. A radically reduced standard of living for a quarter century or more is hardly the stuff golden age dreams are made of.
Fortunately, you have some allies. First is the power of compounding, which takes advantage of time. Tax deferral is another ally. Using investment vehicles such as 403 plans or individual retirement accounts , you can put off paying taxes on your earnings until you are retired and potentially in a lower tax bracket. Meanwhile, your contributions may be pretax or tax deductible, helping reduce current tax bills.
For example, an investment of $10,000 would grow to more than $100,000 after 30 years, at an annual return of 8%, if all the returns were reinvested and the account grew tax deferred. As with all hypotheticals, this example does not represent the performance of any specific investment and the earnings would be subject to taxation upon withdrawal at then-current rates and subject to penalties for early withdrawal.
While this is only a hypothetical and there are no guarantees any investment will provide the same results, you can see the remarkable difference starting early can potentially make.
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Life Expectancy And Retirement Income
Nobody knows how long they will live. This is one of the most challenging facts about retirement planning: How many years of retirement income will you need? Save too little and you risk spending your savings and relying solely on Social Security income.
Looking at average life expectancy is a good place to start. The Social Security Administrations life expectancy calculator can provide you with a solid estimate, based on your date of birth and gender. Just remember: Average calculations cant take into account your health and lifestylenow or in retirementor family history that could impact your life expectancy, so youll want to consider them in any calculations you do.
Factor No : How Much Will You Earn On Your Savings
No one knows what stocks, bonds or bank certificates of deposit will earn in the next 20 years or so. We can look at long-term historical returns to get some ideas. According to Morningstar, stocks have earned an average 10.29 percent a year since 1926 a period that includes the Great Depression as well as the Great Recession. Bonds have earned an average 5.33 percent a year over the same time. Treasury bills, a proxy for what you might get from a bank deposit, have returned about 3 percent a year.
Most people don’t keep 100 percent of their retirement savings in a single investment, however. While they might have part of their portfolio in stocks for growth of capital, they often have part in bonds to cushion the inevitable declines in stocks. According to the Vanguard Group, a mix of 60 percent stocks and 40 percent bonds has returned an average 8.84 percent a year since 1926 a mix of 60 percent bonds and 40 percent stocks has gained an average 7.82 percent.
Financial planners often recommend caution when estimating portfolio returns. Gary Schatsky, a New York financial planner, aims at 2.5 percent returns after inflation, which would be about 3.5 percent today. It’s an extraordinarily low number, he says, although it’s probably better to aim too low and be wrong than aim too high and be wrong.
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How Do You Become A Travel Nurse
Just because you have a degree in nursing doesnt mean that you have to spend all of your working days at the same hospital or doctors office. Instead, you can become a travel nurse and switch up your location on a regular basis. Travel nurses get to have a lot more flexibility than traditional nurses.
How Is My Retirement Benefit Calculated
Your retirement benefit amount is determined by a formula. The formula includes your average annual salary from the five years when you earned the most and a multiplier based on your years of service. The multiplier for Regular members is 2% a year for the first 30 years of service and 1% a year for the next five years, up to a maximum of 65%. The multiplier for Special Service members is approximately 2.7272% a year for the first 22 years and then 1.5% for years 23 30, up to a maximum of 72%. A normal retirement age deduction may apply if you retire early. Review the Member Handbook for more information.
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Factor No : How Much Will You Spend
The rule of thumb is that you’ll need about 80 percent of your pre-retirement income when you leave your job, although that rule requires a pretty flexible thumb. The 80 percent rule comes from the fact that you will no longer be paying payroll taxes toward Social Security , and you won’t be shoveling money into your 401 or other savings plan. In addition, you’ll save on the usual costs of going to work the pandemic won’t keep everyone at home forever such as new clothing, dry cleaning bills, commuting expenses and the like.
You also need to factor in any pension or Social Security income you’ll be getting. If your annual pre-retirement expenses are $50,000, for example, you’d want retirement income of $40,000 if you followed the 80 percent rule of thumb. If you and your spouse will collect $2,000 a month from Social Security, or $24,000 a year, you’d need about $16,000 a year from your savings. Bear in mind, however, that any withdrawals from a tax-deferred savings account, such as a traditional IRA or a 401 plan, would be reduced by the amount of taxes you pay.
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Getting A Reverse Mortgage
A reverse mortgage allows you to get money from your homes value without having to sell your home. You are given a loan that is secured by the equity in your home and dont have to make payments on the amount you owe until the loan is due. This is usually when you move out of your house, sell it or pass away.
Reverse mortgages are available to homeowners 55 years old and older. The costs associated with a reverse mortgage may be high.
Before choosing this option, make sure you understand if this type of loan is best for you.
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Fact #: Social Security Benefits Are Modest
Social Security benefits are much more modest than many people realize the average Social Security retirement benefit in June 2020 was about $1,514 a month, or about $18,170 a year. For someone who worked all of their adult life at average earnings and retires at age 65 in 2020, Social Security benefits replace about 40 percent of past earnings. This replacement rate will slip to about 35 percent for a medium earner retiring at 65 in the future, chiefly because the full retirement age, which has already risen to 66, and is gradually climbing to 67 over the 2017-2022 period.
The average Social Security retirement benefit in June 2020 was $1,514 a month, or about $18,170 a year.
Moreover, most retirees enroll in Medicares Supplementary Medical Insurance and have Part B premiums deducted from their Social Security checks. As health care costs continue to outpace general inflation, those premiums will take a bigger bite out of their checks.
Social Security benefits are modest by international standards, too. The United States ranks just outside the bottom third of developed countries in the percentage of an average workers earnings replaced by the public pension system.
Social Security lifted 1.5 million children out of poverty in 2018, as the chart shows.
How Much Money Do You Need To Retire Comfortably
Assume you will need about 80% of your current income to maintain a similar standard of living after retirement.
The 4% Rule withdrawal strategydoes not work for everyone, and you might need to adjust based on expected expenses and your desired type of retirement. The rule is a flawed method.
Instead, utilize a combination of annuities and Social Security Income to layer a monthly income stream that is guaranteed not to run out.
The key to this strategy is analyzing the perfect age to retire comfortably.
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Children Can Also Collect Social Security Benefits
Minor children of Social Security beneficiaries can be eligible for benefits. Children up to age 18 and disabled children older than 18 may be able to receive up to half of a parent’s Social Security benefit. The disability must have occurred before the age of 22. The adult child can continue collecting the benefit even after the parent has died, as long as the disability prevents them from working.
