EP # 207 | Five Pre-Retirement Moves the Standard Checklist Skips
Your Retirement Planning SimplifiedShow Notes
Most retirement checklists cover the big pieces: your income plan, when to take CPP and OAS, stress testing, consolidating your accounts. But today Joe talks about a different set of moves - the ones the standard lists tend to skip. They all have one thing in common: they either get harder once your paycheque stops, or you cannot undo them later if you get them wrong. The real cost of missing any one of these five moves is not just the move itself. It is that a big unexpected expense quietly forces a sacrifice somewhere else in your life that you never intended to make - your travel budget, your plan to help the kids, your sense of security. Joe walks through five practical steps to take while you are still earning, each one designed to protect one retirement goal from silently eating another.
In This Episode Set up a home equity line of credit (HELOC) while you are still working, not to use it, just to have it. Employment income makes qualifying straightforward. Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Old Age Security (OAS), and Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF) withdrawals do not work the same way with lenders. The HELOC sits there as a backstop for speed, for spreading out a tax hit, or for avoiding forced investment sales during a market drop.
Finish your big renovation or home project while you still have income coming in to absorb a cost overrun. These projects run over budget, and once the paycheque stops, there is no extra income to cover the gap. The number in your plan and the number you will actually pay are rarely the same.
Clear your high interest consumer debt before you retire, and put your mortgage plan in writing. If the consumer debt will not clear on your current income while you are working, that is a readiness signal, not just a to-do item. The mortgage does not have to be gone before you retire, but how you will carry and handle it needs to be written into the plan on purpose.
If you plan to help your kids financially - a down payment, a wedding gift, anything - set that money aside outside your core retirement funds before you retire. Because it is a generous and emotional moment, it often does not get run through the plan first, and the money quietly comes out of the same pool you need to live on for the next 30 years.
Build a real home maintenance line into your budget, starting at a minimum of 1% of your home's value each year. It is never the same expense twice, but something is almost always coming. Without a line item for it, the cost does not disappear, it just comes out of somewhere else, usually the fun money.
About: Your Retirement Planning Simplified is a weekly Canadian retirement planning podcast hosted by Joe Curry, CFP, CEPA, of Matthews and Associates, an independent wealth management firm. Each week, Joe breaks down retirement income, tax, and estate decisions in plain language for Canadians who are near or in retirement.
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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are those of Joseph Curry, a registrant of Aligned Capital Partners Inc. (ACPI), and may not necessarily be those of ACPI. This podcast is for informational purposes only and not intended to be personalized investment advice. The views expressed are opinions of Joseph Curry and may not necessarily be those of ACPI. Content is prepared for general circulation and information contained does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any investment fund, security or other product or service.
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