Retirement budget | DH Roberts Financial

woman planning retirement budget

What’s a typical retirement budget?

There really isn’t a typical budget. It all depends on the lifestyle you expect to live in retirement. To determine how much you’ll need, you may wish to create a personal retirement budget.

How do you budget for retirement?

Creating a budget for retirement is much like creating a spending plan pre-retirement. First, determine how much income per month you’ll have in retirement from all sources. Then add up all your monthly expenses.

If you have more income than expenses, you’re all set. If it’s the other way around, you’ll need to make adjustments like cutting expenses or finding more income such as a part-time job.

Retirement income sources

Add up all your retirement savings including registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs), tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs) and non-registered accounts. Your retirement savings may also include assets from the sale of a business if you’re a business owner. Divide your savings by the number of years you expect your retirement to be to get an estimated annual income amount from your savings. Now divide that number by 12 to get an estimated monthly amount.

Add up all your sources of monthly retirement income from company pension plans, government benefits such as Canada Pension Plan (CPP) or Quebec Pension Plan (QPP), Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS).

Now add your estimated monthly amount from your retirement savings to your monthly amount from pension and government plans to get your estimated total monthly income. Use this handy retirement income worksheet - Opens in a new window

Note: This estimate doesn’t consider someone living off dividends or a similar constant income stream.

Read the full article at canadalife.com

I’ve been dealing with D H Roberts Financial Group for over 10 years for all of my personal insurance needs. I have always found Dave Roberts to be honest and straightforward. The level of service and professionalism I’ve received from Dave has been fantastic. I’ve purchased several insurance products from D H Roberts Financial Group over the years and I have always felt confident that I was making a wise investment. I would not hesitate to recommend Dave to anyone considering buying life, disability or critical illness insurance.

David Pangman

VP, Municipal Group of Compamies

We moved to Halifax two years ago upon retirement and, after a year of meeting with Dave Roberts, we decided to take his advice and move our investments (our only source of retirement income, apart from CPP and OAS) from a major financial institution to be managed by the DH Roberts Financial Group. We find Dave and his partners to be reliable, professional and knowledgeable.

Dave met with us and formulated a very comprehensive financial plan for our retirement, taking into account ways to get the best growth out of our investments and also to minimize our income tax by using various sources of income such as segregated funds, RRIFs and tax free savings. He pays attention to detail and has a very tailored personalized approach. Dave meets with us regularly to update us on what is happening with the financial markets and whether funds should be moved to get a better yield.

He has also helped us sort our problems with our life and medical insurances and has become our go-to guy for any financial questions we have. He has been very helpful and available. What struck us in particular was his utmost professionalism, attention to detail and tailored very personal approach. We have no hesitation in recommending the DH Roberts Financial Group.

Dorothy and Peter Thorpe

Fall River, NS

Apart from Dave’s ability to generate retirement plans and strategies which he is very good at, perhaps his greatest strength is his ability to listen and his desire to help. Good listeners like Dave know what questions to ask because they listen to what the client has told them before they ask the questions. This enables Dave to craft retirement and investment strategies that fit the specific client and his or her circumstances. The end result is a tailor-made strategy that the client can associate with and they can understand. If this is important to you then I recommend that your contact Dave for a consultation.

Miles Sweeney

CPA, CA, Miles T Sweeney Limited Chartered Accountants

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your professional assistance in helping us to choose a life insurance/retirement package that fits our needs and lifestyle.

You initially met with us to get a feel for what we expected from our life insurance, and thoroughly reviewed the packages we had in place. Not only did you come back to us with an excellent presentation, but you were willing to give your time to ensure we understood where we were at, other packages available, and where we would end up.

We were impressed with your excellent product knowledge and thoroughness and appreciated that you carried through and took the time to follow up to ensure we were pleased.

We do not like dealing with aggressive sales people, but you were never pushy or aggressive. So, we would like to say thanks for the great service; it was an absolute pleasure.

Alan & Colleen Hartling

Halifax, NS

Apart from Dave’s ability to generate retirement plans and strategies which he is very good at, perhaps his greatest strength is his ability to listen and his desire to help. Good listeners like Dave know what questions to ask because they listen to what the client has told them before they ask the questions. This enables Dave to craft retirement and investment strategies that fit the specific client and his or her circumstances. The end result is a tailor-made strategy that the client can associate with and they can understand. If this is important to you then I recommend that your contact Dave for a consultation.

Miles Sweeney

CPA, CA

Our family immigrated from South-Africa to work and live in Canada. I worked as a family Doctor in Newfoundland and decided I needed an income protector plan in case I got disabled for whatever reason. I was very healthy and never missed a day from work in 3 years. Because of my busy schedule, it took 3 years to finally convince me to take out the income protector plan.

The final paperwork was done and one year later I was diagnosed with a late stage bone cancer. After chemotherapy, several surgeries and radiotherapy, I was deemed permanently disabled to work. My current disability insurance paid barely 66 % of my prior salary, so needless to say, this placed us in a terrible financial state.

Fortunately the income protector plan started paying out monthly, the same amount I was earning prior to my diagnosis. This is a non taxable amount and with it we can continue our standard of living as before. The income protector plan is also coupled with inflation so the payment amount increases.

The message here is that nobody is healthy enough to say they do not need an income protector plan like the one that was suggested to us. Thank you so much!

Dr. Eugene van Onselen

Coe Hill, Mtb

After living away for many years, I knew it was important to purchase health insurance for all those extras that can happen – despite our medical coverage here in Canada. I am so thankful for your sincere input, as merely 16 days after I signed the paperwork my oldest daughter sustained a blow to her head in a fluke accident. Thankfully, she did not have a brain injury. She had extensive lacerations inside her mouth, and multiple permanent teeth severely cracked and dislodged. There is no doubt she will live with the consequences of this injury for the rest of her life.

It is now 2 years later, and she is still required to see 3 different doctors, including regular visits to the IWK. I wanted to send a note of thanks to you because the health insurance has been wonderful…. they took the details of the accident and there hasn’t been a question since then. They have even sent a letter stating she will be looked after in future years in regards to this accident. Dave, if it were not for your services, our family would have endured unlimited medical bills that I don’t even like to think of!

Jocelyn Jones

Nova Scotia

We have found the D H Roberts Financial Group to be reliable for both personal and corporate insurance planning over the past 15 plus years. Working with Dave and has been refreshing because we have found him to be knowledgeable, trustworthy and resourceful in all aspects of benefits, pensions and corporate insurance planning. We would be happy to recommend D H Roberts Financial group for any Insurance related work.

Sean O’Connor

CEO, Vista Care

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