Chuchman Wealth Management
of RBC Dominion Securities

If you're retired, you know firsthand how difficult it can be to get a satisfying retirement income.

Traditional retirement Investments Like GICs and bonds continue to pay very low interest after taxes and inflation there can be very little left over.

What's more people are living longer so they need their retirement savings to last longer too.

So what can you do to maximize your after tax retirement income without taking on too much risk?

Here are a few ideas.

First, get the most out of your interest paying investments with a GIC or bond ladder.

For example, with a 5-year Bond ladder you invest equal amounts in a 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 year bond.

Now as each bond matures you reinvest in a new five-year bond. At the end of five years you hold only five year bonds.

The advantage?

Longer-term bonds historically pay higher interest than shorter term bonds.

Second, look at other investments that pay higher income.

Some options include corporate bonds, insurance company guaranteed investments, and dividend paying stocks.

They all have higher risk than traditional GICs and government bonds, to varying degrees, but you can reduce the risk through diversification.

The key is to find the right balance between higher income and lower risk based on your individual situation.

Third, consider how different investments are taxed in your regular non-registered accounts.

For example, dividends from Canadian corporations enjoy tax advantages while interest from GICs and bonds are fully taxable.

Sticking with the tax theme, also consider income splitting with your spouse to enhance your combined after-tax income.

With this strategy you transfer income from the higher-income spouse to the lower-income spouse so your combined tax rate is lower.

You can split up to 50% of your eligible pension income like RIF income with your spouse.

You can also split income with a spousal RSP or a spousal loan strategy.

These are just a few ideas for enhancing your retirement income.

If you would like more ideas specific to your situation, I invite you to contact an RBC Wealth Management advisor.

[Whitehorse Yukon sign]

[Coast Mountain Sports sign]

[Mary-Jane] Business is hard. It's hard.

I mean Craig and I are pretty good at taking risks in retail and we're pretty confident with the risks we take, but there are still risks.

[Craig and Mary-Jane RBC Wealth Management Clients Business Owners]

In the nineties, I was in our one of our stores it just before Christmas and I walked through the back rooms and looked at all the inventory and started to cry. I can still get teary about it was just like “oh my God. Are we going to sell all this stuff? Do we have the money for this?”

[Craig] RBC has been a game changer for us and what they've done, they’ve taken us to the next level.

We went to a meeting in Vancouver and there was a group of professionals there and we looked each other and we almost thought we walked into the wrong room.

It’s like, “all these people are here for us?”

We feel like a curtain has been pulled back and there is a whole set of resources that are available to us that we weren’t aware of before and they have done some financial planning for us that goes beyond simple financial planning, but kind of family planning, estate planning, succession planning, financial literacy- for children.

[Mary-Jane] That part is so important.

[Craig] We've got this detailed financial plan now, beyond a financial plan, it’s more like a life plan.

[Mary-Jane] Last year is able to buy a new a new horse. Now, I'm a crazy horse person and I was able to get this beautiful animal, and they're not cheap. I would advise no one to ever think it's an investment. Like it's really, really, a dumb way to spend your money, unless you love them.

[Jeff Glaicar, MBA, CIM, FCSI. Vice President, Portfolio Manager and Wealth Advisor RBC Dominion Securities Inc., RBC Wealth Management]

[Jeff Glaicar] Successful business owners sometimes don't know how successfully they have been.

When your financial means are there and we can do a road map to show that you can do that., you can go ahead and do something like MJ did, and she can only do it at a certain age and she's done it and it's the best personal dividend anyone could get.

[Mary-Jane competing at 1.10 metre Adult Amateur Champion, BC 2019]

[Mary-Jane] There’re no regrets, right? I was able to achieve something that was really, really, obviously, important to me.

[Craig] Part of the reason that we have the confidence to go and buy this very expensive horse is because, we had a plan.

[Mary-Jane] Yeah.

[Craig] Because of that plan, it let us do those kinds of things, without being concerned about it.

[Mary-Jane] And I don't feel guilty. I didn't feel guilty doing it.

[Craig] We weren’t spending our child’s inheritance.

[Mary-Jane] Or putting our business at risk.

[Craig] And it's happened because of planning and because of this relationship we have with the people at the World Bank.

[RBC Wealth Management logo]