So Tina what was our biggest fear coming into retirement -
Our biggest fear was that our money would run out - So in this video we are going to share with you
what we are doing to help prevent that happening but before we do that Tina - If you are new to
our channel we are Tina and Norm and we would love you to subscribe to our channel and give
us the thumbs up because it really helps our channel to grow - So we are not going to run
out of money in retirement are we Tina - Hopefully not Norm if we have all our plans right - So what
we did the very first step we decided to get rid of our family home that we raised a family
in because it was big and it was expensive to run and maintain so we decided to - Downsize and move
and in our case we decided when we sold the house that we would actually move into an
apartment - And it was a rent controlled apartment although we didn't fully realize that at the
time it was just blind good luck - Yes we didn't realize what such a good deal we've got but we do
realize that if that's not right for you, you can still downsize by possibly buying a smaller house
because remember a smaller house costs less to run in heating, hydro just all the normal
running expenses of a house oh and including taxes too Norm - Yes it does so then you can take the
amount of money that you are going to save, the capital that is left after buying a smaller house
and maybe invest that so what we did is we invested 50% in equities and 50% in cash
just to give us that peace of mind that we wouldn't loose everything in the stock
market - No we were kind of airing on the side of caution buy I think both us when we talked
about this Norm hey did like the idea of having immediate cash that we could get at that we had
that availability if we needed something quickly to us that gave us that peace of mind - And so
we our very first thoughts were to maximize the tax free savings schemes that are available in
our country and we do know there are tax free savings schemes in America and in the U.K. so
the first leg that we felt was to maximize those so we are using a TFSA which basically
shelters the money tax free because we have already paid tax on it as we earned it - And
I think one of the things with that to Norm is that because we get dividends so our stocks are
earning dividends it just reinvests it we don't have to pull from that on a monthly basis so it
just keeps adding to the pot which is great - So those dividends will ether be reinvested in stocks
or from time to time we will scrape the money into a high interest savings account as well,
so how much money do we live on Tina - Well we manage to live on around $3,000 a month - And
that comes from our British Old Age pension our Canadian Pension Plan and the OAS - Yes
that's very true and you know what it's a very manageable amount for us it takes care of our rent
our utilities are included in the rent which is a huge plus for us so on top of that anything like
car insurances or things like that food everyday day to day running expenses is fully taken care of
from that - Now we can't travel with that income so that's where we make the conscious decision to
draw down money out of our investment accounts to pay for that but this last two and a half
years nearly three years now we virtually haven't traveled so we have been saving that money - But
the other thing to Norm is if we decide to buy something which in the last couple of years we
have purchased a car and a trailer we purchased both of those for cash so we would take that money
from our big fund as Norm said which meant that we have no loans - A planned purchase - Which
was great - Now the number one thing going into retirement especially for you new retirees or
those in your fifties looking at retirement get debt free, that's what we did we got rid off all
that credit card debt, we didn't have a mortgage because we had already paid that off so if your'e
sat with debt look at the highest interest debts you have and pay those off first, it's no fun in
retirement loosing a quarter or a third of your income paying off debt - And I think a lot of
people don't realize that do they Norm your'e lucky if you can get around lets say an average
of 5 to 6% paid on things if you are then paying like 20% on a credit card debt you know it's crazy
your'e just not going to get ahead of the game like that are you - No you are throwing money away
so we got rid of all our debt we paid the car for cash we paid the R.V. trailer for cash those came
out of our investments - There's a really good feeling about being able to pay for everything
out the cash it's great knowing you're not going to be going into making a payment for years - So
how are we able to live on $3,000 or slightly less than that per month and pay for all our expenses
part of it is we shop the flyers don't we Tina - Yes we do - We love those bargains, you gotta
believe it - Yes there we are every Wednesday or Thursday because a lot of them are on different
days - And we do have Flipp on our iPads which is a shopping app that has all the digital fliers on
there, that's a difficult word - But you will be surprised just how much money you can save if
you look at they flyer's for example this week an amazing deal on Folgers coffee is $8.99 and
actually Norm that was one thing we bought in the U.S. and we paid a lot more for the smaller size
coffee - It was 730 grams and it was $10.99 and we get 905 grams for $8.99 - So it's a great deal the
same thing if we see chickens go on sale we will buy 2 or 3 of them and just remember that's one
of our favourites cooking the chicken in the air fryer - We no longer buy those store bought roast
chickens because they add too much salt to it, you don't know what else they add to it so we just buy
a raw chicken that's been raised without antibiotics and we put it in our air fryer in
an hour it's cooked and my goodness it's good - Wonderful isn't it - With our investments
earning dividends is better in Canada because they are taxed differently and slightly lower
than income the good thing about is that we get from all of our investment companies our
brokerages they send us a tax voucher every year and that is what we write down in our
tax return so dividends dividend income is taxed far favourably and the TFSA don't forget
everything grows tax free in that so there are no tax certificates for that we primarily get
them in our regular trading accounts and our RRSP - But it's very simple isn't it Norm to
just declare them on our yearly tax return - And we do our own taxes we use one of those
smart programs that is online it walks you through it so we save money there as well
so do you have the fear, will your money last as long as your life in retirement we think with a
few careful planning tips it should really work and if you have enjoyed this video then we have
a companion video to it we are sure you will like to see, it's just going to be appearing in front
of me - And we hope that everybody is staying safe - And keeping well - Until the next time - Bye bye