The Singles Tax: No-Nonsense Advice for Solo Earners<\/a>. As a result, retirement can work more smoothly for couples, leaving individuals who plan to retire alone managing more risk on their own.<\/p>\nFor example, in retirement, couples can split eligible pension income, such as RRIF withdrawals after age 65, which lowers their overall tax bill, Sylvestre-Williams explains in her book. Couples can also pool tax credits for expenses like charitable donations and medical costs.<\/p>\n
While working, a higher-earning partner can contribute to a lower-earning partner\u2019s retirement savings through tools such as spousal RRSPs, she adds. Many pension plans also include survivor benefits that continue to pay a spouse after the pensioner’s death.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also the added benefit of caregiving support, Sylvestre-Williams says. \u201cThere\u2019s no expectation of anybody doing caregiving, but if you are a couple, there is a higher chance that the partner who is not ill and is capable would be doing some of the caregiving, and generally that is unpaid,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
These differences may help explain why some single Canadians feel like retirement may be out of reach, even if they\u2019ve worked and saved consistently. Experts say those looking to guarantee a secure retirement will need to strategize differently from couples.<\/p>\n
Single Canadians typically have access to fewer family status-based tax credits, which means RRSP contributions, which reduce taxable income in the year they\u2019re made, are often one of the main ways to manage taxes as marginal rates rise, says Jackie Porter, a financial adviser at iA Private Wealth.<\/p>\n
Given that, if you earn over $60,000 in yearly income, prioritizing RRSP contributions often makes the most sense, she says. You can then potentially use your refund to make a TFSA contribution.<\/p>\n
However, if you\u2019re a single person with a group RRSP plan through your employer, that would be your priority above your own RRSP because of the matching programs available. \u201cThat\u2019s just free money,\u201d Porter said. \u201cIt would be remiss if you didn\u2019t take advantage of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Porter adds that RRSPs also come with trade-offs that single Canadians need to consider when planning their retirement. Unlike couples, singles can\u2019t roll RRSP assets to a surviving spouse tax-free. If a single person dies with money left in their RRSP, the remaining balance is treated as income in their final tax year, which can result in a significant tax bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a balancing act of taking out what you need for your lifestyle without depleting the investment that you have \u2014- where if you live too long, you\u2019d run out of money,\u201d Porter said.<\/p>\n
This is why timing the Canadian Pension Plan is also important for singles. Typically, Porter recommends singles delay their CPP whenever possible unless they have health issues that would favour taking it earlier. For women, in particular, \u201cCPP and Old Age Security aren\u2019t based on individual life expectancy,\u201d Porter said, meaning those benefits alone are unlikely to be enough. Delaying CPP, when possible, can result in a larger lifetime income.<\/p>\n
The reality is that the majority of Canadians don\u2019t have enough saved for retirement, Porter says. But more and more Canadians are reimagining what retirement looks like. For many, that means a side hustle to bring in some extra cash.<\/p>\n
Still, the goal should be to save enough money to retire at 65 or 70 in case health issues prevent further part-time work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For single Canadians, the path to retirement can be more challenging without the second income and support a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[45,49,48,4191,133,166885,131,132,166884,1705,12985,166886],"class_list":{"0":"post-394182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-canadians","12":"tag-finance","13":"tag-jackie-porter","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-personalfinance","16":"tag-renee-sylvestre-williams","17":"tag-retirement","18":"tag-retirement-savings","19":"tag-sylvestre-williams"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}