Update on Retirement websites to help Boomers

Update on Retirement websites to help Boomers start to get ready to retire; or to help those already retired to make changes if needed in their retirement plan.

Canadian Government Retirement Calculator at 
http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/services/pensions/cric.shtml

This online tool will provide you with retirement income information, including the Old Age Security (OAS) pension and Canada Pension Plan (CPP) retirement benefits. You will need to work through a series of modules in order to estimate your retirement incomes from various sources and compare them to your goal income. It also allows you to see the impact of changes in savings behaviour

Money.ca Retirement Cash Flow Planner at http://www.getsmarteraboutmoney.ca/tools-and-calculators/retirement-cash-flow-calculator/retirement-cash-flow-calculator.aspx#.VkpXcnarTmU Use this calculator to plan your cash flow in retirement. You can estimate how long your money will last, and the impact of changes in external factors (investment return, inflation) and personal choices (lifestyle decisions, spending) on your cash flow.

The Globe and Mail’s Should I downsize my home and move  worksheet at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/mortgages/downsize-your-home-worksheet/article20320032/  The Globe and Mail Downsize Your Home Worksheet is designed to help people think through some of the financial considerations involved in selling the family home and moving to something smaller. Sure, there are lifestyle factors in deciding when to sell. But there’s also the state of the real estate market to consider. Should you lock in your gains, or wait and run the risk that the housing market could fall? To crunch the numbers, try the Downsize Your Home Worksheet.

The Globe and Mail’s Should I downsize to a Condo when I retire worksheet at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/retirement/does-it-pay-to-downsize/article26908427/  Condos are smaller than houses, but are they cheaper to live in? It's commonly assumed they are, but this may not be the case. Use our worksheet to do a personal analysis of how monthly living costs in a condo would compare to a house.

Money Sense has a list of where to find Fee only advisors at http://www.moneysense.ca/planning/where-to-find-a-fee-only-financial-planner/  Fee-only planners can be hard to find in Canada. Most financial planners are paid using the commission model. In that model, planners get most of their income in the form of commissions for selling you funds. However, a small group of planners have opted for the “fee-only” payment model, in which they get 100% of their income from their clients, and no money from fund companies.

Finding a Certified Financial Planner is easy with this tool at http://www.fpsc.ca/find-a-planner-certificant  or here http://www.iafp.ca/findaplanner_detailed.php  Your choice of financial planner is an important one. An appropriately qualified professional has the ability to safeguard and enhance your financial and overall well-being, both today and in the future.

Once you find your advisor read this article, and use this tool from the Globe and Mail to see if you are being overcharged at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/are-you-paying-too-much-for-financial-advice/article26505112/

Many of us want to invest in stocks that pay dividends, there are many good writers in this area, here is one named John Heinzl who has been writing about this for 25 plus years. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/strategy-lab/dividend-investing/

For the do it yourself investor here is a site that has some information about Canadian preferred stocks at http://prefinfo.com (As they say “Nothing in this website should be taken as a recommendation for the purchase or sale of any securities; please consult your personal financial advisors. Hymas Investment Management and/or its clients may from time to time have long or short positions in the securities discussed on this website.”)

Cannex Financial Exchange website at http://cannex.com/canada/english/  provides and  compiles data and calculations about a variety of financial products and makes that information available to financial service providers through a central exchange. CANNEX is an independent and privately held company with operations in Canada and the U.S. No financial institution holds any shares in the company, and no CANNEX employee or shareholder receives any income from the sale of financial products.

Money Sense has an article on How Annuities work, which is an interesting read at http://www.getsmarteraboutmoney.ca/en/managing-your-money/investing/rrifs-and-annuities/Pages/How-annuities-work.aspx#.VkpXwHarTmV  An annuity is a contract with a life insurance company. You deposit a lump sum of money, and they agree to pay you a guaranteed income for a set period of time — or for the rest of your life. Annuities are most commonly used to generate retirement income.

The Globe and Mail has a series of articles for investing for retirement at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/retirement/

Morningstar has solid information on investing as well http://www2.morningstar.ca/homepage/h_ca.aspx?culture=en-CA

The Fund Library at http://www.fundlibrary.com/features/rrsp.asp has good information on RRSP investing as well as other types of investing. Launched in 1997, FundLibrary.com is a financial resource website targeted to investors and financial professionals seeking reliable investment information at the click of a mouse.

The Financial Independence hub at http://findependencehub.com/category/longevity-aging/ is a North American portal site dedicated to all things related to Financial Independence: blogs, books, podcasts, discussion forums, web videos and the like.

The Canadian Retirement Mentoring Group (CRMG)  at http://primed-for-retirement.ca/ is a think tank dedicated to improving the retirement of Canadians through mentoring the public and their advisors. It was co-founded by Dr. Alex Richman and John Klaas in May 2012. 

The think tank is made up of professionals from diverse backgrounds in industry, government and academia- and seeks to integrate the disciplines of financial engineering (academic), financial planning (Practical), and human behaviour (psychological) Their website is not very interesting as it appears that they put most of the information on Linkedin. So if you are  a Linkedin member take a look at https://www.linkedin.com/company/canadian-retirement-mentoring-group