Travel and Adventure

We were at a housewarming party the other day and conversation moved to travel and adventure. We talked about our trips to Australia and others talked of their trips to Maui  and Scotland, Ireland and England. We all are in our late 60's and plan to continue to travel until our health or the cost of travel insurance makes it impossible to continue.

Travel is not for everyone, one person talked about a couple who had different views on travelling. He hated to travel, being in airports, long drives in cars, or even on trains, were discomforting and exhausting for him. Once he arrived at his destination, he loved being where ever he was as long as he was stationed in one spot. His significant other loved the journey, loved being in motion but when she arrived she wanted to explore the surroundings, to be in motion, to experience the moment. The couple, because of their different views, did not travel much.

Travelling with other couples was part of our conversation. Three couples went to Florence, Italy. One of the couples, lived for art and culture, were excited about the prospect of exploring this great city, but when they arrived the others in the group announced they were not interested in visiting Art Museums or other artistic venues. The couple was very disappointed

Another couple went to Maui with the hosts of the housewarming and the husband of the second couple was looking forward to cooking, barbecuing and showing off his culinary skills. When they arrived the wife of the other couple said, I am not cooking, I am eating out every night. The husband did not get a chance to show off his learned skills.

The reality is that people travel for many different reasons, and if you are travelling with a group or with another couple, you need to discuss what you hope to get out of the holiday and if you don't you may end up not meeting your expectations. Travel is fun, resting, educational and joyful and rewarding if shared with others, but only if there is discussion about expectations first.

Canada is growing older

Here are some highlights from our last census for fun look at how Canada is changing.

• Number of seniors (age 65 and over) is nearly 5 million

• The number of seniors is at the highest rate ever in Canada

• The working-age population, aged 15-64, only grew by 5.7 per cent and account for 42 per cent of the total population

• The population of children under 14 only grew by 0.5 per cent

• The population of children under 4 increased a lot, by 11 per cent between 2006 and 2011

• The first baby boomers hit retirement age — 65 — in 2011

• The fastest-growing age group are 60-64 year-olds, at 29 per cent

• The second fastest-growing group are centenarians, those over 100.

• Saskatchewan had the highest fertility rate of all the provinces

• The working age population in Alberta encompasses 70 per cent of the overall population

• The oldest — cities — are Parksville, B.C., Elliot Lake, Ont., and Cobourg, Ont

• Cities with the highest proportion of working age population are: Wood Buffalo, Alta., Yellowknife, Strathmore, Alta., and Whitehorse

• 5,825 Canadians are over 100 years old

• There are 500 women centenarians for every 100 men

• Saskatchewan has the highest rate of centenarians of all the provinces and territories

• The Calgary CMA has an equal gender split, 50-50

• Wood Buffalo, Alta., is the manliest town in Canada, with 54.4 per cent of the overall population

• Cobourg, Ont., is where the ladies are. It is the city under 100,000 with largest proportion of women, 53.6 per cent

• Nunavut is the youngest territory or province, with 32 per cent of the population under 14

• The median age in Canada in May 2011 was 40.6

• The number of children aged four and under increased for the first time in 50 years

• Nearly two-thirds of all teenagers live in central Canada

What If?

What if, instead of waiting for everything to be perfect, you start living your dreams this week, to any degree you can? 

Would it make a difference to your life?



 I bet it would.

Not everyone needs to save for retirement.

Some Canadians will have enough income to fund their postwork lives without ever setting aside a dime in their own savings accounts. How do you know whether you’re one of them?

The answer hinges on how much you’ll get automatically from the retirement income sources you build up by living and working in Canada

A target to aim for

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) tracks retirement income data across its 34 member countries – and has established a “target replacement rate” for retirement income.

According to the OECD, retirees should aim to have 60 per cent of their gross pre-retirement income once they hang up their lunch buckets or turn in their office keys in order to maintain their standard of living as they age.

Across the OECD, the average gross replacement rate for the worker earning an average income is about 54 per cent.

In Canada, retirees can typically expect to receive guaranteed lifetime income from Old Age Security (OAS), the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) and the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), in addition to any other workplace pension income they might also receive.

A focus on retirement income, not retirement savings

Looking at Canada, the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand – collectively known as the Anglo-Saxon economies – retirees earning the average income can expect to receive between about one-third (in Britain) to one-half (in Australia) of their working income from guaranteed pensions once they hit retirement.

The OECD calculated these percentages by adding up the income from government and mandatory private pensions (such as CPP in Canada), and comparing it with earnings in member countries.

What if you aren’t earning the average income, but something less – or more? Here’s where the numbers get interesting: If you earn a lot more than the average income before retirement, you can expect to get a lot less, in percentage terms, of guaranteed lifetime pensions in retirement.

If you earn half of the average income, you might have 80 per cent or more of your working income replaced in retirement from mandatory public and private sources that you can’t outlive.

On the other side of the ledger, however, the replacement rate from guaranteed sources drops off significantly: Retirees earning one-and-a-half times the average income might need to replace roughly 75 per cent or more of their preretirement income to hit the recommended target.

Source

So many of us are saving enough, here is some interesting stats from CBC News. They have compiled a number of important figures on retirement and financial planning in Canada. All figures are from Statistics Canada unless otherwise indicated.

Saving with Registered Retirement Savings Plans...

5,953,370 — number of Canadians who contributed to an RRSP in 2011 (down slightly from 5,956,010 in 2010).

24% — percentage of eligible tax filers who contributed to an RRSP in 2011 (down from 26% in 2010).

$34.4 billion — total RRSP contributions in 2011 (up from $33.9 billion in 2010).

$772.5 billion — total amount Canadians were entitled to contribute to RRSPs as of 2011.

$683.6 billion — total unused RRSP contribution room as of 2011 (accumulating since 1991).

22.7 million — number of Canadians with RRSP contribution room in 2011.

$2,830 — median RRSP contribution in Canada in 2011 (up from $2,790 in 2010).

$4,750 — highest median RRSP contribution in 2011 (Nunavut).

$2,310 — lowest median RRSP contribution in 2011 (Manitoba).

$775 billion — the total value of assets in Canadian RRSPs in 2011 (down from in $782 billion in 2010), according to Investor Economics.

$22,970 — maximum allowable RRSP contribution per person for the 2012 tax year.

$301,478 — amount in an RRSP at age 65 if a person started contributing $2,000 every year from age 25 (assuming five per cent compound annual growth and 1.5 per cent inflation), according to the Fiscal Agents investment calculator.

$158,888 — amount in an RRSP at age 65 if a person started contributing $2,000 every year from age 35 (assuming five per cent compound annual growth and 1.5 per cent inflation), according to Fiscal Agents.

$75,080 — amount in an RRSP at age 65 if a person started contributing $2,000 every year from age 45 (assuming five per cent compound annual growth and 1.5 per cent inflation), according to Fiscal Agents.

...or Tax Free Savings Accounts

$73.9 billion — value of tax-free savings accounts in Canada as of June 2012 (up from $54.4 billion the year earlier), according to to data from the consulting firm Investor Economics.

10 million — number of TFSAs in Canada as of June 2012 (up from 8.56 million the year earlier), according to Investor Economics.

$7,400 — average account holding for TFSA as of June 2012 (up from $6,354 the year earlier), according to Investor Economics.

$5,500 — annual contribution limit for 2013, an increase from the $5,000 annual limit that has been in place since the accounts were created in 2009.

$25,500 — The maximum amount you can put into a TFSA during 2013 if you've never contributed before and were 18 or older in 2009

BC is moving to the left of centre

The results of an Insights West poll are based on an online survey of 814 British Columbians conducted from May 7 to 9 and reported by the Vancouver Sun found some interesting results. The margin of error is +/- 3.1 percentage points.

The NDP would win the popular vote in B.C. if a federal election were held tomorrow, according to a new poll, but the party will need to learn from Rachel Notley’s example in Alberta if it wants to turn the province orange.

A new survey from Insights West found that 35 per cent of decided voters in this province would cast their vote for the New Democrats, compared to 29 per cent for the Conservatives and 25 per cent for the Liberals.

NDP leader Thomas Mulcair fared particularly well in the poll, earning a 52-per-cent approval rating, edging out Liberal leader Justin Trudeau’s 46 per cent and trouncing Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s 35 per cent.

Some highlights of the Insights West poll:
Stephen Harper’s Conservatives didn't earn a single approval rating above 50 per cent when B.C. voters were asked whether the ruling party is doing a good job on key issues. Here’s where they performed the worst:

• Government accountability — 71-per-cent disapproval
• Housing, poverty and homelessness — 64-per-cent disapproval
• Environment m — 62-per-cent disapproval
• Health care — 57-per-cent disapproval
• Energy and pipelines — 56-per-cent disapproval
• Most likely to support the NDP:
• Among Vancouver Island residents — 47 per cent of decided voters
• Among young people aged 18-34 — 42 per cent of decided voters
• Among women — 40 per cent of decided voters

Most likely to support the Conservatives:

• Among people over the age of 55 — 36 per cent of decided voters
• Among men — 34 per cent of decided voters
• Among people who live anywhere but Vancouver Island — 32 per cent of decided voters

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