Planning in your high-income earning years to achieve your retirement goals

Retirement planning is an important part of your wealth plan because it helps maintain your wealth and lifestyle after your income earning years allowing you to live the life you want to have. As we work together to establish and maintain your retirement planning goals, we’ll discuss your retirement goals and optimize your retirement savings options while they’re available during your high-income earning years. This includes identifying key areas of your lifestyle during retirement such as where you want to live and how you want to spend your time.
 

Your peak earning years are particularly important when it comes to proactively planning for retirement including planning for cash flow needs, liabilities, liquidity and protection during retirement. From being in your highest tax bracket to your evolving investment profile, we need to take several aspects of your wealth plan into account so you can optimize your long-term retirement goals in the future. Here are five things we need to consider when developing and managing your retirement plan.

Assess your retirement income needs
 

Determining your income needs in retirement is foundational for optimizing your wealth plan to align with your goals during your high-income earning years. Your unique retirement goals will have an impact on your cash flow needs and management. In your peak earning years, it’s important to consider how much you should be saving for the future to maintain your desired lifestyle, and the most effective strategy to build and preserve your wealth over the long term.

Develop a long-term investment strategy

Your high-income earning years are ripe with opportunity to harness the power of compounding returns, strategic asset allocation and diversification when it comes to investing. By tactically positioning your investment portfolio for the long term, we can set you on the path to achieve your retirement goals by finding the right balance between growth and income within your portfolio as you move closer to retirement.

Reduce tax liabilities

Your highest earning years are also likely your highest taxed years. Reducing your tax liabilities as much as possible during this time frame is critical to build your wealth. Our team of professionals includes tax specialists to help you navigate the complexities of taxation within all stages and areas of your wealth plan.

Understand your income sources in retirement
 

Understanding the sources of your income available in retirement will help optimize your savings. In addition to personal savings, individual retirement accounts, individual pension plans and employer-based pension plans, some of the most common sources of retirement income in Canada include the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) or Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) and Old Age Security (OAS). When planning your retirement savings, we’ll take all retirement income sources into consideration to help ensure your cash flow is manageable and tax efficient.

Envision your lifestyle and location

Your unique vision for retirement requires proactive planning so we can tailor your wealth plan accordingly. For instance, is living abroad, purchasing property in another country or relocating to another property in Canada in your retirement plan? Will you need to transition your business? Are there particular things in retirement you want to do that need to be accounted for from an overall planning perspective? These are just some of many considerations we can discuss during your high-income earning years to tailor your retirement plan.

Retirement planning in your high-income earning years is an important aspect of your wealth plan that requires careful consideration and strategic decision-making. It’s important for us to work together with the team of advisory experts available to establish and manage your wealth plan as goals adjust or get reprioritized. Taking a proactive approach to your retirement helps ensure your specific goals are accounted for in your overall wealth plan.