Good Morning Green Panda Readers.  I hope that all of our Canadian friends are enjoying the day off from work for Victoria Day.  Today we are going to discuss the exact reason why we all wake up every day and go to work.  We work to hopefully retire financially comfortable and maintain our desired lifestyle.

 

How Often Should We Review Our Retirement Plan?

In order to retire comfortably we have to create and regularly review our personal retirement plan.  We should sit down with our Personal Financial Planner and review our retirement plan at least once a year.  It is a good idea to review our retirement plan at least once a year to make sure that we are on track and working towards our retirement goals.

If we are new to investing it is a good idea to review our retirement plan twice a year with our Personal Financial Planner.  This ensures that we are comfortable with the level of risk in our investment portfolio, as well as the fluctuations in the value of our investment options.  We should also visit our Personal Financial Planner after we receive our first quarterly account statement to ensure that we fully understand our investment options.

 

Why Should We Review Our Retirement Plan?

Reviewing our retirement plan at least once a year allows us to update or change our retirement goals as needed, as well as review our investment options.  With each year that we get closer to our target retirement date our goals may change; if they do our investment options will have to be adjusted accordingly.  The closer we get to our target retirement date, the lower risk our investment options should be.

 

When Should We Start to Withdraw Funds From Our Retirement Plan?

People can retire and start withdrawing funds from their retirement plan at any age between 55 and 65 years old.  Early retirement for some people can begin at 55 years old, but some people who love their job decide to continue working past the age of 65.

Two of the main aspects of our retirement plan are deciding how much retirement income we will need to live comfortably in retirement, and where our retirement income will come from.  Once we determine how much income we will need in retirement, we can start planning where our retirement income will come from, and when we should start to withdraw funds from our personal retirement plans.

Our first source of income is to withdraw funds from our government pension plans such as Old Age Security as well as the Canada or Quebec Pension Plans.  We should also start to withdraw funds from our Employer Pension Plan whether is a Defined Benefit or a Defined Contribution Pension Plan.

As a last source of retirement income we should start to withdraw funds from our personal retirement savings plans such as an RRSP or a 401k.

 

In Case You Missed Them, Here are the Other Posts in our Retirement Planning for Young 20 Something Investors Series:

What is a Financial Planner?

Saving For Retirement: An Easy How To Guide

What Are Your Retirement Needs?

Start Planning Retirement in Your 20s

 

Photo by Baltic Development

 

Tahnya Kristina

Tahnya Kristina

Tahnya is 30 years old and lives in Montreal Quebec. She graduated in 2005 from Concordia University, and she currently works for a major International Financial Institution. She recently launched http://www.mediamadam.ca/. You can follow her on Twitter @TahnyaP.