Your Retirement Planning Simplified

They stayed the course for 30 years, built a solid nest egg, and now, as they get close to retirement, they lie awake running the what-if's. What if the market tanks the year I retire? What if I live to 95 or 100? What if inflation keeps chewing through everything I have built? In this episode, Joe sorts those worries into the ones to stop losing sleep over and the ones that are actually in your h...

The people who walk in with the most secure retirement income Joe ever sees - a defined benefit pension that pays every month for the rest of their life - are very often the most nervous about spending their savings. The strongest floor under them of anybody, and they are the ones white-knuckling the nest egg. If that is you or your spouse, this episode is for you. A defined benefit pension is a w...

Last week we touched on three things you should do when markets drop. This week is the flip side: the one mistake that does more damage than all the rest put together. If you get this wrong, it can quietly undo years of good planning in a single scared afternoon. Joe is recording this while things are calm, on purpose, so it is ready for you when markets eventually get bumpy. The flight to safety...

Right now, markets are calm. And that is exactly the right time to talk about what to do when they are not. When markets drop, almost everything your gut is telling you to do is the exact opposite of what you should actually do. This episode is your fire drill - so you know where the exits are long before the building fills with smoke. A market downturn hits differently when you are retired or clo...

Most people have one date circled for their Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) - the year they turn 71. The year when it has to convert to a Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF). The plan is simple - just don't touch it until you have to. But there is a move available at 65 that most people walk right past. And missing it can mean paying more tax than necessary every year between 65 and...

"My pension pays $4,000 a month for life." "I've got a million and a half in GICs and I'll live on $100,000 a year for the next 20 years." Both statements are said with real relief - and both people might be taking on a lot more risk than they realize. Today Joe explains why guaranteed is not the same as protected, and what to check so your income still holds up at 85. Most people plan retirement...

For 40 years, your paycheque just showed up. Then you retire, and suddenly you are sitting on the biggest amount of money you have ever had with no paycheque coming in. A lot of good savers freeze. They are scared to touch it, and they end up living much smaller than they can afford in the exact years they were saving for. There is one thing that fixes this, and you can start building it this week...

When Joe asks couples in retirement planning whether they would ever be open to freeing up equity in their home, the reaction is almost always the same: "I don't want to leave my house" or "if I have to do that, I don't think I can retire." But nobody is asking you to sell your house this year. That is the whole point of this episode. Your home is one of the only assets you own that does not come...

You sign your will, feel a wave of relief, and put it in the drawer. Done, handled, the kids are taken care of. But a will mostly records what you decided. It does not explain why. And if your children have never heard your reasoning while you are still here to explain it, you can leave them with a division of assets and very little context. That gap is often where grief turns into conflict.   Epi...

More than half of Canadians say they are afraid of making the wrong financial decision, and half say they have lost sleep over money. Your first instinct is probably that this is about people who do not have enough. But some of the most financially stressed people Joe sits down with have more than enough, and they still lie awake. This episode is for them. A big account balance is not the same thi...

If something happened to you tomorrow, do you know who would actually receive each of your accounts? Not who you think it is - but who is actually named on the paperwork right now. For a lot of people, the honest answer is they set it up years ago and have not looked at it since. That is exactly the situation this episode addresses. Beneficiary designations drift in two ways: things change, or mis...

Most retirement checklists cover the big pieces: your income plan, when to take CPP and OAS, stress testing, consolidating your accounts. But today Joe talks about a different set of moves - the ones the standard lists tend to skip. They all have one thing in common: they either get harder once your paycheque stops, or you cannot undo them later if you get them wrong. The real cost of missing any...

In almost every episode of this series, the money was actually fine. The math worked. So what held people back? In this wrap-up episode, Joe names the thing that sits underneath the numbers, and explains why the final decision to retire is rarely just a financial one. The plan comes first, always. But here is what happens for a lot of people: the math says yes, and they still do not move. At that...

The go-go years are real. But does that mean you should spend everything early and hope for the best? Not quite. In this episode, Joe adds the honest counterweight to the last few weeks of conversation, because building a plan around a fixed timeline is its own kind of risk. The go-go, slow-go, and no-go phases of retirement show up on average. But that phrase - on average - is doing a lot of work...

Two people can have the exact same amount of money and the exact same retirement, and one spends comfortably while the other can barely bring themselves to touch it. A big part of what separates them comes down to where the money comes from, not how much. In this episode, Joe explains why guaranteed income changes the spending experience entirely, and how to build more of it into your plan. Drawin...

If the best years of retirement are front-loaded, why do most retirement income plans hand you the same inflation-adjusted number every single year for 30 years? It doesn't match how anyone actually lives. In this episode, Joe walks through a better approach; One that spends more when you can enjoy it, eases off when you naturally slow down, and still holds up when life throws a curveball. The 4%...

"One more year." It sounds responsible. But after a lot of these conversations, Joe has come to believe it usually has very little to do with money. In this episode, he pulls this apart and explains why the timing of your retirement matters more than most people realize. Most people picture retirement as one long, even stretch. But the research and the real client stories tell a different story: r...

Most people worry about running out of money in retirement. But for many careful savers, the bigger risk is the opposite: reaching the end of life having never spent what you worked so hard to build. In this episode, Joe explains why the habits that made you a great saver can quietly stop you from enjoying your retirement income, and what it actually takes to give yourself permission to spend. Joe...

For Episode 200, Joe pulls back the curtain on how Matthews and Associates actually works with clients, and more importantly, why they built their process the way they did. If you've ever felt nervous about talking to a financial advisor, or put off getting advice because you weren't sure what to expect, this episode is worth your time. One of the most common things Joe hears from new clients is s...

You saved carefully for decades, but what if that same caution is quietly costing you your best years in retirement? Many Canadians retire with more than enough and still can't bring themselves to spend it. In this episode, Joe names the pattern nobody talks about: the underspending trap, and how to break free from it. The same discipline that builds a healthy retirement nest egg can quietly preve...

Most people treat the Old Age Security (OAS) clawback like a cliff you fall off the moment your income crosses the line. It isn't. In this episode we reframe the clawback as one number among many, and look at when fighting to avoid it quietly costs you more than it saves. A listener wrote in about friends who organize their whole retirement around protecting OAS. Joe walks through what the clawbac...

In this episode of Your Retirement Planning Simplified, Joe Curry explains the real value of a one-time retirement plan and why retirement planning should never be viewed as a one-and-done exercise. Learn how retirement income planning, tax-efficient withdrawal strategies, CPP and OAS decisions, and ongoing financial guidance work together to help Canadians adapt to life's inevitable changes.   Th...

What should Canadians do when they turn 60 and start thinking seriously about retirement? In this episode, Joe Curry walks through the exact retirement income planning framework he would use if he were turning 60 today, covering CPP timing, RRSP and RRIF withdrawal strategies, tax-efficient investing, and portfolio design. Learn how to use your 60s as a powerful planning decade to reduce lifetime...

In this episode of Your Retirement Planning Simplified , Joe Curry explains how pension income splitting works in Canada and why it can be one of the most effective tax-saving strategies for retirees. Learn how RRIF withdrawals, defined benefit pensions, and strategic retirement income planning can help couples reduce taxes, protect OAS benefits, and create more tax-efficient retirement income.  ...

When should you convert your RRSP to a RRIF? In this episode of Your Retirement Planning Simplified , Joe Curry explains the key differences between RRSPs and RRIFs, how RRIF minimum withdrawals work, and why the right timing depends on your retirement income plan, tax strategy, and estate goals. Learn how RRSP meltdown strategies, pension income splitting, and OAS clawback planning can impact you...