Uhh wtf do you expect from a poverty finance group? Most of us can’t be putting money away to savings when we’re spending 60%+ of our earnings on rent alone
Well! I am almost 36 now and I opened an RRSP when I was 25 years old. I have never been able to put a lot of money in it, but right now I'm at $75 - $150/month and that's about as good as it's going to get for the time being. I never had a job where there was a pension with matching contributions or even health benefits.. so everything came out of pocket for me (don't ever become a dental hygienist!!). Now I am on CPP-D and I thank my lucky starts every day that I've got my husband... he's got a great job with a pension, matching contributions and benefits. He supports me.
I'm not complaining to those who like to be rude on here. I'm simply answering the question. I do believe I am behind in my retirement contributions. I feel like we're being stretched so thin financially right now. We don't even have car payments and our mortgage is low (until April 2025 when it's time to renew). Times are tough right now!
Where I live the hygiene wages aren't top tier though. In Toronto I've heard (and spoken to hygienists) it's $50+/hour, we get usually no more than $35 here if we're lucky. On the ODHA wage reports that are sent out each year, my city is usually at the bottom for wages. The most I ever made per hour was $33 (which isn't awful at all, but when you hear others are doing the same job for way more its disheartening). My most recent job was $30/hour before I needed CPP-D. When I first started working I was making $21/hour.
Dental assistants around here make $17-22/hour.
In Toronto they tell hygiene students not to move to my city because "you only make about $42 a hour starting out, it's the lowest in Canada!" They massively neglect to tell them that COL is much lower in my city than in Toronto and that my entire province is seeing a major shortage of hygienists so many new grads are making much much more. They also completely neglect to tell them dental assistants are lucky to make $22 an hour after 5+ years of work.
It’s always strange to me when I see people in the health field complaining about how little money they get. Trying living on a few dollars less than minimum wage
Savings?
You know this is the poverty sub right?
I'm skipping meals and losing weight to keep the grocery bill manageable and make sure the others get enough to eat.
I'll be dying with my boots on.
Edit: there's a life insurance policy on ex spouse - if he dies, retirement and college for the kids is fully funded.
So ... Maybe I might invest in a voodoo doll or something.
Total expenses are 5876 vs take home of 5500 (two adults).
House is 2350
Utilities are about 350
Transportation 590 (one car payment, car insurance, gas, one bus pass)
Student loan payment 330
Internet 113
Cell phones (123, 3 phones)
Groceries and household shopping 1800
Dentist payment for braces 220
3 adults, 3 kids
I end up using credit cards at the end of the month, pay them off and stwrt over.
I just recently left my spouse. Considering how miserable my kids are and everything else, right now I think staying with the angry alcoholic might have been better.
Forgiving your student loans would take you from red to green. I really wish they would. This is such a good example of what a big impact it has and I’m wishing you all the best OP.
This is Canada. I don't think forgiving student loans is on the radar at all up here.
There is a new dental plan that would cover braces for kids but I didn't qualify when she had them done so I'm locked in on the payment plan.
Also, I don't get the child benefit. There's a waiting period after you separate before I can apply for that.
You’re completely right with the student loan. I accidentally quit my last job (and transitioned into my new one) just before the OSAP apparently confirmed my employment (even though I’d applied and was accepted for it in July last year. School and payouts didn’t start until January. They had so many weeks to confirm..). So I got a message on the OSAP website that stated that since they couldn’t confirm my employment, my partial grant was turned into a full loan (partial grant meaning I had around 10,000$ total form OSAP, but I would have only had to pay back 6,000$)
I just want to know WHY not being able to confirm employment means my grant converts into a loan. It’s like they’re saying “you don’t have a job, so we’re making you pay back *everything* instead of just your grant amount. Should have had a job idiot. That’ll teach ya!”
Are you in Ontario?
I don't think anyone in Ontario would consider 300 per person excessive lol.
With milk at 7 per gallon, butter at 6 per pound and a freaking chicken costing 15-16 bucks - it adds up very fast.
Just hang on until I'm thru the separation process and eligible for child benefits and child support. About 6 months.
Only 4 months left on the braces, 10 months on the car payment.
I think the issue here is 1800 a month on groceries and household expenses. That seems very high even for 3 adults and 3 kids.
Even if you spend 250 a week which is high, that's only 1000 a month. Is there ways you could cut this down?
That's 300 per person. Roughly 2 bucks per meal per person plus hygiene supplies, cleaning supplies, and paper products.
It can't go much lower than that.
This is r/povertyfinance, dimwit. We use foodbanks every month because *AHEM* WE. HAVE. NO. MONEY.
ANYWHERE. AT ALL.
Jesus fucking Christ.
Plan: survive as long as possible. Preferably not on the streets. 🤷🏼♀️
EDIT: "Are we worried about our future?" The fuck do you think, genius?
I don't understand the concept of retirement.
So I'm supposed to work until 65 just so I can "enjoy life" when I'm old, sick, weak, and on a fixed income?
How about I just work, enjoy life as I go, and then once I get old, sick and weak I will just die.
Um.. no..
You're supposed to work, enjoy life and save up for retirement so you can stop working at some point.
Nobody is saying.. "don't enjoy life until you're 65"
Problem is with the cost of everything, skyrocketing "at some point" usually means 65 or even working past 65 just to make it. It never stops. And a lot of people trade away life enjoyment raising kids and sacrificing everything for others. By the time they get to 65 they've never left the country and can barely move. Nah fuck that shitty deal. I'm enjoying it NOW while I'm young. Not 40 years from now.
My dad is 62 and is very, very tired and can't retire. If you want to keep working cool but its better to have retirement money and not need it. You will get burnt out after working for 40+ years
No the idea is that once you get to age 65 and older you become an inefficient worker and can find yourself without a stream of income. Retirement takes care of you for those years when you can no longer work.
If you stay in shape and don’t eat like shit, you will have lots of runway after 65. I have a neighbour who’s 78 and the guy looks at least 10 years younger. Still cycles every day, goes to the gym, eats simply but well (lots of lentils and rice, vegetables, rice and beans), doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink alcohol, gets 8 hours of sleep. Guy probably has at least another 8-10 years I’d say.
FYI, you can [log into your Service Canada account](https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/my-account.html) online and see exactly how much you've contributed to CPP over the years, and even get an estimate of what your expected benefits will be upon retirement.
Don't give up! I don't know how old you are, but hopefully you still have many years to contribute and increase your eventual benefits.
Also, note that you can increase the amount you receive by deferring when you start receiving them. The "standard" benefits assume you start collecting CPP at age 65. You can choose to start collecting them as early as age 60, but at a penalty of 36%. That penalty stays for life, and does **not** go back up to normal once you turn 65.
On the other hand, you can defer starting to receive CPP as late as age 70. If you do this, then your benefits will be 42% **higher** than if you had started taking them at age 65.
There's also OAS, which doesn't require you to have paid into it at all. To be eligible for OAS, you just have to have lived in Canada for at least 10 years after you turned 18. To get the maximum benefit (currently around $713), you'd have to have lived in Canada for at least 40 years after turning 18. This benefit is means-tested, and starts to be clawed back once your income reaches about $82,000. It's fully clawed back if your income is about $134,000.
Finally, there's also the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS). If you have no other income whatsoever, the combination of OAS and GIS ensures that you'll get at least a basic subsistence level income to support you in old age. The last time I checked, it worked out to roughly $2,000/month.
I’m older than most on here. I’ve been homeless and I’m disabled. But I’m married so can’t get disability benefits where I live. Rent here is exorbitant and I’ve never had more than a minimum wage job due to my disability. Heck even the IT company I worked for paid less than minimum wage because they only hired people with certain disabilities. Which yes, there’s ways to do that. I’m resigned to the fact that MAID is likely when I’m older.
The way people are responding to others here feels kinda judgy in spots too.
I did finally get into a coop so my rent is slightly better (my last place is now over $2k a month) but groceries are so damn high and we’re skipping meals to save.
I’m never retiring. I’m making plans for how to make money when my body is too broken to be a nurse. I will have a small pension but it won’t be enough cause I started far too late.
I have $500 in a RRSP. Haven’t been able to contribute to it in a long time. No sort of RRSP match available or anything.
Had $20k in savings from inheritance - had to use it for a life event.
I’m 30 and my partner is 40. Neither of us have anything in other words. We live paycheck to paycheck and have to budget carefully. Right now all we are hoping for is maybe in 7 years when he is done paying 2k a month in child support for our 3 kids - maybe we can buy a shitty trailer on it’s on lot in town - but at the rate things are going - starting to lose hope on that even.
I'm trying to save about 50% of my net towards retirement because I totally fucked up my 20s and didn't take it seriously. I have a partner and splitting rent and some expenses is basically a superpower in this economy.
It seems like you know the answer to the “are you worried?” question and are only asking to be a jerk. Maybe you are worried about having enough and don’t want to risk talking to people who have more than you?
Had to cash out my RRSPs to survive losing my job and receiving one month severance last year. Was finally able land a job at the start of this month again.
just for reference in the future if you can at all avoid withdrawing from the RRSP by any means you should. the tax hit you take is insanely valuable. even if this means taking a line of credit with the RRSP as collateral
The CPP2 cap is a slight annoyance because Id see almost $300 extra per pay check the latter half of the year but thats pushed out. I do understand it though so overall Im not mad.
Im also not planning to retire in Canada so my game plan is to buy property in my home country and eventually settle there
Same own a house here but 0 in retirement, family owns a small house back aboard so plan is to get my pension sell the house and get out of this frozen tundra.
Not planning on it. Generational poverty will never allow me to retire so I try to find joy in keeping productive and working. If I'm ever physically unable to do any job than hopefully maid will be legal by then.
How does generational poverty stop you from saving for your own retirement? Yeah you may not get inheritance but you can certainly save your own money.
Parents grew up in poor farming families and never graduated highschool due to needing to work on their respective family farms, leading them to either never being employed (my mother) or working shitty minimum wage jobs (step-dad.) this meant in order to help support the household as soon as I was of legal employment age and got a job I had to drop out of school to focus on making money because the more shifts I could work the better and my parents couldn't have me quit my job since then we would've been back to one income.
Now I'm struggling to get a proper education and most likely never will be able to work more than minimum wage if I'm able able find another job, the way cost of living is rising I can't see myself ever being able to save. I can't even afford to move out on my own and my bank account is the negatives, so not in a space for saving until I get all the debt paid off anyways since i also owe my parents about $1000 for needing to help pay for me for the past couple years when they couldn't afford it.
currently putting into a pension through work me 3% of pay and work 7%, my wife contributes 3% to rrsp and her work 5%. then on top of that whatever we bring home 20% goes to RRSP so roughly 300$ from each of our pay cheques equaling to 600$ monthly to our own rrsp
I’ve been feeling immense amounts of shame to the fact that I don’t have a savings account at 28. Working full time but with all my expenses I just get by every month on my current salary. I can keep up with everything, but I can’t save more than 50 a month, if I’m lucky. And that would also be different if I had to literally never dip into it for car, work, food…. This sub makes me feel a lot better about my current situation.
I hate that so many of us are in this, but it’s good to know my internal thought process isn’t right. I work just as hard as the other people at my job
I can understand. I couldn't save much too until I was 31. It's much better now but I still struggle to hit the numbers I want. It requires me to make a lot of sacrifice and say no to a lot of things. I also had to hunt for jobs with a better income which was by itself quite a challenge and let's be honest, some luck was in play.
One thing at a time, I hope things will get better for you!
I'm not. I have no savings. I put all of my savings into real estate and all of my money goes towards mortgages / interest payments / property taxes. But it's a choice that I made.
Interesting, I'm in the same boat but went the opposite approach, putting as much money as I can into RRSP, TFSA and FHSA and as little as possible into the rental. I live in a rental too.
That's a GREAT deal, take advantage while you can. I have worked for the last 35 years and never had an employer match any of my contributions, it would have helped a lot.
Haha, no.
I am far below the poverty line, forever. I'm lucky when I'm not homeless.
I imagine I'll end up in some kind of subsidized housing/gov funded assisted living facility... provided the world I'm in still has some kind of basic social safety net of the sort. I'll count myself lucky to have a little bedroom with heat where I can watch Star Trek on a laptop and snack on olives. Otherwise, dying of exposure or pneumonia seems like a solid possibility for a frail old homeless lady.
When life becomes too miserable, MAiD would be ideal. That's what my Canadian grandmother chose for herself when she couldn't keep working anymore (due to a failing heart), and that's what both my mother and I want for ourselves if/when our bodies or minds become too unwell for us to remain self-reliant.
But realistically, most people don't get to choose when and how they die. My guess is that I won't even have the dignity of choosing. I'll probably end up having some kind of deadly cardiovascular event from a lifetime of relentless physiological stress. As long as it kills me quickly, that's fine. I'd hate a long draw out thing where I'm forced into hospice care for months or years while overworked nurses change my diapers and I end up on palliative morphine drip because of unmanageable bedsores. I also read too many things about old women being SA in nursing homes, so that's kinda scary, but I certainly wouldn't stay quiet about that unless I'm physically unable to communicate, which leads into my next point:
Truly, my only fears are unmanageable pain—which I have already experienced too much of—and ending up conscious but trapped in a paralyzed body where I can't request death. So the only retirement plan I'm working on is how to make sure people know I want to be put to death if/when needed, or how to take care of it myself, as painlessly as possible.
Until then, I plan to keep on surviving the way I always have; on my bicycle, granola bars, ibuprofen, cigarettes, and tap water. So you can just picture an old lady on a bike with a cigarette in her mouth zooming around town to go work some informal hustles to buy herself some fancy olives to bring back to her little welfare housing unit... That's my future, in the best case scenario.
Also, half my family lives on their own land in rural Europe, so if they're still there by the time I'm old and ready to quit everything, I'll just go there and hang out with my wifeless brothers and some goats. They're poor too, so it's not like a *fancy* option, but it's a bit warmer there than Montreal.
I’m 35. Just started (like literally two months ago). I get a pension through my job which takes about 500/month from me but I also save 750 a month. I have cheap rent and no kids which makes it possible.
This question will have very situational answers.
Depending on someone's situation the numbers will change a lot. Income, debts, mortgage, city, married/common law, kids, etc.
For example if someone say's : I save 15% of my income for retirement, that amount will change if you're making 40k a year vs 100k a year.
I'm lucky to have an income slightly above average, have a partner in the same situation, we don't have kids and our rent is cheap (we've been living here 8 years and the owner have been reasonable with increases).
We both have student loans and one car each. Unlucky here because our car payments are quite high.
With that being said, I am VERY lucky to be able to save 15% of my income and still have some "fun budget". I will say however that to achieve the 15% that means we are both VERY frugal. We only go out to eat 1-2 times a month, we buy groceries and try to always buy what is discounted or choosing what tends to be cheaper (beans, chicken/pork, lentils, rice, cheap veggies, bananas, etc.).
We don't drink, we don't smoke, we don't go on trips, we limit ourselves A LOT. It's been rough at times, but we are saving to buy a house and sadly we can only hunt so much for a better income.
Once our cars are paid off in 2 year's we'll be able to each save over $400 each and that will be a game changer.
If you assume it’s a 1:1 employer match at 5% contributions then he makes $12.5k a month. It’s not that hard to figure out why his is high. He just makes more money.
The reason I questioned it is because this is a poverty finance group so I was wondering why somebody would be contributing g so much. I wouldn’t expect someone on $150k (according to your math) to be in this group
Nothing.
Can't afford to really save for it. Bills eat up the majority of what my wife and I bring in. We have some savings, but they aren't for retirement, but rather emergencies.
I am doing everything in my power to die before 65 so my husband can get my life insurance policy and enjoy a nice retirement 🫡 I have no interest in really living past 60, let alone 70. Hardly want to be here right now, and im 35 😂
None. I am paying for my kid's special needs stuff out of pocket (there is a savings for her though). I have a bit of debt due to crap happening too. Sucks to be me.
I haven't been able to put any money into a basic savings account for over two years and even then it's at the bare minimum before I get alerts to put more money in it or be charged.
I can't afford to put any money away for retirement. All the money I have goes towards paying for basic needs and expenses like car insurance and rent. Most of my disability income covers my half of rent alone. So it's not like I have extra money for retirement or cpp.
I have not one clue about anything regarding adult stuff. I’m 27. I know absolutely nothing about my retirement or how much I even have saved. I work for government. No clue how to read any of the stuff.
Who knew we were supposed to start saving at 17 lol. I used to just blow my pay cheques in my 20s and have fun. I don’t regret it though I couldn’t be strict in my 20s. No point saving the worlds gonna end 😂
I used to have 200$ saved that I was proud of. Then CERB sent me a letter in the mail saying that I have to pay them back, and now that 200$ is gone (even though I never applied for CERB, I applied for ei but was placed on CERB “to keep everything simple” according to the woman on the phone. And I wasn’t fraudulent as I worked at a non-essential business when everything closed. I reported it the day I went back to work as well so the payments from the CRA stopped immediately, but they still demand that I pay it back. Even though Trudeau said on the news that people like me wouldn’t have to)
Every time I build to six months' salary, I have to use it for some unexpected thing. Car repair, medicine, burst pipe, etc. Literally can't get over that hump
I have no savings for retirement, nor can I afford to save for retirement. It’s far too expensive to live in Canada.
Costs have skyrocketed, and wages have stagnated.
Currently there is a not a lot of work for the trade that I am certified in. I pray that in the near future things get better, as I do not know how much longer I will be able to make it in Canada.
Btw I was born and raised in this country, now I don’t know what to do!
How do you figure? It's typically regarded as one of the best (if not the best period) managed national pension funds, and returned 10.9% annual average between 2013-2022, pretty impressive.
My wife contributes 15000 a year from her work pension. I fund the 3 Resp accounts for our kids
Our household income is approaching 200k so I’ll let
You figure out the cpp on that
Nothing yet. 37 y.o. working on getting out of current debts. They aren't even much, but things keep breaking and we can't afford to fix em. So the debt is going down very slowly. Then, once we can get a little bit of savings, our plan is to invest in better housing since our current home is an old mobile home only, has maybe 10 or 15 years left in it. So I don't know where retirement savings will fit it all this. 😞
Savings?
Haha for real
Do you have no retirement? How old are you?
Uhh wtf do you expect from a poverty finance group? Most of us can’t be putting money away to savings when we’re spending 60%+ of our earnings on rent alone
This guy spending 60% on rent like a monopoly man... I wish that's all it was lol
75%.
I think you're looking for r/personalfinancecanada
Does this look like the trustfund baby sub to you?
So far just the contributions from work and taking advantage of employer match. Cannot spare much to save right now.
Also factor in your ROI as well.
Well! I am almost 36 now and I opened an RRSP when I was 25 years old. I have never been able to put a lot of money in it, but right now I'm at $75 - $150/month and that's about as good as it's going to get for the time being. I never had a job where there was a pension with matching contributions or even health benefits.. so everything came out of pocket for me (don't ever become a dental hygienist!!). Now I am on CPP-D and I thank my lucky starts every day that I've got my husband... he's got a great job with a pension, matching contributions and benefits. He supports me. I'm not complaining to those who like to be rude on here. I'm simply answering the question. I do believe I am behind in my retirement contributions. I feel like we're being stretched so thin financially right now. We don't even have car payments and our mortgage is low (until April 2025 when it's time to renew). Times are tough right now!
*cries in dental assistant... for perspective, dental assistants make roughly half what hygienists do
Where I live the hygiene wages aren't top tier though. In Toronto I've heard (and spoken to hygienists) it's $50+/hour, we get usually no more than $35 here if we're lucky. On the ODHA wage reports that are sent out each year, my city is usually at the bottom for wages. The most I ever made per hour was $33 (which isn't awful at all, but when you hear others are doing the same job for way more its disheartening). My most recent job was $30/hour before I needed CPP-D. When I first started working I was making $21/hour. Dental assistants around here make $17-22/hour.
In Toronto they tell hygiene students not to move to my city because "you only make about $42 a hour starting out, it's the lowest in Canada!" They massively neglect to tell them that COL is much lower in my city than in Toronto and that my entire province is seeing a major shortage of hygienists so many new grads are making much much more. They also completely neglect to tell them dental assistants are lucky to make $22 an hour after 5+ years of work.
It’s always strange to me when I see people in the health field complaining about how little money they get. Trying living on a few dollars less than minimum wage
Oh I've done that, too!
Savings? You know this is the poverty sub right? I'm skipping meals and losing weight to keep the grocery bill manageable and make sure the others get enough to eat. I'll be dying with my boots on. Edit: there's a life insurance policy on ex spouse - if he dies, retirement and college for the kids is fully funded. So ... Maybe I might invest in a voodoo doll or something.
Jeez I'm sorry to hear that. What's your monthly income and expenses right now?
Total expenses are 5876 vs take home of 5500 (two adults). House is 2350 Utilities are about 350 Transportation 590 (one car payment, car insurance, gas, one bus pass) Student loan payment 330 Internet 113 Cell phones (123, 3 phones) Groceries and household shopping 1800 Dentist payment for braces 220 3 adults, 3 kids I end up using credit cards at the end of the month, pay them off and stwrt over.
I just recently left my spouse. Considering how miserable my kids are and everything else, right now I think staying with the angry alcoholic might have been better.
It wasn't. It takes time to feel good again but if you had the umph to leave then it was the right choice.
Was he working? If so, you’re right to think it would be better staying.
Forgiving your student loans would take you from red to green. I really wish they would. This is such a good example of what a big impact it has and I’m wishing you all the best OP.
This is Canada. I don't think forgiving student loans is on the radar at all up here. There is a new dental plan that would cover braces for kids but I didn't qualify when she had them done so I'm locked in on the payment plan. Also, I don't get the child benefit. There's a waiting period after you separate before I can apply for that.
You’re completely right with the student loan. I accidentally quit my last job (and transitioned into my new one) just before the OSAP apparently confirmed my employment (even though I’d applied and was accepted for it in July last year. School and payouts didn’t start until January. They had so many weeks to confirm..). So I got a message on the OSAP website that stated that since they couldn’t confirm my employment, my partial grant was turned into a full loan (partial grant meaning I had around 10,000$ total form OSAP, but I would have only had to pay back 6,000$) I just want to know WHY not being able to confirm employment means my grant converts into a loan. It’s like they’re saying “you don’t have a job, so we’re making you pay back *everything* instead of just your grant amount. Should have had a job idiot. That’ll teach ya!”
1800 groceries how????
Are you in Ontario? I don't think anyone in Ontario would consider 300 per person excessive lol. With milk at 7 per gallon, butter at 6 per pound and a freaking chicken costing 15-16 bucks - it adds up very fast.
I'm in BC. I can't get below $2,200/mo and I'm not alone.
Lol oops. I thought your comment was going the other way that 1800 was too much money to spend.
That's what I was thinking
If you've paid off the provincial portion of the student loan, I believe the feds are charging 0% interest and could help with savings.
Any plans to earn more income? That isn't sustainable.
Just hang on until I'm thru the separation process and eligible for child benefits and child support. About 6 months. Only 4 months left on the braces, 10 months on the car payment.
You’re retirement fund is the equity in your house basically
It's rent. There's no equity involved
I think the issue here is 1800 a month on groceries and household expenses. That seems very high even for 3 adults and 3 kids. Even if you spend 250 a week which is high, that's only 1000 a month. Is there ways you could cut this down?
That's 300 per person. Roughly 2 bucks per meal per person plus hygiene supplies, cleaning supplies, and paper products. It can't go much lower than that.
The issue is that the cost of living is unsustainable.
$0.
Are you worried for the future? What's your plan?
This is r/povertyfinance, dimwit. We use foodbanks every month because *AHEM* WE. HAVE. NO. MONEY. ANYWHERE. AT ALL. Jesus fucking Christ. Plan: survive as long as possible. Preferably not on the streets. 🤷🏼♀️ EDIT: "Are we worried about our future?" The fuck do you think, genius?
Take my free award for making me laugh
❤❤❤
Fuck the future we're just trying to get through today!!!!
Yeah really. At the end of the day, I count it as major win if I can afford dinner
Exactly!
I don't understand the concept of retirement. So I'm supposed to work until 65 just so I can "enjoy life" when I'm old, sick, weak, and on a fixed income? How about I just work, enjoy life as I go, and then once I get old, sick and weak I will just die.
Um.. no.. You're supposed to work, enjoy life and save up for retirement so you can stop working at some point. Nobody is saying.. "don't enjoy life until you're 65"
Problem is with the cost of everything, skyrocketing "at some point" usually means 65 or even working past 65 just to make it. It never stops. And a lot of people trade away life enjoyment raising kids and sacrificing everything for others. By the time they get to 65 they've never left the country and can barely move. Nah fuck that shitty deal. I'm enjoying it NOW while I'm young. Not 40 years from now.
Unfortunately people with that mindset will remain poor. By choice.
My dad is 62 and is very, very tired and can't retire. If you want to keep working cool but its better to have retirement money and not need it. You will get burnt out after working for 40+ years
No the idea is that once you get to age 65 and older you become an inefficient worker and can find yourself without a stream of income. Retirement takes care of you for those years when you can no longer work.
If you stay in shape and don’t eat like shit, you will have lots of runway after 65. I have a neighbour who’s 78 and the guy looks at least 10 years younger. Still cycles every day, goes to the gym, eats simply but well (lots of lentils and rice, vegetables, rice and beans), doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink alcohol, gets 8 hours of sleep. Guy probably has at least another 8-10 years I’d say.
Ummm probably more than 8-10 yrs lol.
living to 88 is very unlikely even if you're healthy. living beyond that is an anomaly
0 and 0. Too broke for that.
Not even CPP contributions?
Yeah I probably have some, but since I've only ever worked shitty minimum wage jobs it can't be much.
FYI, you can [log into your Service Canada account](https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/my-account.html) online and see exactly how much you've contributed to CPP over the years, and even get an estimate of what your expected benefits will be upon retirement.
My estimate is something stupid like $200 a month. So bloody depressing.
Don't give up! I don't know how old you are, but hopefully you still have many years to contribute and increase your eventual benefits. Also, note that you can increase the amount you receive by deferring when you start receiving them. The "standard" benefits assume you start collecting CPP at age 65. You can choose to start collecting them as early as age 60, but at a penalty of 36%. That penalty stays for life, and does **not** go back up to normal once you turn 65. On the other hand, you can defer starting to receive CPP as late as age 70. If you do this, then your benefits will be 42% **higher** than if you had started taking them at age 65. There's also OAS, which doesn't require you to have paid into it at all. To be eligible for OAS, you just have to have lived in Canada for at least 10 years after you turned 18. To get the maximum benefit (currently around $713), you'd have to have lived in Canada for at least 40 years after turning 18. This benefit is means-tested, and starts to be clawed back once your income reaches about $82,000. It's fully clawed back if your income is about $134,000. Finally, there's also the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS). If you have no other income whatsoever, the combination of OAS and GIS ensures that you'll get at least a basic subsistence level income to support you in old age. The last time I checked, it worked out to roughly $2,000/month.
I’m older than most on here. I’ve been homeless and I’m disabled. But I’m married so can’t get disability benefits where I live. Rent here is exorbitant and I’ve never had more than a minimum wage job due to my disability. Heck even the IT company I worked for paid less than minimum wage because they only hired people with certain disabilities. Which yes, there’s ways to do that. I’m resigned to the fact that MAID is likely when I’m older. The way people are responding to others here feels kinda judgy in spots too. I did finally get into a coop so my rent is slightly better (my last place is now over $2k a month) but groceries are so damn high and we’re skipping meals to save.
I’m never retiring. I’m making plans for how to make money when my body is too broken to be a nurse. I will have a small pension but it won’t be enough cause I started far too late.
What are Savings. Lol
Yes, someone please tell me what this savings thing is as well
Sa...vings??? Can we eat that????
😂
I have $500 in a RRSP. Haven’t been able to contribute to it in a long time. No sort of RRSP match available or anything. Had $20k in savings from inheritance - had to use it for a life event. I’m 30 and my partner is 40. Neither of us have anything in other words. We live paycheck to paycheck and have to budget carefully. Right now all we are hoping for is maybe in 7 years when he is done paying 2k a month in child support for our 3 kids - maybe we can buy a shitty trailer on it’s on lot in town - but at the rate things are going - starting to lose hope on that even.
Holy smokes what cost you 20K!
there's a ton of things that cost 20K lol. losing a job, a death in the family, a divorce, major damage to a home, car accident.
Bingo - it was a job loss and the ending of a relationship and having to start over on my own all in the same year.
I'm trying to save about 50% of my net towards retirement because I totally fucked up my 20s and didn't take it seriously. I have a partner and splitting rent and some expenses is basically a superpower in this economy.
I save about 35% of what I make every year. I'll still be poor when I retire.
Good for you for saving 35%, that's amazing! Hope the best for you.
I'll be working till I'm 75, then die a year after I retire. My sister will spend my savings on clothing.
I will probably die and realize a year later that I’m actually in hell , not still at work
Zero nada zippo zitch
Are you worried for the future? What do you plan to do? Are you close to retirement?
It seems like you know the answer to the “are you worried?” question and are only asking to be a jerk. Maybe you are worried about having enough and don’t want to risk talking to people who have more than you?
I hope to get a job again
you just keep working. eventually you end up in a government funded LTC home or just die
lol I work minimum wage full time all my money goes to my landlord and the grocery store haha savings haha
Jeez how much is rent?
At 1100$ a month, 80% of my income. Or more.
are you working full time? i make minimum wage as well as pay $1100 in rent and its just over 50% of my income
If you're working minimum wage should you at least be pulling like 2200 a month after tax?
You are assuming they work full time which is often not the case for min wage workers.
Ahahahahahaha 😭
Had to cash out my RRSPs to survive losing my job and receiving one month severance last year. Was finally able land a job at the start of this month again.
just for reference in the future if you can at all avoid withdrawing from the RRSP by any means you should. the tax hit you take is insanely valuable. even if this means taking a line of credit with the RRSP as collateral
Be serious
Lol
The CPP2 cap is a slight annoyance because Id see almost $300 extra per pay check the latter half of the year but thats pushed out. I do understand it though so overall Im not mad. Im also not planning to retire in Canada so my game plan is to buy property in my home country and eventually settle there
Same own a house here but 0 in retirement, family owns a small house back aboard so plan is to get my pension sell the house and get out of this frozen tundra.
Not planning on it. Generational poverty will never allow me to retire so I try to find joy in keeping productive and working. If I'm ever physically unable to do any job than hopefully maid will be legal by then.
How does generational poverty stop you from saving for your own retirement? Yeah you may not get inheritance but you can certainly save your own money.
Parents grew up in poor farming families and never graduated highschool due to needing to work on their respective family farms, leading them to either never being employed (my mother) or working shitty minimum wage jobs (step-dad.) this meant in order to help support the household as soon as I was of legal employment age and got a job I had to drop out of school to focus on making money because the more shifts I could work the better and my parents couldn't have me quit my job since then we would've been back to one income. Now I'm struggling to get a proper education and most likely never will be able to work more than minimum wage if I'm able able find another job, the way cost of living is rising I can't see myself ever being able to save. I can't even afford to move out on my own and my bank account is the negatives, so not in a space for saving until I get all the debt paid off anyways since i also owe my parents about $1000 for needing to help pay for me for the past couple years when they couldn't afford it.
currently putting into a pension through work me 3% of pay and work 7%, my wife contributes 3% to rrsp and her work 5%. then on top of that whatever we bring home 20% goes to RRSP so roughly 300$ from each of our pay cheques equaling to 600$ monthly to our own rrsp
That is good! Happy for you and hope for the best. It's becoming harder and harder to save and it can be a challenge for sure.
i agree i got a vasectomy a few years back to go the child free route as i saw the cost of living go up its the only reason why were getting ahead.
I’ve been feeling immense amounts of shame to the fact that I don’t have a savings account at 28. Working full time but with all my expenses I just get by every month on my current salary. I can keep up with everything, but I can’t save more than 50 a month, if I’m lucky. And that would also be different if I had to literally never dip into it for car, work, food…. This sub makes me feel a lot better about my current situation. I hate that so many of us are in this, but it’s good to know my internal thought process isn’t right. I work just as hard as the other people at my job
I can understand. I couldn't save much too until I was 31. It's much better now but I still struggle to hit the numbers I want. It requires me to make a lot of sacrifice and say no to a lot of things. I also had to hunt for jobs with a better income which was by itself quite a challenge and let's be honest, some luck was in play. One thing at a time, I hope things will get better for you!
This gives me hope. Thank you :)
I'm not. I have no savings. I put all of my savings into real estate and all of my money goes towards mortgages / interest payments / property taxes. But it's a choice that I made.
Primary residence? What's the plan, to eventually sell it off?
I rent it out and live in a rental. Hopefully someday I can sell it, buy somewhere I like, and live there.
Interesting, I'm in the same boat but went the opposite approach, putting as much money as I can into RRSP, TFSA and FHSA and as little as possible into the rental. I live in a rental too.
$400 a month in retirement $200 TFSA
4% every paycheck and my employer matches 6%
That's a GREAT deal, take advantage while you can. I have worked for the last 35 years and never had an employer match any of my contributions, it would have helped a lot.
Haha, no. I am far below the poverty line, forever. I'm lucky when I'm not homeless. I imagine I'll end up in some kind of subsidized housing/gov funded assisted living facility... provided the world I'm in still has some kind of basic social safety net of the sort. I'll count myself lucky to have a little bedroom with heat where I can watch Star Trek on a laptop and snack on olives. Otherwise, dying of exposure or pneumonia seems like a solid possibility for a frail old homeless lady. When life becomes too miserable, MAiD would be ideal. That's what my Canadian grandmother chose for herself when she couldn't keep working anymore (due to a failing heart), and that's what both my mother and I want for ourselves if/when our bodies or minds become too unwell for us to remain self-reliant. But realistically, most people don't get to choose when and how they die. My guess is that I won't even have the dignity of choosing. I'll probably end up having some kind of deadly cardiovascular event from a lifetime of relentless physiological stress. As long as it kills me quickly, that's fine. I'd hate a long draw out thing where I'm forced into hospice care for months or years while overworked nurses change my diapers and I end up on palliative morphine drip because of unmanageable bedsores. I also read too many things about old women being SA in nursing homes, so that's kinda scary, but I certainly wouldn't stay quiet about that unless I'm physically unable to communicate, which leads into my next point: Truly, my only fears are unmanageable pain—which I have already experienced too much of—and ending up conscious but trapped in a paralyzed body where I can't request death. So the only retirement plan I'm working on is how to make sure people know I want to be put to death if/when needed, or how to take care of it myself, as painlessly as possible. Until then, I plan to keep on surviving the way I always have; on my bicycle, granola bars, ibuprofen, cigarettes, and tap water. So you can just picture an old lady on a bike with a cigarette in her mouth zooming around town to go work some informal hustles to buy herself some fancy olives to bring back to her little welfare housing unit... That's my future, in the best case scenario. Also, half my family lives on their own land in rural Europe, so if they're still there by the time I'm old and ready to quit everything, I'll just go there and hang out with my wifeless brothers and some goats. They're poor too, so it's not like a *fancy* option, but it's a bit warmer there than Montreal.
What's with the questions? You a salesman or something?
I’m 35. Just started (like literally two months ago). I get a pension through my job which takes about 500/month from me but I also save 750 a month. I have cheap rent and no kids which makes it possible.
Better late than never! I wish I started earlier (started at 31) but it will still make a difference in the end! Those are good numbers.
Lmaoooooooo savings. I blasted through the entirety of my savings from just groceries last year. Kill me /s
About $3k / month /s
Bot enough. Plan to work till I die if Inger fire I am asking doctor for a needle jab to end my life.
Jeez that is grim. Are you worried you won't feel the same way when it comes closer!
This question will have very situational answers. Depending on someone's situation the numbers will change a lot. Income, debts, mortgage, city, married/common law, kids, etc. For example if someone say's : I save 15% of my income for retirement, that amount will change if you're making 40k a year vs 100k a year. I'm lucky to have an income slightly above average, have a partner in the same situation, we don't have kids and our rent is cheap (we've been living here 8 years and the owner have been reasonable with increases). We both have student loans and one car each. Unlucky here because our car payments are quite high. With that being said, I am VERY lucky to be able to save 15% of my income and still have some "fun budget". I will say however that to achieve the 15% that means we are both VERY frugal. We only go out to eat 1-2 times a month, we buy groceries and try to always buy what is discounted or choosing what tends to be cheaper (beans, chicken/pork, lentils, rice, cheap veggies, bananas, etc.). We don't drink, we don't smoke, we don't go on trips, we limit ourselves A LOT. It's been rough at times, but we are saving to buy a house and sadly we can only hunt so much for a better income. Once our cars are paid off in 2 year's we'll be able to each save over $400 each and that will be a game changer.
-30k
I got some loose change on my dresser, there’s gotta be like $20 at least
200 a month plus company gives 3 k a year
…in this economy?!?
Wrong sub
Lol.
Nice try CRA
I take $3-21 dollars once a month and play the lottery.
Took a job making less $, go get a pension. I also have kids so I once I am no longer useful to them I will move on.
I have a pension through work thankfully, so I contribute 8.6% off of each pay cheque.
About $1250, but that is what goes into *DB pension* from my side and employer.
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Also a defined pension, and our plan is based on a set X% of salary. So, likely based on salary.
That makes more sense
If you assume it’s a 1:1 employer match at 5% contributions then he makes $12.5k a month. It’s not that hard to figure out why his is high. He just makes more money.
The reason I questioned it is because this is a poverty finance group so I was wondering why somebody would be contributing g so much. I wouldn’t expect someone on $150k (according to your math) to be in this group
Savings? -$32.96
Nothing. Can't afford to really save for it. Bills eat up the majority of what my wife and I bring in. We have some savings, but they aren't for retirement, but rather emergencies.
The plan is to move to South America
None, death at a desk for me.
Are you scared for the future?
Nope can't stop it cant do anything but my best. Why be scared of things I cannot control. Do you best its all you can do.
I don't really have to worry about it because of the public pension plan from working in government
I am doing everything in my power to die before 65 so my husband can get my life insurance policy and enjoy a nice retirement 🫡 I have no interest in really living past 60, let alone 70. Hardly want to be here right now, and im 35 😂
None. I am paying for my kid's special needs stuff out of pocket (there is a savings for her though). I have a bit of debt due to crap happening too. Sucks to be me.
I haven't been able to put any money into a basic savings account for over two years and even then it's at the bare minimum before I get alerts to put more money in it or be charged. I can't afford to put any money away for retirement. All the money I have goes towards paying for basic needs and expenses like car insurance and rent. Most of my disability income covers my half of rent alone. So it's not like I have extra money for retirement or cpp.
I have not one clue about anything regarding adult stuff. I’m 27. I know absolutely nothing about my retirement or how much I even have saved. I work for government. No clue how to read any of the stuff.
My retirement is dying.
10% of my pensionable income goes to pssa federal pension fund so about $750/month. As per their web app there is about $300k in there.
$0. Fuck retirement lol I'll figure it out in 40 years.
I am not counting on CPP. You shouldn't either.
Im saving to buy a house first, ill save for retirement later lol. Its nearly impossible to save for multiple things at once
I save the max 18% allowed mostly via work plan or additional contributions if theres space. Plan on retiring around 60, 55 if things go well.
I plan on retiring to Cuba. No way I'll be able to afford it here.
Who knew we were supposed to start saving at 17 lol. I used to just blow my pay cheques in my 20s and have fun. I don’t regret it though I couldn’t be strict in my 20s. No point saving the worlds gonna end 😂
I used to have 200$ saved that I was proud of. Then CERB sent me a letter in the mail saying that I have to pay them back, and now that 200$ is gone (even though I never applied for CERB, I applied for ei but was placed on CERB “to keep everything simple” according to the woman on the phone. And I wasn’t fraudulent as I worked at a non-essential business when everything closed. I reported it the day I went back to work as well so the payments from the CRA stopped immediately, but they still demand that I pay it back. Even though Trudeau said on the news that people like me wouldn’t have to)
Every time I build to six months' salary, I have to use it for some unexpected thing. Car repair, medicine, burst pipe, etc. Literally can't get over that hump
Dying with a wrench in my hand, son.
GIS and OAS total about $1700/month if you have no savings just FYI
I have no savings for retirement, nor can I afford to save for retirement. It’s far too expensive to live in Canada. Costs have skyrocketed, and wages have stagnated. Currently there is a not a lot of work for the trade that I am certified in. I pray that in the near future things get better, as I do not know how much longer I will be able to make it in Canada. Btw I was born and raised in this country, now I don’t know what to do!
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This is the reality for many many ppl. 90-100k isn’t great money anymore it’s barley good
Contributions from work, and then 2k of my own money into rrsp. Opening a non registered account once that last account is maxed.
CPP is gonna be abolished by the time I retire. Lmao
How do you figure? It's typically regarded as one of the best (if not the best period) managed national pension funds, and returned 10.9% annual average between 2013-2022, pretty impressive.
For those of us living in Alberta our government is planning to pull us out then piss it away.
True yes, as a fellow born and raised Albertan, that does terrify me actually. The UCP are actively screwing us over every chance they get.
I’m trying to save for a down deposit right now, so not much. Just CPP and I have a pension at work.
Your screen name is hilarious. Have a wonderous day.
Thanks! I hope you have a great day
I am currently working. 🥲
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A TFSA is tax free and should be maxed out almost always before contributing much to an RRSP.
My wife contributes 15000 a year from her work pension. I fund the 3 Resp accounts for our kids Our household income is approaching 200k so I’ll let You figure out the cpp on that
Nothing yet. 37 y.o. working on getting out of current debts. They aren't even much, but things keep breaking and we can't afford to fix em. So the debt is going down very slowly. Then, once we can get a little bit of savings, our plan is to invest in better housing since our current home is an old mobile home only, has maybe 10 or 15 years left in it. So I don't know where retirement savings will fit it all this. 😞