Personal Finance Buzz

The Benefits offered by retirement investment accounts make them an important foundation for retirement planning. Here are the major investment accounts for retirement:

Older Canadians must consider strategies for using Tax Free Savings Accounts in retirement. Here are three approaches to consider with your TFSA:

A common misunderstanding of individuals contemplating when to retire is that you can not access your retirement accounts until you are at least age 59 1/2. You may be surprised to learn that there are ways to withdraw funds from your retirement accounts before age 59 1/2 and avoid paying the 10% early withdrawal penalty.

Locked-In Retirement Accounts (LIRA) and Life Income Funds (LIF) are simply money that originates from a pension plan when you leave that company.

When a persons dies, their retirement accounts are left to the primary beneficiaries established on the account. As a beneficiary of a retirement account, you have to follow the rules established by the IRS, and those rules can vary depending on your relationship to the original account holder. Knowing the rules will help you to make better decisions if you happen to inherit an IRA.

RRSPs and TFSAs both have a place for retirement savings. My advice is to start with the RRSPs and see if the tax implications now and in retirement work in your favour. If not, then move to the TFSA.

Investing for retirement isn't as difficult as the "experts" make it out to be. Follow these two rules and you'll be fine: start early, and pay attention to taxes.