This brings us to the thorny issue of pensions. You may be fortunate enough, if you’re a public servant or work in the right industry, to be the recipient of a defined benefit pension. If so, you can simply contact your employer’s human resources department to find out the size of the monthly retirement cheque you can expect.
If that amount is enough to bridge the gap between government stipends and your retirement needs, then congratulations—your retirement planning is largely done. You may still want to contribute to an RRSP to finance luxuries, to provide you with a buffer against inflation, and to guard against the possibility that your employer will go bust and renege on its pension promises, but, in all probability, those contributions will simply increase your security, not determine your retirement lifestyle.
Most of us, though, aren’t in that position. Maybe you don’t have a pension plan. Or perhaps your employer’s pension plan is a defined contribution plan that only promises how much your employer will contribute each year you work, but leaves the actual investing up to you. Or maybe your employer’s defined benefit payouts aren’t enough to bridge the gap between government pensions and what you need. In any of those cases, you’re going to have to deal with uncertainty.
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