# RRSP Strategy Pre and Post Retirement



## milhouse (Nov 16, 2016)

Hoping for some thoughts around RRSP strategy for heading into (2 years prior?) and the initial years into retirement (2 years post?). It's likely a little premature for me to seriously thinking about this I've only just crossed the 4 year mark to retirement but the other RRSP to RRIF thread got me thinking about it more. 

The plan is to retire around age 50 in just under 4 years. During the year I retire, I'm hoping the core of my retirement income will be sourced from my non-registered account which will hopefully be yielding around $50k/year in dividends with supplemental income (for discretionary spending, primarily travel) eventually coming from my DC pension and RRSP. The DC pension is straight forward since it cannot be tapped until age 55 so it will be left to grow. 

For the RRSP, I'm forecasting a range of about $400k-$450k at retirement. 2 years prior to retirement, I'm thinking about creating a 3 year GIC ladder of about $15k-$20 with the expectation of generating about $62.5k to $66.5k combined with the dividends, after tax. I suspect I would still contribute to my RRSP during my retirement year (2022) due to the contribution room generated from tax year 2021. I'm debating if I should start withdrawing cash from the first of my 3 year GIC's (and refresh the ladder after re-balancing from my equity and bond index ETF's) or should I continue to contribute to my RRSP due to contribution room from tax year 2022 where I'm expecting to work 3.5 months and get my annual bonus. 

2020 Start 1st of 3yr GIC ladder?
2021 Start 2nd of 3yr GIC ladder?
2022 Start 3rd of 3yr GIC ladder? Retirement year. Still contribute to RRSP (contribution room from tax year 2021)
2023 Withdraw 1st of 3yr GIC ladder and refresh the ladder from a re-balance of my equity and bond index ETF's? Or should I contribute to my RRSP with my contribution room from tax year 2022 (3.5 months of income + bonus)?

Other questions
Should I implement a GIC ladder in my RRSP/RRIF?
Thoughts on using a 3yr versus 5yr ladder?
Should I convert my RRSP to RRIF? I would my wife's age reduce the minimum withdrawals. Plus, I'm ok burning down the RRSP a bit since I still have my DC pension which would hopefully still be growing.


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## gardner (Feb 13, 2014)

milhouse said:


> I would still contribute to my RRSP during my retirement year (2022) due to the contribution room generated from tax year 2021.


I have been considering the same question in my early retirement. I have a slog of unused contribution room from last year and will get a little more to come next year based on my income from earlier this year. IMO, it's not an urgent question, but my plan has been to go ahead and make the contributions, but to hold off the deduction to use judiciously in the future. In particular I will have to face a large capital gain on selling a rental property and would want to save the deduction to level out that large income block.


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