Retirement Savings: How to Save More — What Many People Don’t Know
Saving for retirement in Canada is not only about setting aside a bigger amount each month. The choices you make around fees, taxes, account types, and withdrawal timing can quietly shape how far your money goes. Understanding a few less-discussed details can help you keep more of what you earn and invest.
How to Save More for Retirement — What Many People Don’t Know
A solid retirement plan usually improves through small, repeatable decisions rather than dramatic changes. In Canada, the biggest “hidden” differences often come from how you use RRSPs and TFSAs, what you pay in ongoing investment fees, and how you think about taxes across your whole lifetime—not just this year.
How to maximize retirement income
To maximize retirement income, it helps to separate the question into two parts: how much income your savings can safely support, and how much of that income you actually keep after taxes and fees. Many people focus on pre-tax returns and underestimate how strongly costs and tax planning shape outcomes. For example, a lower-fee portfolio can leave you with more net growth over decades, and a well-timed withdrawal strategy can reduce taxes in years when you have flexibility.
A less-discussed risk is sequence-of-returns risk: if markets decline early in retirement, withdrawing from a volatile portfolio can lock in losses and make the plan harder to sustain. One practical approach is to match near-term spending needs to lower-volatility assets (cash and high-quality short-term fixed income, depending on your risk tolerance). This can reduce the pressure to sell equities after a downturn and can make withdrawals feel more predictable.
How much should I invest to achieve my financial goals?
Answering “how much should I invest to achieve my financial goals” works best when you translate your goal into a target monthly (or per-paycheque) contribution. Start with an estimate of annual spending in retirement in today’s dollars, then identify income you expect from other sources such as employer pension benefits and public programs like CPP and OAS. The remaining gap is what your personal savings must support. From there, use a range of realistic return assumptions—conservative, moderate, and optimistic—so you are not relying on a single forecast.
What many people don’t account for is that the “cost” of investing a dollar depends on the account you use. RRSP contributions can reduce taxable income today, which may make it easier to contribute more in higher-income years, while TFSA contributions don’t create a deduction but can provide tax-free withdrawals later. The better choice often depends on your current marginal tax rate, your expected tax rate in retirement, and whether future income could trigger income-tested reductions (for example, higher-income OAS recovery tax). If you are unsure, a common planning approach is to diversify tax exposure by using a mix of RRSP and TFSA over time rather than betting entirely on one.
How to keep money
Keeping more money is often about stopping “quiet leaks.” Two of the biggest are ongoing investment fees and avoidable taxes. Fees matter because they compound in reverse: paying 1% more per year does not feel like much in a single statement, but over decades it can reduce ending wealth substantially. Taxes matter because the timing of withdrawals can change your after-tax income without changing your lifestyle—especially if you have flexibility about when to draw from registered accounts versus TFSAs or non-registered savings.
Another overlooked area is behaviour. Many Canadians know what they “should” do, but miss returns through late contributions, frequent strategy changes, or panic selling during market declines. Simple systems can help: automated contributions aligned with payday, a written investment policy (your target allocation and rebalancing rules), and a cash buffer for predictable short-term needs. These habits can reduce the odds of selling long-term investments at the wrong time.
Real-world pricing also plays a direct role in how much money you keep. Below is a fact-based overview of common Canadian providers and typical fee ranges you may see for different ways of investing; the goal is to show how costs can differ even when the underlying market returns are the same.
| Product/Service | Provider | Cost Estimation |
|---|---|---|
| Managed robo-advisor portfolio | Wealthsimple Managed Investing | Management fee commonly listed around 0.4%–0.5%/year, plus underlying ETF MERs (often ~0.1%–0.25%/year) |
| Managed robo-advisor portfolio | Questrade Questwealth Portfolios | Management fee commonly listed around ~0.25%/year, plus underlying ETF MERs (often ~0.1%–0.25%/year) |
| Managed robo-advisor portfolio | RBC InvestEase | Management fee commonly listed around ~0.50%/year, plus underlying ETF MERs (often ~0.1%–0.25%/year) |
| Asset-allocation ETF | Vanguard Canada (asset-allocation ETFs) | MER often around ~0.20%–0.25%/year, depending on the fund |
| Asset-allocation ETF | iShares (asset-allocation ETFs) | MER often around ~0.18%–0.25%/year, depending on the fund |
| Planning-only advice | Advice-only financial planners (Canada) | Often priced hourly (roughly $150–$400/hour) or as a flat fee; varies by scope and region |
Prices, rates, or cost estimates mentioned in this article are based on the latest available information but may change over time. Independent research is advised before making financial decisions.
A durable plan usually combines these ideas: set a realistic savings target tied to your goals, choose account types that fit your tax situation, keep fees and taxes in view, and build a withdrawal approach that can handle market ups and downs. When you focus on net outcomes—what you keep after costs and taxes—small improvements can compound into meaningful differences over the long run.
