For many, retirement is the reward for a whole lifetime of work. After years of everyday effort, maybe you're dreaming of traveling, playing golf every day, or spending more time with your family. If this type of planning is already at the top of your list of financial goals, that's exactly where it should be.

How It Starts
When you start planning for retirement, one of the first questions you'll have to address is how much money do you need to retire?

At first glance, it seems like a simple question. Until you start to look at it closely and see that there are many more pieces to the puzzle. You probably have other financial responsibilities, like saving for your child's or grandchild's post-secondary school education or working to pay off your mortgage. Then there are the day-to-day financial demands like food, shelter and other bills. Because it can be overwhelming, some people panic or put it off all together. But you don't have to be one of them.

How We Can Help
Figuring out how to put all the pieces in place is key to your retirement strategy, and that's something Edward Jones can help you do. We'll go through everything you need to know and the questions you need to ask yourself. For example, do you want to maintain your current lifestyle after you retire? How do Old Age Security and government pension benefits factor in? Should you think about estate planning?

We can also talk to you about your specific financial goals and concerns. We can show you how long your current savings may last. We can also explain how individual retirement plans, such as an RRSP, work and the benefits of tax-deferred savings.

The following example compares two retirement strategies over a 30-year period: $5,000 invested annually in an RRSP, plus reinvestment of the tax refund; and $5,000 invested outside an RRSP each year. In both cases, investments earn an average annual return of 7% and returns are fully taxable outside an RRSP. In the case of the RRSP, funds are taxed at 40% upon withdrawal; in the non-RRSP example investment returns are taxed annually at the same 40% rate.