{"id":1672,"date":"2025-10-15T14:42:42","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T14:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/hmprivatewealth\/?p=1672"},"modified":"2026-02-02T19:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T19:28:10","slug":"retirement-series-4-years-to-go-sharpen-your-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/hmprivatewealth\/retirement-series-4-years-to-go-sharpen-your-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Retirement Series: 4 Years to Go: Sharpen Your Numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Retirement Isn\u2019t a Date\u2014It\u2019s a Journey<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Retirement is often seen as a single day on the calendar\u2014but in reality, it\u2019s a multi-year journey. You don\u2019t simply wake up one morning and retire. The process starts well in advance, through careful planning and intentional action.<\/p>\n<p>To help guide you along the way, we\u2019ve created a five-part series that breaks down the steps to take during each of the five years leading up to retirement. As we move into Registered Retirement Saving Plan (RRSP) season, we\u2019ll be sharing one article each month, providing timely, actionable advice you can use right now.<\/p>\n<p>This series draws heavily from Christine Benz\u2019s <em>How to Retire<\/em>, a trusted resource that blends both the financial and lifestyle aspects of retirement. It covers key topics like saving, withdrawal strategies, insurance, and estate planning, alongside equally important areas like wellness, belonging, and meaningful pursuits.<\/p>\n<p>Each phase builds upon the one before, creating a foundation for gradual de-risking, thoughtful preparation, and emotional readiness. The approach reflects both proven financial strategies\u2014such as catch-up contributions, bucket withdrawal strategies, and partial annuitization\u2014and a holistic view of what it truly means to retire well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Year 2 \u2013 From Vision to Plan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With just four years to go, it\u2019s time to move from big-picture goals to detailed projections.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Steps for this stage:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Run retirement income scenarios:<\/strong> Project income from CPP\/OAS, pensions, RRIFs, annuities, and investments.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Review your estate plan:<\/strong> Update your will, powers of attorney, and beneficiary designations.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Consider phased retirement:<\/strong> Look into reducing hours or transitioning to advisory roles if desired.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Refine your expenses:<\/strong> Use a mock retirement budget to test your lifestyle plans.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Takeaway:<\/strong> Confidence comes from clarity\u2014now is the time to fill in the financial gaps.<\/p>\n<p><strong>We&#8217;re here to guide you\u2014both on the road to retirement and throughout the journey beyond.<\/strong><br \/>\nWhether you&#8217;re five years away or just a few months out, our team is ready to help you plan with clarity and confidence. Feel free to reach out anytime to discuss your retirement goals in more detail\u2014we&#8217;re always just a call away.<\/p>\n<p>Sincerely,<\/p>\n<p>Harvey Morrison Private Wealth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Retirement Isn\u2019t a Date\u2014It\u2019s a Journey Retirement is often seen as a single day on the calendar\u2014but in reality, it\u2019s a multi-year journey. You don\u2019t simply wake up one morning and retire. The process starts well in advance, through careful planning and intentional action. To help guide you along the way, we\u2019ve created a five-part [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":241,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wealth-planning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/hmprivatewealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/hmprivatewealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/hmprivatewealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/hmprivatewealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/241"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/hmprivatewealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/hmprivatewealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1673,"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/hmprivatewealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1672\/revisions\/1673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/hmprivatewealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/hmprivatewealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/hmprivatewealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}