What is an RRSP?

An RRSP, or a registered retirement savings plan, allows you to save money during your working years in order to provide you with an additional source of income at retirement.

Each year, you are allowed to contribute up to 18% of your previous year’s income to an RRSP. This amount is claimed as a tax deduction and therefore reduces your taxes payable.

Most financial experts agree that you’ll need approximately 70% of your pre-retirement income to maintain a similar lifestyle when you retire. In any case, you can be sure that your Québec Pension Plan (QPP) or Old Age Security benefits will not be enough.

Unless you have a private pension plan, it is important to contribute to an RRSP to avoid financial difficulties in retirement.

A spousal RRSP allows you to maximize your retirement income while saving you taxes now and later.

In a spousal RRSP, you make the contribution and get the tax deduction but the spouse owns the plan. This is a savings vehicle worth considering if one of you will receive significantly more money than the other in retirement, either because of a private pension plan or because there will be more money in one spouse’s RRSP account.

As an example, if each spouse declares a personal retirement income of $40,000 per year, the couple will pay less tax than if one person declares $80,000. In this way, the couple ends up with more disposable income.