The years after work but before CPP, OAS, and RRIF minimums fully stack together can offer valuable planning flexibility. Many retirees later realize they let that window pass without testing how income, tax, spouse coordination, and estate decisions would work together.
The final year before retirement is not just another salary year. It is a compressed planning window where compensation timing, pension elections, benefits deadlines, and early retirement cash flow can start affecting each other.
Many retirees expect taxes to ease once employment income stops. In practice, pensions, CPP, OAS, RRIF withdrawals, dividends, and capital gains can begin stacking on the same return in ways that are easy to underestimate.
Read the June 2026 Market Commentary covering Canadian housing uncertainty, U.S. inflation pressures, geopolitical risks, oil prices, and the longer-term market outlook.
Retiring before CPP and OAS start can create a short period of unusually low taxable income. Used carefully, those bridge years may be an opportunity to reduce future RRIF pressure and smooth lifetime tax.
Read the June 2026 Market Commentary covering Canadian housing uncertainty, U.S. inflation pressures, geopolitical risks, oil prices, and the longer-term market outlook.
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