Last week we touched on three things you should do when markets drop. This week is the flip side: the one mistake that does more damage than all the rest put together. If you get this wrong, it can quietly undo years of good planning in a single scared afternoon. Joe is recording this while things are calm, on purpose, so it is ready for you when markets eventually get bumpy.

The flight to safety - getting scared and abandoning your plan to run to cash the moment things look bad - is completely natural. It is wired right into us. And it never feels like a mistake when you are doing it. It feels smart, responsible, and prudent. Joe walks through three true stories from COVID, the years after 2008, and 2022, to show how the same mistake shows up in different "clothing" every time, and what it actually costs the people who make it.

In This Episode

• On any single day, the stock market is roughly a coin flip. But historically there has never been a 20-year period where it finished negative. The longer you stay invested, the more the odds climb in your favour. History has been very kind to the people who simply stayed in their seat.
  
  
• Down markets are not a maybe. They are a certainty. And if downturns are coming no matter what, the answer was never to dodge them. The answer is to have a plan you can actually stick with through ugly stretches, so that when the fear shows up, you do not have to make a decision at all. You just follow the plan.
  
  
• In COVID, people who pulled everything out in March 2020 waiting for good news were sitting in cash by June while the market had already fully recovered. The vaccine announcement did not come until December. The market did not wait for better news, and neither did the loss for anyone who bailed.
  
  
• After 2008, some advisors started shifting client money to cash whenever they calculated another bear market was statistically due. The logic sounded reasonable. But from 2009 onward, clients who followed that approach missed one of the longest market runs on record, sitting in cash waiting for a crash that took years to arrive.
  
  
• In 2022, people sold portfolios that were down 10 to 20% and locked in a guaranteed investment certificate (GIC) rate of around 5%. That locked in the loss, made it permanent, and left them on the sidelines while global stocks returned more than 24% in 2023, over 19% in 2024, and more than 21% in 2025. The guaranteed rate felt like a smart deal. The opportunity cost was enormous.

About:

Your Retirement Planning Simplified is a weekly Canadian retirement planning podcast hosted by Joe Curry, CFP, CEPA, of Matthews and Associates, an independent wealth management firm. Each week, Joe breaks down retirement income, tax, and estate decisions in plain language for Canadians who are near or in retirement.

Next Steps:

Want tips like this in your inbox? Sign up for the Retirement Planning Simplified Newsletter and get updates plus our popular 60-Second Retirement Tip: https://bit.ly/RPSNewsletter

Ready to take the next step in your retirement planning? Watch a short overview of our True Wealth Roadmap and see if our process is a fit for you: https://www.matthewsandassociates.ca/vsl

Disclaimer:

Opinions expressed are those of Joseph Curry, a registrant of Aligned Capital Partners Inc. (ACPI), and may not necessarily be those of ACPI. This podcast is for informational purposes only and not intended to be personalized investment advice. The views expressed are opinions of Joseph Curry and may not necessarily be those of ACPI. Content is prepared for general circulation and information contained does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any investment fund, security or other product or service.

Right now, markets are calm. And that is exactly the right time to talk about what to do when they are not. When markets drop, almost everything your gut is telling you to do is the exact opposite of what you should actually do. This episode is your fire drill - so you know where the exits are long before the building fills with smoke.

A market downturn hits differently when you are retired or close to it. You are not just watching a number drop on a screen - you might be pulling income out of that same portfolio at the same time it is going down. That fear is real, and scared is exactly when people make their worst decisions with money. Joe walks through three specific, ordered steps to take when markets fall, so your calm clear-headed self can write the instructions your scared future self will actually follow.

In This Episode

• Before you touch a single thing, go back to the plan and ask one question: has my life changed, or has just the market changed? A proper retirement plan already assumed downturns would happen. If your goals have not changed, your plan has not either, and the plan is the circuit breaker standing between you and an emotional decision made at the worst possible time.
  
  
• When markets fall, do not run for safety. Rebalance back to your target instead. If your portfolio was built around the right mix of offense and defense for your situation, your job in a downturn is to get back to that mix, not change it. That means moving money from the safe side of your portfolio and buying more of what just dropped. It feels completely wrong. That feeling is usually the sign you are doing it right.
  
  
• Down markets are not something to endure. They are a window to make moves your plan already called for, at a much lower tax cost. If you have been sitting on an old holding you wanted to exit, or you have been meaning to move money from your Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) into your Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA), a market drop can dramatically reduce what you pay to do it.
  
  
• When moving money between accounts to harvest a loss, watch for the superficial loss rule. If you sell an investment at a loss and you or an affiliated person repurchases the same or an identical investment within 30 days before or after the sale and you are still holding it 30 days after, the capital loss can be denied. If the repurchase happens inside your RRSP or TFSA, the loss may be gone for good.
  
  
• The big idea underneath all three steps is the same: when markets drop, the goal is not to do something new and clever. It is to calmly do the thing you already planned on doing, just at a better price.

About:

Your Retirement Planning Simplified is a weekly Canadian retirement planning podcast hosted by Joe Curry, CFP, CEPA, of Matthews and Associates, an independent wealth management firm. Each week, Joe breaks down retirement income, tax, and estate decisions in plain language for Canadians who are near or in retirement.

Next Steps:

Want tips like this in your inbox? Sign up for the Retirement Planning Simplified Newsletter and get updates plus our popular 60-Second Retirement Tip: https://bit.ly/RPSNewsletter

Ready to take the next step in your retirement planning? Watch a short overview of our True Wealth Roadmap and see if our process is a fit for you: https://www.matthewsandassociates.ca/vsl

Disclaimer:

Opinions expressed are those of Joseph Curry, a registrant of Aligned Capital Partners Inc. (ACPI), and may not necessarily be those of ACPI. This podcast is for informational purposes only and not intended to be personalized investment advice. The views expressed are opinions of Joseph Curry and may not necessarily be those of ACPI. Content is prepared for general circulation and information contained does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any investment fund, security or other product or service.

Most people have one date circled for their Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) - the year they turn 71. The year when it has to convert to a Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF). The plan is simple - just don't touch it until you have to. But there is a move available at 65 that most people walk right past. And missing it can mean paying more tax than necessary every year between 65 and 71.

When money comes out of a RRIF, it becomes eligible pension income. That unlocks two things your RRSP cannot offer: income splitting with your spouse, and the pension income tax credit. You don't have to move your whole RRSP, and the decision is flexible and reversible up until the end of the year you turn 71. Joe walks through why 65 is the date that matters, how this applies to couples bridging the gap before Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS) kick in, what the pension credit actually does and does not do, and who this move does not make sense for.

In This Episode

• At 65, RRIF withdrawals become eligible pension income, which can be split with a lower-income spouse and earns the pension income tax credit. Your RRSP cannot do either. If you are over 65 and pulling money out of your RRSP, you are missing both tools.
  
  
• You do not have to move your entire RRSP. You can convert as little or as much as you like at any point before 71, and it is not a one-way door. Money can generally go back into the RRSP until the end of the year you turn 71. Moving just a slice keeps required minimums small and manageable.
  
  
• For couples bridging the years before CPP and OAS, the withdrawal is happening anyway. The only question is which account it comes from. Moving it from the RRSP to a RRIF means that same money can be split across two tax returns, reducing the household tax bill without changing how much you actually need to spend.
  
  
• The pension credit is a bonus, not the reason to do this. As of 2026, it is a credit on the first $2,000 of eligible pension income per person - worth a few hundred dollars federally, plus a provincial amount. Over a long retirement for a couple, it adds up. But the income splitting is where the real value is for most households.
  
  
• This move is not for everyone. If you already have a defined benefit workplace pension, you may already be getting these benefits and adding RRIF income on top could work against you. If your income is already balanced with your spouse, splitting does not help. And if you are in a very high tax bracket, tax deferral inside the RRSP may still be the better choice.

About:

Your Retirement Planning Simplified is a weekly Canadian retirement planning podcast hosted by Joe Curry, CFP, CEPA, of Matthews and Associates, an independent wealth management firm. Each week, Joe breaks down retirement income, tax, and estate decisions in plain language for Canadians who are near or in retirement.

Next Steps:

Want tips like this in your inbox? Sign up for the Retirement Planning Simplified Newsletter and get updates plus our popular 60-Second Retirement Tip: https://bit.ly/RPSNewsletter

Ready to take the next step in your retirement planning? Watch a short overview of our True Wealth Roadmap and see if our process is a fit for you: https://www.matthewsandassociates.ca/vsl

Disclaimer:

Opinions expressed are those of Joseph Curry, a registrant of Aligned Capital Partners Inc. (ACPI), and may not necessarily be those of ACPI. This podcast is for informational purposes only and not intended to be personalized investment advice. The views expressed are opinions of Joseph Curry and may not necessarily be those of ACPI. Content is prepared for general circulation and information contained does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any investment fund, security or other product or service.

For 40 years, your paycheque just showed up. Then you retire, and suddenly you are sitting on the biggest amount of money you have ever had with no paycheque coming in. A lot of good savers freeze. They are scared to touch it, and they end up living much smaller than they can afford in the exact years they were saving for. There is one thing that fixes this, and you can start building it this week.

The retirement income timeline is a single page that shows you exactly where your paycheque is going to come from in retirement, year by year, and whether it is going to hold up. Joe walks through what it looks like, how to build one, and why the process of mapping it out is often the moment the fear finally has somewhere to go, not because the numbers changed, but because you can finally see them.

In This Episode

• A retirement income timeline lists your income sources down one side and the next ten years across the top: your portfolio accounts, Canada Pension Plan (CPP) for each spouse, Old Age Security (OAS) for each spouse, any defined benefit pension, and any other income. You fill in where each dollar of your target monthly income comes from, year by year, watching CPP and OAS step in over time and the portfolio withdrawal adjust accordingly.
  
  
• You already know how to do this - just pointed the other way. For 40 years you divided income between the mortgage, groceries, and savings. Building a retirement paycheque is the same skill in reverse: taking savings and turning them back into income.
  
  
• The security you felt while working did not come from the size of your bank balance. It came from knowing the next paycheque was coming. The timeline rebuilds that exact rhythm, so security comes from a paycheque you can count on rather than from watching a balance move up and down.
  
  
• Without a timeline, every month brings a low-grade decision: can we afford this, should I take more out, are we going to be okay? Once the timeline is built, that stops. Your only job is to fine-tune it a couple of times a year, ideally with a planner watching the whole picture alongside you. You trade a hundred small worries for one calm check-in.
  
  
• A couple that Joe worked with who were both retired with savings well intact, were living off a few thousand dollars a month because they were afraid to get it wrong. They had earned well over $100,000 a year while working and had more than enough to continue that lifestyle. The real cost of never mapping it out was not running out of money. It was shrinking their own life to avoid a problem they did not actually have.

About:

Your Retirement Planning Simplified is a weekly Canadian retirement planning podcast hosted by Joe Curry, CFP, CEPA, of Matthews and Associates, an independent wealth management firm. Each week, Joe breaks down retirement income, tax, and estate decisions in plain language for Canadians who are near or in retirement.

Next Steps:

Want tips like this in your inbox? Sign up for the Retirement Planning Simplified Newsletter and get updates plus our popular 60-Second Retirement Tip: https://bit.ly/RPSNewsletter

Ready to take the next step in your retirement planning? Watch a short overview of our True Wealth Roadmap and see if our process is a fit for you: https://www.matthewsandassociates.ca/vsl

Disclaimer:

Opinions expressed are those of Joseph Curry, a registrant of Aligned Capital Partners Inc. (ACPI), and may not necessarily be those of ACPI. This podcast is for informational purposes only and not intended to be personalized investment advice. The views expressed are opinions of Joseph Curry and may not necessarily be those of ACPI. Content is prepared for general circulation and information contained does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any investment fund, security or other product or service.

When Joe asks couples in retirement planning whether they would ever be open to freeing up equity in their home, the reaction is almost always the same: "I don't want to leave my house" or "if I have to do that, I don't think I can retire." But nobody is asking you to sell your house this year. That is the whole point of this episode.

Your home is one of the only assets you own that does not come with a decision date. Your Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) eventually forces your hand. Your house sits there quietly as a reserve you already own. Joe walks through how to think about home equity in retirement, who the downsizing conversation actually applies to, how a home equity line of credit (HELOC) earns its place in a retirement plan, and the one part of the home question that genuinely does have a deadline.

In This Episode

• The question is never whether you will sell this year. It is whether you would be willing to free up equity later, if it meant a better retirement the whole way through. For most people, once they sit with that, the answer is yes.
  
  
• The downsizing conversation is really for homes worth close to a million dollars or more. For homes worth less, land transfer tax, realtor fees, moving costs, and getting the property ready to sell can eat up far more of the proceeds than people expect. Run the real numbers before assuming there is a large pot of money waiting.
  
  
• A HELOC set up while you are still working gives you a backstop for the moments when life does not wait for good markets. A furnace, a car, or any large unexpected expense in a down year does not have to force you into selling investments low. The line of credit buys you options. Most people who set one up never draw a dollar from it. Think of it as flexibility insurance.
  
  
• Set up the HELOC before you retire, not after. Lenders qualify you on income, and retirement income looks thinner on paper than an employment paycheque even when your actual financial position is strong. An unused line arranged at 62 is a much easier conversation than an urgent application at 71 with markets down.
  
  
• The renovation is the one part of the home question that does not wait. If you are planning to stay and there is work the house genuinely needs, get it done while employment income is still coming in. And do not over-renovate to sell - buyers will want to put their own stamp on the place, and a major renovation rarely comes back out in the sale price.

About:

Your Retirement Planning Simplified is a weekly Canadian retirement planning podcast hosted by Joe Curry, CFP, CEPA, of Matthews and Associates, an independent wealth management firm. Each week, Joe breaks down retirement income, tax, and estate decisions in plain language for Canadians who are near or in retirement.

Next Steps:

Want tips like this in your inbox? Sign up for the Retirement Planning Simplified Newsletter and get updates plus our popular 60-Second Retirement Tip: https://bit.ly/RPSNewsletter

Ready to take the next step in your retirement planning? Watch a short overview of our True Wealth Roadmap and see if our process is a fit for you: https://www.matthewsandassociates.ca/vsl

Disclaimer:

Opinions expressed are those of Joseph Curry, a registrant of Aligned Capital Partners Inc. (ACPI), and may not necessarily be those of ACPI. This podcast is for informational purposes only and not intended to be personalized investment advice. The views expressed are opinions of Joseph Curry and may not necessarily be those of ACPI. Content is prepared for general circulation and information contained does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any investment fund, security or other product or service.

You sign your will, feel a wave of relief, and put it in the drawer. Done, handled, the kids are taken care of. But a will mostly records what you decided. It does not explain why. And if your children have never heard your reasoning while you are still here to explain it, you can leave them with a division of assets and very little context. That gap is often where grief turns into conflict.

Episode Summary

Equal and fair are often the same thing - but not always. And the places where they come apart are usually where families run into trouble. Joe walks through two detailed real-world examples, a cottage with a quiet tax problem and a family business handled the right way, to show how good intentions can go sideways when the planning is done in silos and never revisited. The lesson underneath all of it is the same: the family conversation you should have, before the document has to speak for you, is just as important as the document itself.

In This Episode

• A will records what you decided, not why. If your children find out for the first time at the worst possible moment - while grieving, reading a legal document - they are left to piece together your reasoning on their own. That is where misunderstanding and resentment take hold.
  
  
• Equal does not always finish fair. A real example: a $100,000 life insurance policy set up decades ago to equalize a cottage inheritance made perfect sense at the time. By the time both parents had passed, the cottage had grown to over a million dollars in value, the capital gain ran with the estate, and the sibling who never received any part of the cottage ended up funding a third of the tax bill on an asset that was not theirs.
  
  
• Fair does not always mean equal on paper, and that can work - but only when everyone understands why. A family business handled well involved one child inheriting the business, taking on the associated tax liability, and receiving life insurance to cover it, while the other child inherited liquid assets worth less on paper but carrying no business risk. Both children were in the room when the plan was explained. Nobody was blindsided.
  
  
• Early gifts quietly become fairness data points. The down payment you helped one child with, the wedding gift, the seed money for a business - in the moment, that was just parenting. But the other kids remember. Whatever you decided at the time, write down whether it was a gift, a loan, or an advance on inheritance, while everyone remembers it clearly.
  
  
• A lot of this comes down not to a better document but to a conversation - ideally one you have on purpose while you are still here to explain yourself. You do not have to cover every dollar. Naming the why behind the big decisions, who the executor is and why, where the cottage is going and why, who the powers of attorney are and why, is often enough to prevent the problems that show up later.

About:

Your Retirement Planning Simplified is a weekly Canadian retirement planning podcast hosted by Joe Curry, CFP, CEPA, of Matthews and Associates, an independent wealth management firm. Each week, Joe breaks down retirement income, tax, and estate decisions in plain language for Canadians who are near or in retirement.

Next Steps:

Want tips like this in your inbox? Sign up for the Retirement Planning Simplified Newsletter and get updates plus our popular 60-Second Retirement Tip: https://bit.ly/RPSNewsletter

Ready to take the next step in your retirement planning? Watch a short overview of our True Wealth Roadmap and see if our process is a fit for you: https://www.matthewsandassociates.ca/vsl

Disclaimer:

Opinions expressed are those of Joseph Curry, a registrant of Aligned Capital Partners Inc. (ACPI), and may not necessarily be those of ACPI. This podcast is for informational purposes only and not intended to be personalized investment advice. The views expressed are opinions of Joseph Curry and may not necessarily be those of ACPI. Content is prepared for general circulation and information contained does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any investment fund, security or other product or service.

More than half of Canadians say they are afraid of making the wrong financial decision, and half say they have lost sleep over money. Your first instinct is probably that this is about people who do not have enough. But some of the most financially stressed people Joe sits down with have more than enough, and they still lie awake. This episode is for them.

A big account balance is not the same thing as a clear plan. For people with healthy savings, financial stress in retirement almost never comes from scarcity. It comes from uncertainty. And the instinct that made them such good savers - the discipline to hold back, not touch the pile, worry about spending too much - is the exact muscle that now works against them. Joe walks through why this happens, what it actually costs, and what a real plan can show you that willpower alone never will.

In This Episode

• Money is still the number one source of stress for Canadians by a wide margin, more than twice as much as health, relationships, or work, according to the FP Canada 2026 Financial Stress Ind,. And that stress does not switch off at a certain account balance.
  
  
• For people with healthy savings, the stress almost never comes from not having enough. It comes from not being sure. And your brain treats uncertainty as a threat regardless of what the account statement says.
  
  
• The best savers often have the hardest time spending in retirement, and that is not a flaw. The instinct to hold back and not touch the pile kept them safe for decades. You cannot ask someone to switch that off on the day they retire. It takes a real plan, not willpower, to move past it.
  
  
• A couple Joe recently worked with thought they could safely draw between $1,500 and $2,000 a month from their portfolio. Once their pension, government benefits, accounts, and tax picture were all mapped together, the sustainable monthly withdrawal was closer to $8,000 - rising with inflation, throughout retirement. Gaining that awareness of the gap between what they thought was safe and what was actually possible is the whole point.
  
  
• A good plan does not just confirm your fears. Sometimes it tells you to pull back. But just as often, it gives you permission to live - to take the trip, to help your kids now instead of leaving it all behind, to actually enjoy the money you were disciplined enough to save.

About:

Your Retirement Planning Simplified is a weekly Canadian retirement planning podcast hosted by Joe Curry, CFP, CEPA, of Matthews and Associates, an independent wealth management firm. Each week, Joe breaks down retirement income, tax, and estate decisions in plain language for Canadians who are near or in retirement.

Next Steps:

Want tips like this in your inbox? Sign up for the Retirement Planning Simplified Newsletter and get updates plus our popular 60-Second Retirement Tip: https://bit.ly/RPSNewsletter

Ready to take the next step in your retirement planning? Watch a short overview of our True Wealth Roadmap and see if our process is a fit for you: https://www.matthewsandassociates.ca/vsl

Resources

FP Canada 2026 Financial Stress Index (current as of 2026):
https://fpcanada.ca/findaplanner/financial-stress-index

Disclaimer:

Opinions expressed are those of Joseph Curry, a registrant of Aligned Capital Partners Inc. (ACPI), and may not necessarily be those of ACPI. This podcast is for informational purposes only and not intended to be personalized investment advice. The views expressed are opinions of Joseph Curry and may not necessarily be those of ACPI. Content is prepared for general circulation and information contained does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any investment fund, security or other product or see.