Thanks and totally willing to share numbers. You make great points. I did not explain the RRSP well, I don't plan to draw it to zero, just use those accounts first. In fact our two situations and plans have a lot in common. Here is more detail:
Target Income: $64k before tax (could be less in down years this is high estimate)
RRSP Accounts: $690k
TFSA Accounts: $120k
Taxable Accounts: $245k
Wife is roughly my age, will retire in 2022 when her pension is available and will get $33K/yr till 65 then that drops to $22k (in today's dollars, currently indexed but that could change). So we have 3 phases of retirement:
2018 to 2022 - Her salary about $34k/yr net plus investment income/withdrawals
2022 to 65 yrs old - Her pension plus investment income/withdrawals
65 yrs old plus - CPP/OAS for both of us (if OAS still exists) plus investment income/withdrawals
The RRSP is about $500k for me and $190k for her with all the taxable accounts in my name. So my plan is to use my RRSP first to level them out. The taxble investments are in my name since she has the DB Pension. So as far as my plan is somewhat baked. The gaps are balancing my investments between the accounts and taking income from the accounts in the phases above. I would love to set it up so that all of my income is from dividends and interest. I should get about $22-25k/year from that so close but not quite enough.
Strange thing is I think we are close or there for me to RE now but I don't "feel" like I am and part of that is needing a clearer plan on managing the accounts and investments with cash flow.
That equals a total portfolio of approx. $1.1 million when you retire. For your desired portfolio mix, you would have $440,000 in bonds and $220,000 each in everything else. The bonds will nicely fit into your RRSPs and Canadian stocks on your non-reg accounts. I would then plug REITs into non-reg and then TFSA. Internationals can go in TFSA first then balance in RRSP. US can go in RRSP.
You will need around $40,000 a year in portfolio withdrawals to safely account for taxes and your TFSA contribution. With a $550,000 (yours only) RRSP when you retire, you can withdraw the entire $40,000 from your RRSP and it will last you nearly 20 years. However, you will pay full tax rates on it.
It would be better to check your distribution income first. The Canadian stocks and REITs in your non-reg will pay around $7,000 in distribution income. This reduces RRSP withdrawals to $33,000 and offsets some of those taxes.
This would get your RRSP down under $300,000 by age 65. After that you can drop RRSP withdrawals to $20,000 with OAS/CPP making up for the rest.
RRSP will be under $250,000 by 71, so your required withdrawal will be around $13,000 (you'll be taking about $20,000). Basically you won't have to worry about RRIF withdrawal rules this way as it's well under your requirements.
Or you could keep RRSP withdrawals a little higher and defer your CPP until age 70. Tax-wise there's not much difference, but your RRSPs would be depleted lower by 71.
In the meantime, your TFSA would grow to $400,000 by age 71 and your non-reg will grow to over $400,000 after stripping out the dividends.
At this point, you may be wise to take the minimum RRIF withdrawal, your CPP & OAS, plus dividends and start supplementing with capital gains income from your non-reg account to keep your taxes even lower.
Throughout retirement, your tax rates will be under 15% in most provinces. You can get them still lower by using a HELOC or other borrow to invest strategy, but it's probably not worth the risk and hassle in exchange for a few grand tops.