Retirement planning can be confusing as there are many things to consider, such as inflation, how much you need to retire, life expectancy, and the time to retire. It is difficult to make ends meet even with active income. Meeting expenses with passive income is even more difficult. Even if we take a rough figure, you need at least $1 million to retire. Such long-term goals could take 10, 20, or even 30 years to realize.
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Retirement planning at age 35
Investment tenure plays an important role in retirement planning. At age 35, you have at least 25 years until you retire. If your health supports you, you can stretch to 65 before retiring.
According to Statistics Canada data, tax filers under 35 made a median contribution of $4,500 and $4,000 to Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) and Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP), respectively, in 2023. By age 35, they had an average of $16,220 in RRSP balance.
Assuming you are starting with $0 retirement savings, you have to grow your investments along with your active income and allocate a higher portion towards retirement. Statistics Canada data on tax filers showed that Canadians in high-income brackets made bigger TFSA and RRSP contributions in 2023.
| Income bracket of tax filers | Median RRSP and TFSA contributions (2023 tax year) |
| Less than $20,000 | $7,150 |
| $20,000 to $39,999 | $6,710 |
| $40,000 to $59,999 | $6,880 |
| $60,000 to $79,999 | $8,850 |
| $80,000 and over | $16,790 |
How much should you invest at age 35
The Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security Pension payouts can provide for 33% of your expenses. Aim for the TFSA retirement portfolio to provide for 50-60% of your expenses.
Suppose your annual expense at present is $50,000. It would be around $105,000 in 25 years, growing at an average annual rate of 3%. A 60% annual payout means you need $63,000 in annual passive income from your TFSA. To earn $63,000 annually, you need to build a TFSA portfolio of $1.05 million and then invest it in dividend stocks that give a 6% annual dividend yield.
Two TFSA stocks to kick-start retirement planning at age 35
At age 35, you need to focus on building the $1.05 million TFSA retirement portfolio. To build this, consider investing $500 per month in growth stocks that can give an 18-20% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR).
iShares S&P/TSX Capped Information Technology Index ETF (TSX:XIT) is a good investment as it can give you exposure to two of the TSX’s consistent performers: Shopify and Constellation Software. The exchange-traded fund (ETF) can help you enjoy the artificial intelligence (AI) rally, e-commerce adoption, and digitization. It has given an average annual return of 17.6% over 10 years. The ETF’s ability to tap future technology trends can help it keep growing, giving your investment a better chance to generate the desired portfolio return.
Another interesting growth stock is Topicus.com (TSXV:TOI). This company operates as the private equity of European vertical-specific software companies. Topicus.com keeps acquiring companies with stable cash flows and reinvesting this cash flow to acquire more companies with cash flows. It is equivalent to making money from money, something that compounding does. So far, Topicus.com is enjoying a 5% organic growth.
All these acquisitions grow the company’s value and stock price, creating a good chance of generating an 18-20% average annual return in the next 10 years.
Investor takeaway
While these stocks show a good possibility of giving strong double-digit returns, you should review your portfolio once or twice a year to ensure the stocks you invested in still have their growth intact. Reviewing is important, as not all stocks can generate a double-digit return for the long term.
