The $5.34 rule: a simple strategy for secure retirement savings

Most underfunded retirements in this province are not a mystery. They are a series of years in which the contribution was going to happen after the next hitch, the next landing, the next bonus. It did not.

The $5.34 rule is a way of making the math small enough to start. Five dollars and thirty-four cents a day is about $162 a month, about $1,950 a year. Directed into a TFSA or an RRSP, and left alone, it is the beginning of a habit. The number is a door, not a ceiling. The households who get somewhere raise it when a good year arrives, and they do not pause it because a headline was ugly.

Automation matters more than the precise figure. Payroll deduction into a group RRSP, a pre-authorized TFSA, a spousal contribution: these beat willpower. We help clients pick the account, the beneficiary, and the investment mix so the automatic amount is not sitting in cash for a decade.

If you have never contributed, start with $5.34 a day and a meeting. If you already contribute, the useful question is whether the account and the beneficiary still match the life you have now.