You may have been ignoring your retirement plan up until now, but with the retirement train pulling into your station sooner than later,it’s time to get ready to climb aboard. You’ve got to get that debt paid off once and for all. And you’ve got to build up a stash of cash or your golden years are going to be a tad tarnished. So how do you do it? By planning purposefully. Here are some tips to help you along ;

1. Contribute to an RRSP and if you get a refund, use it to pay down your mortgage. Contrary to all those clichés, you can have your cake and eat it too. If you’re in the 30% tax bracket and you make a $5,000 contribution to an RRSP, the taxman will refund you $1500, which you can use to pre-pay your mortgage. This is one of the smartest strategies you can use to achieve two objectives – retirement and mortgage-free home-ownership – with one pool of cash.

2. Defer, extend, eliminate and save. Serious about finding the money so you have a nest-egg for the future? Consider deferring some of the things you normally spend on like the twice-a-year trips to enjoy some sunshine. And think about extending the time between when you do routine things: get your hair coloured/cut/relaxed every six weeks instead of every four, cut back on your lawn maintenance/home cleaning service from once a week to once every two. And then there are the frivolities you’ll want to eliminate completely: borrow your books and magazines at the library instead of buying them, and borrow DVDs from friends and family.

3. Practise living as if you’re already retired. The closer you get to boarding the train, the more prepared you need to be to deal with the changes. What better way to see how the retirement shoe fits than to try it on. Figure out how much you’ll have for expenses like food, entertainment, utilities, clothes, gifts, cable/cell, and travel. Practise living on that money, cutting back where necessary. Use the money you’re no longer spending to boost your savings in your RRSP or tax free savings plans.

'Til Debt Do Us Part" is sponsored by Manulife Bank and the Manulife One account. The M-1 is a debt management product that helps clients improve their cash flow to meet their savings goals and reduce their debt. For more information on creating your own financial plan that addresses both debt reduction AND your retirement planning, call Dan Allen at 519-822-3887.

Dan Allen CFP, MFA, EPC is a Certified Financial Planner who has achieved his Elder Planning Counselor accreditation and his Master Financial Advisor designation specializing in retirement income planning

Our move will benefit clients in a couple significant ways. With 6 financial advisors on staff, we'll be able to compare strategies to provide the best alternatives for clients. And with more licensed support staff, the advisors have more time to spend with their clients. And with the size of our office, suppliers pay significant attention to the needs of our clients.

Over the next few months, the content of this website will be renovated. We'll certainly keep what clients like - for example, on-line access to review their portfolios. Clients will continue to be able to purchase "self serve" insurances like travel insurance and health/dental insurance by going into our "Resources" tab at the top right. And we'll improve some of the information available, particularly for business owners and professionals.

Our focus on clients remains the backbone of our service - Our dedication is evident by the way we maintain regular contact with clients, our disciplined approach to providing innovative and proven financial strategies and our devotion to providing detailed annual reviews and adjustments to client financial plans.

Thank you for your patience as we move forward with our changes!