Retire Sooner Roadmap
A free, Canadian-built retirement calculator. Plug in your numbers, see a worst-case projection, then refine with your benefits, partner income, mortgage, and inheritance to see what's actually achievable.
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Section 1 of 5
You've heard it before: "Save 15% of your income." Or "Save 20%." Or maybe "50% if you want to retire early." These are percentages of income, which sounds rigorous but actually drifts: a percentage of your income today is a different dollar amount than a percentage of your income next year. Your destination changes every time your salary does.
A better question: what dollar amount do I need at retirement? That number doesn't move when your salary changes. Once you know it, you can work backward to "how much do I save per year" and forward to "when does my current pace get me there." This is the dollar-anchored approach.
The Simple Calculator on this site asks for four numbers: your current age, when you want to retire, how much you've saved so far, and how much you plan to spend each year in retirement. Those four numbers are enough to give you a worst-case answer in under two minutes.
Read the full explanation of the dollar-anchored framework →
Section 2 of 5
Here's the rule of thumb most planners use: take your annual retirement spending, multiply by 25 to 33, and that's how much you need invested. If you plan to spend $40,000 per year, you need somewhere between $1,000,000 (at a 4% draw rate) and $1,320,000 (at a 3% draw rate, more conservative) to retire on.
The math: if you have $1,000,000 invested and withdraw 4% per year, that's $40,000. If your investments grow at roughly the rate of inflation plus 4% per year, you can keep doing this indefinitely — the principal lasts. That 4% is called the "safe withdrawal rate" or SWR, from the Bengen and Trinity research. 3% is the more conservative version meant to survive even a very long retirement (50+ years) with bad market sequences.
The Simple Calculator uses 3% by default — the most conservative anchor. If your worst-case math works at 3%, you have plenty of room. If it doesn't work yet, switching to Advanced and adding your actual CPP and OAS will probably close most of the gap.
Section 3 of 5
Most Canadians who've worked a normal career qualify for two government pensions: Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS). These typically combine to about $10,000–$23,000 per year, starting at age 65 (you can take CPP as early as 60 or as late as 70 — earlier means smaller monthly payments, later means larger).
That income reduces what your portfolio has to cover. If you plan to spend $40,000 per year and you'll get $20,000 from CPP + OAS combined, your portfolio only has to cover the other $20,000 — which at a 3% draw rate means about $660,000 instead of $1,320,000. That's a meaningful difference. Many Canadians who see a "you're behind" verdict from a generic calculator are actually fine once benefits are modeled.
If you retire before CPP/OAS start, your portfolio has to cover those bridge years on its own. The Advanced calculator handles this automatically — model your CPP and OAS, and it'll figure out the bridge cost.
Read more about Canadian benefits, when to take them, and how OAS clawback works →
Section 4 of 5
Most Canadians hold retirement savings across three account types: RRSP (tax-deferred, taxed on withdrawal), TFSA (tax-free in and out), and non-registered (taxed annually on dividends, half-taxed on capital gains when sold). When you retire and start drawing income, the order you take from these accounts changes your lifetime tax bill — sometimes meaningfully.
The textbook order is: non-registered → RRSP → TFSA. The early-retirement order flips that for the bridge years: RRSP → non-registered → TFSA, to draw down the RRSP at low marginal rates before age 71 (when CRA forces RRIF withdrawals on top of CPP + OAS, pushing you into a higher bracket).
The Advanced calculator's "First-year tax drag" panel shows you the marginal rate your next dollar of portfolio withdrawal will face under each strategy, and the "Lifetime tax" column in the rule-comparison table estimates the total tax over a 30-year retirement.
Section 5 of 5
The tool calls your projection "Short" or "Critical" when your projected savings don't reach the required amount at your target age. When that happens, the calculator surfaces a Roadmap section with concrete moves you can make:
Most real retirement plans combine two or three of these. The Roadmap gives you numbers, not platitudes — "save $267 more per month" instead of "save more."
Start with the Simple Calculator — four numbers, worst-case anchor, under two minutes. Switch to Advanced anytime to add your benefits, partner income, mortgage, and tax-aware planning.