Can I retire at 65 with $500,000?

Year by year: where the $49,000 comes from

From 65. At 65 CPP ($1,498 a month) and OAS start, and withdrawals drop. The table follows a single person in Ontario using the best order the planner found (non-registered, then rrsp/rrif, tfsa last); the first year's tax is about $700.

Each row adds up: income and withdrawals, minus tax, equals that year's spending (figures rounded to $100).

From about age 65, this plan qualifies for the Guaranteed Income Supplement: once the RRIF is drawn down, taxable income falls low enough, and TFSA withdrawals don't count as income. GIS adds about $35,000 over the plan. How GIS works.

How sure is it? Spending against 400 market paths

Average returns are a midpoint, not a promise. The same plan, rerun across 400 market paths with 10% yearly volatility:

If you'd rather spend more in your active years, a pattern that eases to 90% at 75 and 80% at 85 lets you start at about $53,500 instead of $49,000.

What retiring at 65 does to your CPP

CPP averages your earnings from 18 until it starts, dropping the lowest 17% of months. For someone earning around the YMPE since 22, stopping at 65 means 4 zero-earnings years before 65: CPP at 65 falls from about $1,498 to $1,498 a month.

Sustainable after-tax spending for the single example with CPP starting at 60, 65 or 70 (OAS at 65). Run CPP timing with your own work history.

By province

Same savings and assumptions, single person, best withdrawal order; differences come from 2026 provincial tax, credits and Ontario's Health Premium.

If you're a couple

With the same $500,000 split between two RRSPs and two TFSAs, two OAS pensions and two CPPs ($1,498 and $1,048 a month at 65 in this example), the household can spend about $70,800 a year after tax to 95, using non-registered, then rrsp/rrif, tfsa last. Pension splitting from 65 evens out the two tax bills.

What would change the answer

• A workplace pension or part-time income in the bridge years reduces the draw on savings when it hurts most.
• Lower returns: at 4% instead of 5% nominal, sustainable spending falls; the market-path table shows how much cushion you have.
• CPP and OAS timing: deferring raises lifelong indexed income but means spending more savings first.
• Your real CPP: fewer years of earnings, or earnings below the YMPE, lower CPP — your Statement of Contributions has the real figure.
• Home equity and big one-off costs aren't included.

How these numbers were made

Savings split 65% RRSP/RRIF, 20% TFSA (up to $150,000), the rest non-registered; CPP from steady earnings at the YMPE from age 22 until retiring; CPP and OAS at 65; full OAS; Ontario unless stated. Pension pages add a $30,000 indexed defined-benefit pension from the retirement date. Couple: Two spouses the same age; savings 40% and 25% in each RRSP/RRIF, up to $109,000 in each TFSA, the rest non-registered; one earned at the YMPE, the other at 70% of it; CPP and OAS at 65; Ontario. On pension pages the pension is the first spouse's. Returns 5% a year nominal (with 10% yearly volatility in the market-path table), 2% inflation, plan to 95, today's dollars, 2026 tax with age and pension credits. Generated October 30, 2026. See the methodology.