To help make good financial decisions today, that impact your tomorrow, you need to make some assumptions about the future. When you should take your Canada Pension Plan (CPP) benefit is one of those decisions.
So, when and why take CPP at age 70?
This post provides the goods including a link to one of our case studies.
What is CPP?
The Canada Pension Plan (CPP) is a retirement pension, that is paid monthly, but it’s a taxable benefit that is designed to replace part of your employment income when you retire.
When it comes to our Canada Pension Plan (CPP), to qualify for it, you should know that current government rules dictate you must be over the age of 60.
If you qualify, you’ll receive the CPP retirement pension for the rest of your life.
To qualify you must:
- be at least 60 years old
- have made at least one valid contribution to the CPP.
- Check out our comprehensive post here for more details on CPP including how it works!
The standard age to start CPP is age 65.
However, you can start receiving it as early as age 60 or as late as age 70.
If you start receiving your pension earlier, age 60, the monthly amount you’ll receive will be smaller. If you decide to start later, age 70, you’ll receive a larger monthly amount. The maximum monthly amount you can receive is reached when you turn 70.
Why is taking CPP such an important decision?
There are many reasons to delay CPP to age 70, or even take CPP at the standard age of 65. The decision about when you take CPP can be related to one or more of the following:
- Your desired or needed income stream.
- Whether you plan on working while receiving your CPP.
- How much you have contributed and what your benefit might be.
- The sum of your personal savings, investments or company pension plan (in addition to CPP income).
- Your current health, family health history or any disabilities.
- Other income streams in retirement such as business investments, winding down a corporation, rental income, etc.
At Cashflows & Portfolios, we believe one of the inexpensive, safe and smart ways to boost your retirement income is simple: delay your CPP benefits. Yet most Canadians don’t bother.
In a study we read, according to the National Institute on Aging, a whopping 95% of Canadians take CPP at the age of 65 or earlier, with only one percent deferring until the maximum age of 70.
That’s incredible, given the following:
- CPP incentivizes retirees who delay their payments past age 65 by 0.7 percent each month or 8.4 percent a year. This translates to a 42% income boost in CPP payments at the age of 70 compared to age 65 (and for life!).
- In dollar terms, take even average CPP payments – at just over $700 per month at the time of this post for the average benefit to new beneficiaries – a 70-year-old would earn 42% more or a total of $994 per month. That’s a difference approaching $300 per month.
CPP incentivizes retirees who delay their payments past age 65 by 0.7 percent each month or 8.4 percent a year. This translates to a 42% income boost in CPP payments at the age of 70 compared to age 65 (and for life!).
The reasons most Canadians begin their CPP at 65 (or sooner) vary.
For some, a traditional retirement begins at 65 so it seems logical to collect their pension at that age. Others take their CPP early because they believe in “a bird in the hand is worth more” – money now is more valuable even though that not entirely true.
In other cases, maybe folks don’t feel they will live as long as they need to, to collect CPP money.
My Own Advisor offered up a great case study about a nurse and her break-even CPP point here.
For “Sally” in that case study, these were some takeaway messages:
- If you believe your genes are good, and you have a strong chance to live beyond your early 80s then depending if you need the cash it may be very beneficial to defer CPP until age 70. This is only if you can afford to defer the income until age 70.
- If not, if you can’t afford to defer and you need the money of course – then take CPP when you can at age 60.
Finally, what usually comes up in these calculations and case studies, “Sally” choosing to take her CPP at age 64, 65, or even 66 are not her “best” choices.
As such, we continue to believe a larger, secure pension that’s guaranteed and inflation-protected for life is worth its weight in gold.
Do you even have a choice?
Thankfully, CPP is properly funded and well-run. So, you should put some fears to rest that it won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. You can read this detailed actuarial report on CPP if you wish, but take our word for it: the latest report includes contribution plans to the year 2095.
We think anyone thinking about any sort of retirement in the next 30-40 years from the date of this post today should be OK with that plan…
Now, choosing between alternative CPP benefit ages (age 60, 65 and 70 for key milestones) is still not trivial – since there is an infinite number of combinations and future factors that could make this decision perfect or somewhat flawed only in hindsight.
Here are some key options we’ve encountered with clients:
Option #1: Delay CPP payments from age 65 to 70, using a portion of your RRSP/RRIF savings and CPP at age 70 for income going forward. We believe this is the most popular choice for many Canadians (and many of our clients) with healthy to modest RRSPs/RRIFs balance sheets. This way, they slowly draw down their RRSP/RRIF assets and by delaying CPP to age 70, they transfer some of the longevity risks and inflationary risks away from their personal assets to CPP.
Option #2: Claim CPP payments at age 65 while combining a portion of your RRSP/RRIF withdrawals for income needs. This hybrid approach is also a decent option since it offers up a blend of government CPP benefits AND personal savings to manage income needs near or at the traditional retirement age for many Canadians (age 65). Add on OAS (Old Age Security) benefits and even without many TFSA assets – those income streams are likely enough for many Canadians.
Option #3: Claim CPP payments at age 60, but only if you need the money. Not everyone is blessed with long life, a good RRSP/RRIF balance sheet, nor other assets for their retirement preparations. If you need to fund your lifestyle in your 60s, and/or if you have poor health conditions, then you might wish to take CPP as early as possible.
Why you should take CPP at age 70 summary
If secure income is what you want – we believe taking CPP at age 70 is generally your answer. If your objective is to enhance the chance you’ll have a long lifetime of inflation-protected, secure income, then delaying CPP payments can be reasonably defined as one of the best risk-free investments you can make. Worse case, you take your CPP benefits a few years before age 70 but you’d be wise to avoid pulling the trigger on these benefits if you can before then.
Otherwise, if you want the money or need the money then by all means take CPP at an earlier age. Just don’t be too disappointed with the outcome when it comes to covering your inflationary retirement needs.
Further Reading:
- Check out this outstanding paper entitled The CPP Take-Up Decision – Risks and Opportunities.
- Make sure you check out our case study with a client: When to take CPP in retirement.
- Can you retire using only your TFSA?
- Can you retire with just $500,000 invested inside an RRSP?
- Can you retire on a lower income? How?
- What is OAS and the OAS clawback? Can you avoid the OAS clawback?
- Need some help figuring out any retirement income plan? Check out our free retirement calculators!
Need any support with your retirement income projections?
Knowing how to save and invest wisely, to help you get the most out of your portfolio, is something we can help with. We’ve been there!
In addition to that asset accumulation work, if you need some help solving your retirement decumulation puzzle (including when you should take CPP at age 60, 65, or 70 and what your retirement income spending might be) – we can help with that too!
If you are interested in obtaining private projections for your financial scenario, read more about our retirement projections service.
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Cashflow$ & Portfolios is the name of a website built to help people learn how to reach their long-term financial goals with budget and long-term investing. Brought to you by a pair of veteran personal finance bloggers.”
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We look forward to posting more great content and case studies over time. Thanks for reading.
CAP
Well, that’s one way of looking at it. However, if you don’t just look at the spending side, but instead look at the possible returns, you may get a different answer. This is an interesting calculator that looks at breakeven age taking returns into account. https://www.financialcalculators.net/steadyhand/cpp-take-early/ If you play with numbers you will see at higher returns (above 7.3%) you are better off on an NPV basis to take it sooner. I also built my own spreadsheet to confirm this and got a similar result. At returns higher than the CPP discount you are better off to take it sooner not later
Thanks Ed. We figured someone would chime in on that part, i.e., the ability to generate returns greater than CPP could. For sure, that is always possible and a similar argument could be said for taking the commuted value of your pension and investing it on your own. There was a good post on My Own Advisor about that too 🙂 Ha.
https://www.myownadvisor.ca/should-i-take-the-commuted-value-of-my-pension/
So, assuming, you can get higher, annualized returns (above 7.3%) to your point on your own vs. CPP, then taking the money and investing CPP could be wise. The reality is, I suspect most retirees don’t take CPP at age 60 or age 65 to invest it. They are taking it because they really need or want the money = bird in hand. I could be wrong. Not in our 60s or 50s even ourselves.
Great points to add to the discussion Ed.
CAP
Well you know one now who is doing it. I am 62. I have been retired for 14 years and my overall CAGR is above 7.3%. So I had been operating on the assumption that I would wait until 70 since that seems to be the current conventional wisdom. But seeing that calculator and doing some of my own spreadsheets made me re-think the question. So I have now applied and will start getting it soon!
Ha. Great to hear. Assuming you always get 7.3% or so and more on average, that’s a bit of an “if” of course except for 2021 returns (!) then more power to you of course Ed and nothing wrong with sticking to your plan. We still believe deferral to age 70 is a simple, low-risk, inflation-protected decision for many but we appreciate your counter views!
CAP
Those who are choosing to exit work force after 20 years in service and retire at the age of 55, wouldn’t they benefit more from taking CPP at 60?
Hi Michael – do share more. We believe, for the most part, if you can wait until age 70 for CPP that offers a low-risk, inflation-protected way to earn more secure retirement income.
If you need the money to live from at age 60 then by all means, take it. Many retirees need to.
Thoughts?
With no further CPP contribution after the age of 55, my concern would be $$ lost while delaying until the age of 70. Wouldn’t the CPP total contribution actually average down by the time one start using this benefit at the age of 70, for someone with only 20 years of total contribution?
I think we should test any theories on this and maybe do a case study Michael! Stay tuned, we’ll see what we can come up with.
I’m in the “defer CPP to 70” camp. My CAGR for the last 20 years is well above 7.3%, but I’d rather have the guaranteed income at 70 since I’ll have no defined benefits pension. To me, CPP is more like basic income insurance over capital for re-investment.
So how do you feel about OAS deferral to 70?
I’m quite confident I’ll have retirement income to support me through my 50’s and 60’s without CPP/OAS, so my current thinking is to defer OAS to 70 as well – i.e. more insurance to address longevity risk.
Totally Greg, CPP is like a bond and better = secure, inflation-protected income for life. The government is giving you a 42% income boost for waiting five years from age 65 to 70. Think of this in another way. Your return, each year, from a bond no-less, is 8.4% each year you delay. Where does anyone get that return from a bond these days?
There are many retirees that may wish to take CPP money, and invest in, and return more than 7% or even 8% over a 5- or 10-year period or more. That is totally fine. But they are always taking CPP bond-like money and turning it into equities to do so – taking more risk.
There are few other low-risk, secure ways to boost retirement income than taking CPP at age 70.
As for deferral to OAS – if you don’t need the money – you can defer for just that – longevity risk. But if you’re going to defer one or the other we believe deferring CPP to age 70 over OAS is better.
https://www.cashflowsandportfolios.com/what-is-old-age-security-oas-and-what-is-oas-clawback/
Thanks for your comment.
CAP
Great! We’re clearly aligned in our thinking about CPP and OAS. From what I recall the deferral incentive for OAS is a bit less than CPP – 30%-ish vs. 42%. Still, I’m sure this is much better than the risk-free rate of return you’d see from bonds in that 5-year period.
I take more risk with the equity side of my portfolio, so its nice to have the option to increase cashflow on the risk-free side of the equation through this time deferral.
That’s where we see the benefit. Retirees can keep the CPP as a bond, for secure income (which is more at age 70 than age 65) and they can take-on any equity risk in their personal portfolios as they wish.
Is there a different calculation for those that are self employed and paying both the employee and employer portions of their CPP contribution? I would think that in that case it might be better to take CPP at 65 and opt to stop making contributions especially if you were to carry on working in any capacity.
Self-employed could be an interesting angle David but we did not test that specifically in this post. Based on your question, I’m sure you are aware about the contribution rules when it comes to employer and employee contributions:
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/payroll/payroll-deductions-contributions/canada-pension-plan-cpp/cpp-contribution-rates-maximums.html
For the CPP, the key difference for self-employed individuals is the contribution rate (and corresponding contribution amount). For employees, both the employee and the employer must make mandatory CPP contributions. However, self-employed individuals must contribute both the employer and the employee portions. We recall on January 1, 2021, the CPP contribution rate increased from 10.5% to 10.9% re: CPP enhancements begin.
OK, so with that, when to take CPP for self-employed? We believe it still “depends”. Do you need the income? What is your tax rate? Are you paying yourself a salary or dividends from a corporation? See post below. So much to consider really.
https://www.myownadvisor.ca/salary-or-dividends-from-a-corporation/
In some cases, we believe if you are still working it might not make sense to take CPP at all and defer until age 70. This way you’ll get close to the maximum inflation-protected benefits as possible. The reason – folks typically take CPP and OAS sooner because it’s “bird in hand” money. Collecting CPP and OAS benefits sooner means taking a little less now instead of waiting for more later. Humans are typically wired that way. We believe when longevity risks or other factors are considered, deferring benefits is the way to go for most.
Love the discussion.
CAP
If you have a spouse, wouldn’t you want to consider the survivor’s benefit and the CPP max to determine when you and your spouse should take your CPP?
That’s an excellent point that all investors/retirees should consider. We used this post in a more linear fashion, excluding complex combinations like self-employment after age 65 and/or if a spouse passed at age 60 or 65.
The survivor’s benefit is usually a small portion of the overall CPP compensation mind you. Keep in mind you cannot receive a full survivor’s pension while also receiving a full retirement pension of your own CPP or disability pension. The combined benefit is not necessarily the sum of the 2 separate benefits.
Recall that CPP, is not and is likely never going to be comprehensive = meet the needs of all contributors in every conceivable circumstance. Rather, it provides partial earnings replacement at best and is certainly not guaranteed income like OAS status.
Thoughts Pat?
Cheers
CAP
Question from Brenda – I am currently receiving CPP disability payment.- my CPP paperwork states that disability CPP will cease and I will automatically start receiving regular CPP at age 65. While my disability is lifelong and keeps me from being able to hold down a career now I do not believe it will reduce my lifespan. My question is can I defer to age 70 in my situation or is it locked in that I must now take it 65 ? Please advise if you are aware of this. Thanks so much – love your sites!
Hi Brenda,
Our understanding is that CPP Disability ends at age 65, at which point it automatically converts to regular CPP. Here is a great article on how to calculate your CPP benefits at age 65:
https://retirehappy.ca/cpp-disability-benefit/
Hope this helps!
Dear cashflowsandportfolios.com webmaster, Thanks for the well-structured and well-presented post!