Naviplan collects such fundamental data as the age at which we plan to retire and how long we think we'll live. And here's our first wake-up call. We are living longer, we want to retire earlier, our standard of living has generally been rising and, perhaps reasonably, we want to maintain our standard of living into retirement, says Stephen Koury, a Mississauga-based financial adviser.

For most of us, our earning years really don't begin until age 35, Mr. Koury says. "So you're really only getting about 25 years of true savings, and you have to make it last for 20 to 25 years, in today's circumstances," he says.

Naviplan sets a default inflation rate of 3 per cent, but reality could be far different. The last oil boom led to a period of extraordinarily high interest rates that reached 10 and 12 per cent. Five years like those in the early 1980s would strip the value from your retirement income quickly, Mr. Koury notes.

Naturally, Naviplan allows investors to assume variable rates of return on each investment. To assume any double-digit figures is foolhardy, Mr. Koury warns. Eight per cent? Maybe, but that figure probably doesn't account for fees associated with many retail investment products.

Such liabilities as mortgages and other loans are hard to overlook. They get filed under the expenses menu, where Naviplan offers an open-ended page in which you may insert reams of living costs.

Those considering retirement may shed some expenses: a slavish need to be stylish, perhaps, and certainly the cost of the commute to work. But you will likely incur others. "You'll have free time," Mr. Koury reminds us. Will you join a golf club, or travel?

He describes a recent client whose family was planning an extended trip to Asia at the cost of about $30,000. It's not that the client couldn't afford it, but he needed to consider his retirement goals at the same time. "It's an education process for clients," he says.

Beyond the Canada Pension Plan, many Canadians can't count on much in this respect. More of us are self-employed, and if not, the company plan likely ain't what it used to be.

"Corporations are switching to lower cost pensions, but generally they mirror RSPs, or you're simply left on your own to have an RSP," Mr. Koury says. Even if we assume the average pension plan is worth only $50,000, that's a lot of retirement capital to have to replace with RRSP or other savings, he says.

Assets such as your RRSP, life insurance or non-registered investments will play an increasing role. But remember you may be asking them to do more for longer.

All professional financial planning software crunches your data in dozens of ways and projects your income into retirement. You'll see a graphic report that shows your assets, liabilities and cash flow, including shortfalls and other potential problems.

Again, another alarm bell. People generally underestimate how much money they are going to need and overestimate how much of their savings they can draw down for retirement income, Mr. Koury says.

Whatever you save, start with the assumption that you'll want to draw down 2 per cent above an inflation rate of 3 per cent. So that's 5 per cent a year. Remember you'll also have income from your Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security.

Naviplan suggests dozens of ways to fix your woes, many of which you've probably heard before but never thought would apply to you: saving regularly, paying down debt before saving, making lump-sum payments on debts such as mortgages, funnelling occasional surplus cash into investments.

Mr. Koury says clients often find $300 a month that they can use to bolster their retirement plans, and that can go a long way. "Otherwise you spend that on miscellaneous things, purchases that aren't necessary," he says.

Your financial adviser will certainly have ideas. For example, Mr. Koury reminds us that the upshot of longer retirement is that our investing lives increase too, he says.

"If inflation rises in your retirement, you still have to account for it. And the only way to do that is to stay invested in the market or in some inflation-protected vehicles," he says, such as annuities.

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