spend

Life Planning for Two Countdowns

/ Jesse Ogloff

[Life Expectancy vs. Health Expectancy]

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When most people plan for retirement, they focus on one question:

How long will my money need to last?

It’s the right question. But there’s a second one that often matters just as much — and gets far less attention.

How long will I be healthy enough to enjoy it?

These two questions point to two different clocks. And understanding the gap between them is one of the most important things you can do when planning for retirement.

The Number Most Plans Miss

In Canada, average life expectancy sits around 82 years and most financial plans will push the life expectancy out even further until at least 90 years old. But according to global health data, the average Canadian lives in good health only until around age 69 or 70.

That’s a gap of more than a decade and up to two decades.

Those later years aren’t without meaning, many people find them deeply fulfilling. But they tend to look different. Travel becomes harder. Physical hobbies get modified or set aside. Energy shifts. The shape of a good day changes.

None of that is a reason for pessimism. It’s simply useful information when building a plan.

The Climb

Think about what it takes to summit a mountain.

The ascent is demanding but exhilarating. You’re moving, building fitness, gaining elevation. Your legs are strong. Your lungs are full. There’s a rhythm to it that feels good, even when it’s hard. The journey up is part of the reward.

The higher you climb, the more the views open up. And as you near the summit, your body is working at its peak. Your preparation is meeting the moment.

The summit itself represents something worth pausing for. It’s where health, capability, and freedom fully align and this window of time is when you can do the things that require all three at once. High-altitude treks. Extended travel. Physically demanding adventures. The experiences that simply aren’t available lower on the mountain.

A wise climber knows this window is finite. They don’t rush past the summit to begin the descent. They take in the view. They use the moment for what it was designed for.

The descent is different. It still requires care, attention, and in some ways it demands even more discipline than the climb. But it’s less strenuous. The body has done its hardest work. The route becomes more about stability and steady footing than peak exertion.

And here’s the part that matters most for planning:

You need enough supplies for the entire journey — the ascent, the summit, and the full descent home.

Running short halfway down isn’t a minor inconvenience. It changes everything.

What This Looks Like in Retirement

Your working years are the ascent. You’re building financially, professionally, personally. It takes effort and discipline, but there’s momentum and energy in it.

The early years of retirement are the summit phase. Health, freedom, and financial security overlap. This is when most people travel, pursue the experiences they deferred, and actually live the life they spent decades building toward. Spending tends to be highest during these years.

The later years of retirement are the descent. Life becomes more local. Routines simplify. Physical goals shift. Spending on active experiences naturally declines, while spending on care and support may rise and you may even want to start to look at gifting some assets to the next generation.

Research consistently confirms this pattern. People spend the most in the early years of retirement, when they feel the best. The challenge is that emotionally, many people do the opposite. They hold back at the summit, worried about conserving supplies, and the window quietly closes.

The Spending Paradox

Here’s something I see regularly in my practice.

Someone spends 30 or 40 years building wealth with real discipline. They reach retirement financially secure. And then, almost immediately,  they struggle to spend.

The question shifts from “What do I want to experience while I can?” to “What if I run out?”

So the trip gets delayed. The adventure gets postponed. The plan becomes maybe next year.

The irony is hard to miss. The summit years arrive but sometimes without the health or mobility to use them. The supplies are full. The window has passed.

Two Questions a Good Plan Should Answer

When I work through retirement planning with clients, I find it useful to separate two distinct concerns.

The first is longevity risk: How do I make sure my money lasts for the entire journey, through the ascent, summit, and full descent?

The second is timing risk: Am I using my resources intentionally during the years I’m most capable of enjoying them?

A plan that only answers the first question leaves something important unaddressed. A plan that answers both gives you the structure to spend confidently at the summit because you’ve already accounted for the descent.

The Goal Is a Well-Planned Journey

A wise mountaineer doesn’t abandon discipline at the summit. They still ration carefully. They still plan the descent. But they also know that standing at the top and actually experiencing what the climb was for was always part of the plan.

Most people say they want to live a long life. What they really mean is a long and well-lived life.

Planning for both your lifespan and your healthspan is making sure you have enough for the whole journey, while using the summit for what it was meant for and is one of the most meaningful things a retirement plan can do.

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Jesse Ogloff, B.Comm, PFP, CFP, CIM, CFDS

Associate Wealth Advisor / Associate Portfolio Manager

CIBC Wood Gundy

B.C. NDP Budget 2026 : Rethinking B.C.’s Property Tax Deferral Program

/ Jesse Ogloff
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For years, B.C.’s Property Tax Deferral Program was a quiet planning advantage to increase cash flow for what matters, achieving your goals. The Regular Program allowed anyone over the age of 55 to preserve their liquidity at a very modest interest rate.

The newly released 2026 NDP budget changes the math drastically so the strategy deserves a second look.

What Just Happened?

Beginning in 2026 and all future tax years, newly deferred property taxes will accrue interest at a rate of Prime + 2% and will compound monthly. With a current Prime rate of 4.45%, that means new deferrals would carry an interest rate of 6.45% and will compound monthly.

This is not a minor adjustment. Under the previous structure, deferred taxes accrued at Prime – 2% with simple interest, which did not compound. This amounts to a 4% higher interest rate swing on a compounding balance.

Important: Existing Deferrals Are Treated Differently

If you deferred property taxes prior to 2026, those balances remain at the old rate of Prime – 2% with simple interest. Only new deferrals starting in 2026 will be moved to the higher rate. This means, if you’ve deferred in the past, you have a legacy balance at a relatively attractive cost but any future amounts deferred will accumulate at a much higher floating rate.

The Risk of Automatic Renewals

Many homeowners are enrolled in automatic renewal, which means that their property taxes are deferred automatically without reapplying.

If you no longer want to defer under the new rate structure, you must opt out.

To cancel automatic renewal:

  1. Log in to your eTaxBC account
  2. Access your Property Tax Deferral account
  3. Select the option to cancel or opt out of automatic renewal
  4. Ensure this is completed before your municipality’s tax due date

The other option is to contact the Property Taxation Branch of the Ministry of Finance by calling 1-888-355-2700.

If you do nothing, the deferral continues for new loans at a rate of Prime + 2% and is compounded monthly.

This is the kind of governmental change that has the potential to quietly compound negatively over time.

Should You Continue Deferring?

At Prime – 2%, the deferral made strategic sense as the rate was lower than all available borrowing rates, was below most long-term portfolio return assumptions, and was useful for allowing your investments to continue compounding over time.

At Prime + 2%, the conversation changes. The new loans are effectively borrowing against your home at a floating rate range that is currently in the mid-6% range. Since 1980, the average rate of appreciation for BC real estate has been around 6.2% per year so the value of your home is no longer expected to outpace the rate at which the debt accumulates.

Deferral may still be appropriate if your liquidity is constrained, if you are preserving cash for health or longevity planning, or if you have no lower-cost borrowing alternatives. The better alternative may be to utilize a lower-cost secured line of credit or to structure withdrawal plans from existing investment portfolios.

Planning Requires Adapting Constantly

Property tax deferral was never meant to be a default setting but a tool within your all-encompassing financial plan. Tools should be evaluated consistently based on current conditions when they change.

The same way that every invested dollar compounds over time, every thoughtful decision that you make will have a much larger impact in the decades to come.

This isn’t a crisis. It’s simply a reminder that yesterday’s strategy may not fit tomorrow’s math. Good planning isn’t about reacting impulsively and having a qualified professional on your side is having the confidence that they will be proactive to work with you to update your plan as conditions change.

If you are currently deferring your property tax – or are enrolled in automatic renewals – this is a good time to pause and review the strategy before June. If you’d like to walk through how this change affects your retirement income plan, cash flow strategy, or estate objectives, I’m happy to help you evaluate the numbers in the context of your broader financial architecture.

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Jesse Ogloff, B.Comm, PFP, CFP, CIM, CFDS

Associate Wealth Advisor / Associate Portfolio Manager

CIBC Wood Gundy

Appendix : BC NDP Budget 2026 (https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2026FIN0003-000158)

Improve Your Life By Spending With Intention

/ Jesse Ogloff
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One of the most powerful financial concepts has nothing to do with stock picking, market timing, or complex strategies. It’s simply understanding what today’s spending could become if it were invested and allowed to compound and grow over time.

This isn’t about guilt or deprivation, it’s about awareness and intentionality. You should choose to spend money on things that truly improve your own life, while minimizing spending on things that don’t. Everyone is going to have a different answer to what truly brings them joy. It may be the daily coffee, the game on their phone, or spending quality time with the people that we care about. The point of the exercise is to determine what it is for you.

Small amounts may not feel meaningful in the moment, but over long periods of time, they can grow into surprisingly large numbers. At a 10% annual rate of return, money roughly doubles every 7–8 years. To illustrate this, let’s look at what common everyday expenses might be worth 30 years from now, assuming a 10% annual compound rate of return.

A $10 coffee doesn’t feel significant and for many people, it’s a daily ritual they genuinely enjoy. Invested instead, that same $10 could grow to approximately $175 over 30 years. This isn’t a suggestion to give up coffee. It’s simply a reminder that even small, recurring expenses have an opportunity cost and it’s worth understanding what that cost is. Would you still buy the coffee every day if you thought of it like you were spending $175 when you got to the counter?

A $100 dinner with friends or family can be money very well spent if it creates memories and enjoyment. From a purely financial perspective, that $100 could grow to about $1,745 over 30 years if invested. Sometimes the experience is worth far more than the future value and that’s perfectly okay.

A $1,000 purchase may feel like a one-time, justified expense. Left invested for 30 years at 10%, that same $1,000 could grow to roughly $17,449. Larger discretionary purchases naturally carry larger opportunity costs, which is why being intentional matters most when spending more.

One-time purchases are easy to evaluate. Habits are where the real impact occurs — because repetition plus time is where compounding truly shines. Here are two examples, using the same expenses above for a daily coffee during the work week and a weekly restaurant bill.

For our first example, let’s assume that you purchase a $10 coffee, 5 days per week, every week of the year. Let’s assume that you do this over the course of your 30-year career. This would work out to $2,600 per year that you’ve spent on coffee. If that $2,600 were invested annually instead, over 30 years it could grow to approximately $427,000. That number surprises many people, not because coffee is “bad,” but because consistency matters far more than size. If your daily coffee is something you genuinely enjoy and look forward to, it may be money well spent. If it’s simply a default habit, this is where awareness can make a meaningful difference.

Our second example assumes that you treat yourself to a once per week restaurant dinner, where you spend $100. That equals $5,200 per year spent on restaurant meals. Invested instead, over the course of 30 years, that annual amount could grow to roughly $855,000 over 30 years. Dining out can be about connection, convenience, and enjoyment — all valid reasons to spend money. The key question isn’t “Should I spend this?” It’s “Is this spending aligned with how much value it adds to my life?”

This exercise is not about cutting all enjoyment from your life or optimizing every dollar. It’s about recognizing that small amounts add up over time, understanding the opportunity cost of habits, and making conscious decisions about where your money goes. If something brings real joy, meaning, or convenience then spend confidently.

The goal is to reduce spending on things that don’t actually improve your quality of life, and redirect those dollars toward long-term investing or things in your life that personally bring you joy. We rarely regret spending money on things we truly enjoy. We often regret the money that disappeared without meaning. Understanding what today’s spending could become tomorrow gives you clarity, not restriction. Awareness leads to control, control leads to better choices and better choices compound, just like investments do.

Jesse Ogloff, B.Comm, PFP, CFP, CIM, CFDS

Associate Wealth Advisor / Associate Portfolio Manager

CIBC Wood Gundy

Appendix :

Assumes a 10% annual compound rate of return over 30 years

Amount Spent TodayFuture Value in 30 Years
$10~$175
$100~$1,745
$1,000~$17,449

Habit-Based Examples (Annual Investing):

  • $2,600 per year (daily coffee): ~$427,000
  • $5,200 per year (weekly restaurant): ~$855,000

Returns are illustrative only and not guaranteed.