The client rents at $1,850 a month and may potentially move in with their partner within a year or two; this model explores that possibility, with no pressure attached to it. If the move happens, the rent cheque stops being an expense and becomes a choice, and the model runs that choice forward to age 65 and beyond: CPP and OAS as the floor, the savings the redirected rent can build, the disability policy's refund cheques compounding underneath, and the account plumbing (FHSA, RRSP, TFSA) that decides how much of each dollar survives tax. A toggle beside the chart prices the other ending too: she buys a home of her own and no move happens. Target: a $70,000-a-year lifestyle in today's dollars, retiring at 65.
Two routes, one destination
Pick a route, then pull the levers
Both routes open a first home savings account now, save the redirected rent, and bank every refund cheque the disability policy sends. They differ on one question: what happens to the $19,000 sitting in the bank TFSA.
RRSPTFSARefund-cheque pot (banked ROP)FHSA (leaves as the down payment)Dashed lines mark the move and the home purchase; dots mark refund cheques. CPP and OAS are income, not accounts: from 65 they cover the first slice of the target and the pots above fund the rest.
1 year
$0 /mo
3 years
$20,000
5% /yr
80% ≈ $14,000 /yr
$70,000 /yr
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Retirement pot at 65
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Retirement income at 65
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Monthly savings the target actually needs
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What one more year of renting costs the pot at 65
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Retirement income if nothing changes: CPP, OAS, the drifting TFSA and the banked cheques
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90-day rainy-day buffer
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Drawing the lifestyle target from 65, the pots last to
Read before banking on this: assumptions & the fine print
The first-time-buyer clock is real. A tax-free FHSA withdrawal requires first-time-buyer status at the moment of withdrawal: no living in a home owned by a spouse or common-law partner in the current or preceding four calendar years. Move into a partner-owned home, become common-law after twelve months, and a later joint purchase can fail that test. Renting together, or buying before the clock runs down, keeps the door open; if it closes, the FHSA rolls into the RRSP tax-free and nothing is lost for retirement. In fact the roll-in uses none of the RRSP's own room: the FHSA's $40,000 of lifetime space is registered room that would not otherwise exist, which is a reason to open one even with no purchase in sight. Untick the toggle above to see that path.
The buy-alone toggle changes the engine, honestly. With no move, the rent keeps being paid and a mortgage is assumed to replace it dollar for dollar, so the only new savings are the extra-savings dial; her own purchase leaves FHSA-first, and the first-time-buyer test cannot fail. Home equity still counts as housing, not retirement income.
The right half of the chart draws the target, not the sustainable income. From 65 the pots are drawn to fund the lifestyle target exactly (RRSP first, so its withdrawals fill the low brackets beside CPP and OAS, then the TFSA, then the banked cheques), and the chart shows the balances winding down to age 100. The pots-last-to stat reports the year they can no longer carry it; the income stat above stays the level-real drawdown to 95. CPP and OAS never appear as chart layers because they are income streams, not balances: each retirement year they cover the first slice of the target and only the remainder is drawn from the pots. The check-the-math export carries them as their own columns.
Income and savings are held flat in tomorrow's dollars, like the planning software's base run: no raises, no indexing of contributions. Both are conservative; the contract grid this client is on rises every year.
Tax brackets are frozen at 2026 (federal and Alberta, basic personal amounts only). Retirement income is taxed with no age amount, no pension credit and no income splitting, all of which would help; OAS clawback never bites at this target.
RRSP room is assumed to start at $40,000 and grow by 18% of income each year. The real figure is on the client's latest notice of assessment; confirm it before acting.
Refund cheques from the disability policy follow Option F's printed schedule (policy years 9, 17, 25 and 33, with the final pro-rated cheque at 65) and assume claim-free cycles; they are banked into TFSA room as they arrive. A serious claim replaces cheques with benefits many times larger.
The disability premium is not deducted from these savings. It is part of the lifestyle budget, personally paid in every scenario; that is what keeps claim cheques tax-free (Part Two's bridge note).
The down-payment share is paid the same way in both routes (FHSA first, then TFSA) so they stay comparable; the Home Buyers' Plan is a further lever this model deliberately leaves out, and the rainy-day buffer is money inside the TFSA rather than a separate pot.
The drawdown is a level real income from 65 to 95. RRIF minimums, sequence-of-returns risk and the partner's finances are out of scope; home equity is not counted as retirement income.
Estimates for education and conversation, not advice. The real plan gets reviewed annually against actual room, actual returns and actual life.