Married couple need roadmap to ensure their comfortable lifestyle continues in retirement

financialpost.com:

Longtime married couple Bill, 66, and Clarissa*, 65, are winding down their successful Ottawa-based consulting business and operating company, with a plan to shift to a two- or three-day workweek and take summers off.

Self-described foodies who enjoy time at the cottage and vacationing down south, they are wondering “where to park their money in order to preserve the principal and earn decent interest for our retirement,” Bill said.

In addition to their work as consultants, which last year paid them $250,000 in dividend income, Bill and Clarissa also have a holding company for real estate investments, including four single-family detached rental houses with a combined value of almost $3 million, two of which are mortgage free and two with a loan-to-value ratio of less than 50 per cent.

The holding company has borrowed about $1 million from the operating company to finance real estate purchases and renovations. Two of the homes generate $48,000 a year in rental income. The couple plan to sell two houses, valued at $735,000 and $810,000, respectively. The less expensive home is going on the market this spring.

“We have been paying ourselves dividends through the company each year and have enough in the company to continue that for a number of years,” Bill said. “The repayment of loans from the holding company will carry us further.”

The couple is debt free, pay their credit-card balance in full each month and have expenses of $15,414 a month.

Separate from their operating and holding companies, the couple has a personal investment portfolio worth approximately $2.1 million. This includes $250,300 in tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs), $505,000 in registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs), $277,500 in a locked-in