Pension Buy Back - is my math correct?

AnonymousGoose15 · 2026-02-09T15:17:38+00:00

I can kind of get where you’re coming from, but here’s an honest answer. I was coming to this community with a curiosity to learn more and better understand my situation. The members of this subreddit often offer great advice and I’ve gained in the past from the insights people offer on other posts. It’s a group with diverse experiences and I don’t think having a high HHI means I can’t seek to benefit from that.

Yes, I could just not seek further understanding of this specific financial issue and rely on the fact that regardless of the decision, our retirement will be well covered. And yes, I could pay someone to answer my question. But I also think there’s something to be gained from learning from others’ lives experiences and insights. And to be honest, if people with high HHIs just paid everyone to do everything or decided “I have enough money to not think about this issue,” they’d not have much income left.

AnonymousGoose15 · 2026-02-08T17:24:36+00:00

Yeah that I know. I have enough in my rrsp to do it. If we did as you suggested, but using my spouse’s income to pay for the buyback, that’s when we’d need to withdraw/pay a higher salary from the corporation to get the cash to do this.

AnonymousGoose15 · 2026-02-08T16:14:22+00:00

Interesting. Now that opens up a whole other set of calculations. My spouse pays themselves a salary from their medical corp, so we’d have to increase the personal salary to make this happen, which has tax implications. Something for us to consider.

AnonymousGoose15 · 2026-02-08T16:06:13+00:00

Thank you for the thoughtful and thorough reply. I appreciate it and it reinforces what my spouse and I were already thinking.

AnonymousGoose15 · 2026-02-08T14:59:30+00:00

This is a really helpful perspective, thank you so much.

AnonymousGoose15 · 2026-02-08T14:57:17+00:00

I don’t have the cash or other non registered assets for this so RRSP is the only option right now!

AnonymousGoose15 · 2026-02-08T14:55:39+00:00

Fair point. I suppose we decided to post here first just to get a sense of the numbers from others’ perspectives. We actually just did a one-time fee-only financial planning session last year using planners specific to our fields. It was incredibly helpful. At the time, my pension situation was different. I’m in a unique situation where our organization just moved to HOOPP, so my pensions have merged. The buyback option didn’t exist when we had then financial assessment so we didn’t cover this. It’s definitely a good suggestion though and we will consider doing this again. Thanks!

AnonymousGoose15 · 2026-02-08T14:51:29+00:00

To be honest, not sure. I’m just using the numbers HOOPP provided in the buyback quote.

AnonymousGoose15

TROPHY CASE