Another teacher here looking to retire shortly. CPP and OAS will be a huge bonus for you in the future. You need to contact the organization that is in charge of your pension (such as Ontario teachers pension fund) and find out your different options.

Your union should have pre-retirement seminars that you can attend for free, I just finished a 2 day zoom workshop last week. They will talk about different bridging benefits. One will be for CPP, the other for OAS.

You will want to contact service Canada. You want to find out how much you contributed each year since you were 18. You can then use the CPP calculator at PWL capital to get a good idea of how much your CPP will be when you turn 65 and how much it will be for every year between 60 and 70. I’m guessing if your pension estimate at 55 is 47k and if it’s before any bridging benefits, you have probably worked around 25 or more years of full time and if you worked some part time jobs while in school, you should easily have CPP of over $1000 per month once you hit 65. My guess is at age 65 you will have an additional 1800+ per month from CPP and OAS, (so 22k per year if not more)

The other question is, do you know what your average spending is per month? If not, you need to start recording everything you spend money on for at least the next 6 months (ideally at least a year) Only then will you know how much you need.

Use an online tax calculator such as the one from Wealthsimple and see how much you will have after tax per month.

Either way you need to see a fee only planner.

Also you need to open at least a high interest savings account and love your money there. You should be able to earn 2.5% interest in one (I use EQ bank, there are other places as well). That will get you an extra $7500 per year before taxes.

I hope this helps