Disabilities & Finance Part 4: Retirement Planning

Recorded September 26, 2023

This is the fourth in our series on “Financial Planning For People With Disabilities” Presented by Autism Alberta’s Family Resource Centres & Brandy Gassner with ATB Wealth.

In this session, we explore the topic of “Retirement Planning” through the lens of disability. Retirement planning is something we all start to think about as we get older, but did you know that the earlier you start planning for retirement, the less you have to put away? This is mostly because of compounding interest (Einstein’s 8th wonder of the world). Retirement planning may sound scary, but it’s really just preparing for the day in which you no longer return to work. Often for people with disabilities, they end up staying with their parent/guardian for much longer than the average person. This can make it difficult to retire yourself, let alone help them retire when they come of age. There are supports within the Canadian financial system that can ease some of these costs as well as help people with disabilities build their own retirement accounts faster. In this session, we will be going over some of these supports as well as strategies to structure your finances in the most beneficial way to have a sustainable and comfortable retirement.