CPP and OAS Breakeven Ages

The default age to start collecting CPP and OAS is 65, but Canadians are allowed to defer these pensions until they’re 70 in return for permanently higher payments. The internet is filled with analyses of how old you have to live to come out ahead by delaying benefits. The mistake people make is in how they use these “breakeven” ages.

Suppose you work out that your CPP breakeven age is 85. If you don’t live that long, you’ll get more if you take CPP early, and if you live longer, you’ll get more by delaying CPP to age 70. There are many factors that feed into calculating a breakeven age, including how aggressively you invest, but let’s just use age 85 as an example.

Worrying about the breakeven age only makes sense if you have enough savings to live on until at least age 70 without one or both of CPP and OAS. If you don’t have enough savings, you have little choice but to start taking government pensions before your savings run out.

We’ll assume that you do have enough savings to live until at least age 70. It’s tempting to then guess whether you’re likely to live to your breakeven age (85 in this example) and let that guess drive your decision of when to start collecting CPP. But that’s not the right way to think about this important choice.

Suppose you work out that if you knew for certain you’d live to exactly 85, you can safely start spending $50,000 per year. At $50,000 per year plus cost-of-living adjustments each year, you expect to run out of savings at 85 whether you take CPP early or late (that’s what the breakeven age means).

Of course, there’s that nagging doubt: what if you live longer? Maybe you’re not likely to live longer, but do you really want to take a chance on having no savings left at age 85? So, you decide to spend a little less than $50,000 per year.

So, now you’re savings are likely to last past age 85. But how much longer depends on when you take CPP. Delaying to age 70 makes your savings last longer than if you take CPP at 60 or 65. Suppose that by lowering your spending, your savings will last until you’re 90 if you take CPP at 60, but will last until you’re 95 if you take CPP at 70. It seems obvious now that taking CPP at age 70 is the better choice.

Looked at another way, if you decide you don’t want your money to run out until you’re 95, then delaying CPP to age 70 gives you a higher safe spending level. But this isn’t just more spending when you’re old; you get to spend more right from the beginning of your retirement. It may seem paradoxical, but choosing to delay government pensions to age 70 can make it possible to safely spend more in your 60s.

However, if your plan is to spend so much less than your safe spending level that your money will last indefinitely whether you take CPP early or late, then you’ll be leaving money to your heirs no matter how long you live. Whether you should take CPP and OAS early or late comes down to whether you want to maximize your estate for an early death or maximize it for a late death.

So, the right way to think about a CPP or OAS breakeven age is to first ask yourself if you’re willing to spend down all of your assets by your breakeven age. If not, then you’re safe spending level is highest if you delay taking CPP or OAS until you’re 70.