Before You Max Everything Out

by | Sep 9, 2026

At Spring, fall is for income planning. Income planning is the maintenance plan for your long-term, comprehensive financial plan. It’s what keeps you on track as you live in the reality of your life, focused on the comparatively short term period of this year and next year.

It’s particularly relevant for when we are drawing money from our investment portfolios, from our private corporations, contemplating large tax events like sales of rental or vacation properties, and more.

Beyond those technical, persnickety tax and lifestyle management tasks, it’s also a chance to ask: Is there anything we want to do differently in our lives, and with our money?

And we don’t just mean your RRSP or your TFSA or your myriad of other financial structures. We mean the whole family picture.

“Max it out” isn’t always a financial plan

There is a lot of financial advice built around maximizing things. Max your RRSP. Max your TFSA. Get the full RESP grant. Use your FHSA room. Contribute to the RDSP. Those can all be excellent things to do.

Moving money simply because an account’s contribution room exists isn’t a plan though. Knowing what money needs to accomplish, and then moving it (or not)… is.

Should an extra dollar go into your RRSP, or would it be more useful in your TFSA? Should you make the maximum contribution this year, or save some room for a future year when your income may be higher?

If you’re 72 or better, should you withdraw only the minimum from your RRIF, or does it make sense to take more now?

If your own accounts are well funded, is there an opportunity elsewhere in the family? An RESP for a grandchild? An RDSP for an eligible family member? Helping an adult child with an FHSA or TFSA? Making a gift now rather than leaving more through the estate later?

Sometimes maximizing an account makes perfect sense. Sometimes it doesn’t. The account isn’t the plan. It’s one of the tools.

“Pay Less Tax” isn’t always a financial plan

We all like paying less tax. But minimizing tax this year isn’t necessarily the same thing as minimizing tax over your lifetime. That’s an important distinction.

An RRSP contribution might generate a lovely tax refund today, and shelter investment growth from tax. Eventually, the money does come out of the account – hopefully to fund a really enjoyable retirement – and when it does the tax treatment matters. Sometimes maximizing contribution room works perfectly because you will spend that money during your lifetime, and you will likely have a spouse to share the tax bill with. Sometimes, contributing less makes more sense, if your current year income tax rate is low, and/or your future retirement years are short and highly taxed.

Keeping RRIF withdrawals as low as possible may feel tax-efficient. People gripe about minimum withdrawals quite a bit. However, not taking money out of this account may mean that the account is worth quite a bit in your final estate. If you don’t have a spouse to leave that account to, the tax bill in your estate might be larger than you want.

The same thinking applies when we’re deciding whether to use a TFSA, realize investment gains or losses, take money from a corporation, make charitable donations, or give money to family.

We don’t want one year’s tax return making all of the decisions. We want to understand what today’s decision does to tomorrow’s options.

Your family may have unused opportunities

This is one of the reasons we like looking at income planning through a family lens. Maybe you’ve used all of your TFSA room, but your spouse hasn’t. Maybe your parents haven’t used all of their TFSA room and there’s available cash to fund this. Maybe you’re helping your kids with a down payment and they’re eligible for an FHSA. Maybe you’ve been putting money aside for your grandchildren but haven’t looked at whether their RESP contributions are making the best use of available grants. Maybe someone in your family qualifies for an RDSP and there are grants, bonds or unused entitlements worth investigating. Maybe your parents are getting older and could use some help understanding their RRIF withdrawals, cash flow or what happens if their financial circumstances change.

Or perhaps you’re at the point where you have more than you are likely to need and you’re starting to think about whether some of your estate could be put to work for your family while you’re still here to see it.

These aren’t separate conversations. Money moves around families all the time. Good planning recognizes that.

Calendars, clocks, and deadlines

Why are we thinking about this now? Because December 31 has a habit of arriving surprisingly quickly. Honestly, why is it September already? We are considering staging a protest.

Some planning opportunities are tied to the calendar year. Waiting until the final days of December can limit your choices. Starting in the fall gives you time to figure out where you actually stand – which is why we schedule our fall season with exactly this kind of work.

Here are some things for you to consider:

  • How much taxable income have you earned or withdrawn this year? If you’re drawing from your portfolio of investments, you’re looking at capital gains, dividends, interest, on top of any taxable RRSP/RRIF withdrawals. If you have a private corporation, there might be both dividends and salary to consider. If you have pension income, taxable benefits, rental income… all of these add up to create your actual tax bill for the year.
  • What account contribution room is available? How much of it have you used?
  • What large expenses are coming? Are you planning to help your kids? Do you need cash for travel, a renovation or a major purchase next year? Has something changed in your work, business or family?

You don’t need to know exactly what next year will bring. You just want enough information to make this year’s decisions intentionally.

Here are some things your Spring team is considering:

  • Where will your income land by the end of this year?
  • Where should next year’s cash flow come from?
  • Are there registered accounts worth contributing to before year-end?
  • Does it actually make sense to maximize withdrawals in this calendar year?
  • Are there RRSP or RRIF withdrawals worth taking earlier than required?
  • Are there tax brackets, credits or benefits we should be mindful of?
  • Are there gains or losses in non-registered investments that need attention?
  • Does money in a corporation need to come into the personal picture?
  • Are charitable gifts planned?
  • Is there money you intend to give to children or grandchildren?
  • Are there opportunities in your spouse’s, children’s, grandchildren’s or parents’ financial lives that should be considered alongside your own?
  • What do you already know you’ll need money for next year?

Not every question will apply to you. And the answers aren’t going to be the same for every family. That’s the point.

Whether you engage in formal income planning with Spring, another professional team, or manage this yourself, Fall is a good time to take a look at the whole picture.

Pull out your latest statements. Check your contribution room. Think about what has changed this year. Talk to your spouse. Ask your adult kids what they’re working toward. Check in with your parents if you’re becoming more involved in their finances.

Then think about what you actually want your money to do.

The goal isn’t to finish the year with every available account perfectly maxed out, nor to pay the lowest possible tax rate. The goal is to make decisions today that leave you and your family in a better position for the years ahead.

That’s what comprehensive financial plans, income plans, and every other kind of planning is all about. You, your family, and the lives you are building every single day.

Your Spring Planning Team

 

Practice Notes:

Spring’s offices will be closed on September 30th in honour of Truth & Reconciliation Day and on October 12th for Thanksgiving.

Julia will be speaking on a panel with National Ballet of Canada principal dancer Heather Ogden, and cohosting a Financial Resilience workshop at Burgundy Asset Management’s Minerva Summit in Toronto on Thursday October 1st.

Have more questions? Drop us a note at info@springplans.ca.

 

Spring in the News:

We stayed out of the news in the past month! You can find past media appearances on our media page here.

 

Planning News Digest:

When it comes to RESPs, the details matter. RESPs are pretty complex, when it comes down to it. Our friend David Chilton, author of the Wealthy Barber and host of the Wealthy Barber podcast spoke with our other friend Moira Rose Vane about all the intricate little pieces that are involved in this account and how to plan for them. Watch the interview here.

Does AI make great financial plans? We don’t think so. Our friends Mark McGrath and Aravind Sithamparapillai joined the “Beyond MD” podcast to compare real planners versus AI (and confirmed our bias, which we like). It’s long and is detailed so it may not be for you if you don’t want to listen to nearly 90 minutes of itemized details of what may and may not be in a financial plan. Listen here.

When old news still feels current. From 2025, but sadly relevant in 2026 (featuring quotes from Julia): If Trump’s tariffs have you worried about your job and your money, you’re not alone. Read the full article here.

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Feature from the Archives:

Estate planning isn’t just about documents. Behavioural science shows us why involving your family in the conversation can make the plan work better when it really matters. Read this article from our archives for a deeper look at these important conversations.