Regardless of gender or education level, most people become considerably less literate when it comes to handling money issues after age 60, according to a recent study.

The result is that retirees with significant cognitive deficits will have problems making sound financial decisions. They may make investment mistakes that cause losses in their retirement accounts that will reduce their retirement incomes and standards of living.

Or, even worse, unscrupulous advisors might take advantage of them by selling them inappropriate investments, or one with excessive commissions -- something that's more more easily done when decision-making abilities and the grasp of financial concepts are diminished.

Canadian snowbirds may soon be able to spend as much as two months more nesting down south next year.

U.S. legislation now being debated in Congress would allow Canadians aged 55 and older to spend up to 240 days in the country without a visa, almost two months longer than the current 182-day annual limit.

The provision is not yet law, but it has the backing of New York Senator Charles Schumer, a legislator who has long been keen on finding ways to get more Canadians spending their dollars across the border.  

The federal government is currently considering increasing CPP and QPP benefits, which would mean a significant premium hike for working Canadians and even more serious impacts for the economy.

But small business owners in particular are concerned about the costs associated with any expansion of benefits, according to Canadian Federation of Independent Business president Dan Kelly.

Earlier this month, CFIB issued an update of its Forced Savings report, examining the so-called 10-10-10 proposal for CPP/QPP expansion.

This plan would hike CPP benefits by 10 percentage points from 25% to 35% of maximum pensionable earnings (MPE), raise the MPE by $10,000 from today’s $51,100 to $61,100, and implement all of this within 10 years.

Trouble is, this double-whammy payroll tax hike could mean that many Canadians see their take home pay drop each year on January 1 for 10 straight years, Kelly maintains.

To retirees, the offers can sound like the answer to every money worry: convert tomorrow’s pension cheques into today’s hard cash through so-called pension advances -- a cash-strapped retiree's answer to a pay day loan. 

But programs like these are having devastating financial consequences for a growing number of older Americans, threatening their retirement savings and actually plunging them further into debt, the New York Times reports.

The advances, federal and state authorities say, are not advances at all, but actually carefully disguised loans that require borrowers to sign over all or part of their monthly pension cheques.

And while not yet widespread in Canada, critics worry that the practice might soon migrate across the border.

When it comes to retirement, baby boomers seem to be favouring lifestyle choices over wealth preservation, quite a different path compared to the generations that came before them, according to recent Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey.

The study found that retirement has been redefined – with people expecting to live and often work longer than any preceding generation, and taking different approaches to preparing for and living their best life during these years.

Most are seeking flexible work arrangements, such as part-time work (39%) or going back and forth between periods of work and leisure (24%), but not always for the same reasons.

Most boomers have "mixed feelings about living longer and transitioning into retirement," said Ken Dychtwald, CEO of Age Wave, the group that conducted the research.

"While they welcome the extra time to pursue new interests and spend more time with family and friends, they are concerned about outliving their assets and experiencing a serious health disruption. Even those who have saved adequately can be anxious and often overwhelmed by this complexity and the unknowns they face."

Transition Boomers — those ages 55 to 65 and closing in on retirement — are more interested in protecting their retirement savings with a guaranteed return even though they realize the stock market may offer better returns over the long haul, according to to a recent survey.

87% say they'd be more interested in a financial product with a 4% return, which is guaranteed not to lose value, over one with an 8% return but which is subject to market downturns.

Despite this, only 25% say they currently own an annuity, a product that can help answer the demand for guarantees, largely because they don't feel comfortable with them, it seems.

75% of admit to a general lack of understanding, saying either “there’s a lot about annuities I’m not sure about” (37%) or “I haven’t got a clue” (38%).

And that's too bad, according to a recent C.D. Howe Institute report, which suggests that more Canadians approaching retirement should be looking at annuities.

Retiring debt-free used to be the goal for all Canadians. Pay off the mortgage, no more car payments,  and use credit cards judiciously, if at all. After all, living on a fixed income leaves little or no room in the budget for making interest payments.

Looks like that's strictly old school, however, according to a recent study. 

The study, conducted for the Investor Education Fund, found that 24% of the homeowners expect to have at least some debt on their home after they retire. What's worse, most of them admit that they don’t really know how they'll pay it off.

That's not completely surprising, however. More people are working well past the traditional retirement age. At the same time, the age of first-time home buyers has increased sharply, leaving them with fewer years in which to pay things off.

Financial advisors should help clients plan to continue working after age 65 rather than for a "vacation retirement," says coach Mitch Anthony, an industry coach and author of The New Retirementality.

"Retirement is an artificial finish line,” Anthony stressed at a recent symposium on the future of retirement. "Somebody decided that at this age, you're done. Is there anyone in the room who would like to tell yourself when you're done rather than have someone else tell you?"

The whole notion of a retirement age is really a bit of a myth, of course. Age 65 is, and always has been, an arbitrary benchmark invented by Otto Von Bismarck 130 years ago as part of a pension scheme to move aging civil servants from their posts.

But, with the average life expectancy now moving past 80, many surveys suggest that a great many people don’t want to stop working.

Live long and prosper. Or so we hope.

Women may be better prepared emotionally for retirement than men, however they may be less prepared financially, according to a recent study.

The study, conducted by Pollara for BMO Bank of Montreal, found that three in five Canadians have a financial plan in place. Out of this group, it revealed that more men (64 per cent) had a financial plan over women (55 per cent).

It seems that Canadians are investing in their retirement a little more than usual.

Now that the RRSP contribution deadline has passed, BMO Bank of Montreal released a study which revealed that 63 per cent of those polled made or had planned on making a contribution to their RRSP before the March 1 deadline.

That's an increase over the previous year when only 38 per cent indicated they were contributing.

So what's the logic behind stashing away your cash now for your golden years ahead?