Episode Ep 631 August 10, 2026 52 min 9s

Why Most Retirees Get the 4% Rule Wrong with Mark McGrath, CFP

From The Canadian Investor Braden Dennis & Simon Belanger

In this episode of The Canadian Investor Podcast, Simon is joined by Mark McGrath, a CFP and advice-only financial planner focused on helping Canadian physicians with comprehensive financial planning. Mark explains how advice-only planning works, how it differs from traditional portfolio management, and why a full financial plan often needs to cover cash flow, taxes, retirement, insurance, estate planning, debt, and investment strategy together rather than in isolation.
They also discuss common investing mistakes, including chasing returns, taking advice from the wrong people, overconcentrating in single stocks, relying too heavily on AI tools, and focusing too much on investments while ignoring risk management, insurance and estate planning.

In the second half of the episode, Simon and Mark dig into retirement decumulation, annuities, the 4% rule, variable withdrawals, sequence-of-returns risk, and why retirement income planning is highly personal. They also discuss why investors should avoid wasting low tax brackets and how proportional withdrawals across RRSPs, TFSAs and non-registered accounts can be a useful starting point for retirees without a detailed decumulation plan.

Subscribe to our Our New Youtube Channel!

Check out our portfolio by going to Jointci.com