Below Average? How a 70-Year-Old Can Change Their RRSP Income Plan in January

A lot of people ask for the average registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) balance at 70, and it’s clear why. It sounds like there’s one clean number you can benchmark against. In reality, RRSP balances are wildly uneven, so the average gets pulled out of a smaller group with very large accounts.

A better “what’s typical?” anchor is the median. Right now, it seems the median value is about $100,000, meaning half are below that and half are above. That’s why January matters. A strong January can be a nice psychological tailwind, but the real power of January is that it’s the cleanest moment to tighten your 2026 income plan while you still have time to adjust contributions, asset mix, and withdrawal timing.

Getting started

If you’re 70 and trying to catch up, you need to be blunt with yourself in the best way. The goal usually isn’t to swing for some magical return, but reduce the odds of running out of money while smoothing your income. That starts with understanding your runway. If you have earned income, you can still contribute to your RRSP up to the end of the year you turn 71, and you also have the early-year RRSP deadline for the prior tax year. January is when you decide whether you’re going to do one last serious contribution push, or pivot toward tax planning, spending discipline, and a focus on reliable total return.

The next catch-up lever is less exciting, but it’s often the biggest. At 70, your timeline is different than someone building wealth at 35, so you usually want fewer moving parts and fewer reasons to panic-sell. That means a portfolio built around dependable cash flow and boring resilience, not hype.

Finally, at 70, you’re either already drawing Canada Pension Plan (CPP) cash and Old Age Security (OAS), or you’re making final decisions around them. This is also when you start thinking about the mechanics you will soon need to address: your RRSP will need to convert into a Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF) by the end of the year you turn 71. So January is the right time to map out what your first few years of withdrawals could look like.

FTS

That’s where Fortis (TSX:FTS) can make practical sense in an RRSP for a 70-year-old who’s prioritizing income and stability. Fortis is a regulated utility, so the business is more about executing a capital plan, growing the regulated rate base, and earning approved returns. In its third quarter of 2025, Fortis reported earnings that were steady rather than flashy, with reported earnings per share (EPS) of $0.81 and adjusted EPS of $0.87. For a retiree, that kind of steadiness matters.

On the income side, the dividend stock has a long record of dividend increases, and it continues to signal that dividend growth remains part of the plan. Fortis declared a quarterly dividend of $0.64 per share for the first quarter of 2026, and it has highlighted a multi-decade streak of dividend growth. That doesn’t guarantee future raises, but it does tell you management is running the business with dividend reliability as a priority.

Valuation and performance are where you keep yourself honest. Utilities can look expensive or cheap depending on interest rates, as investors often compare them to bond yields. Around early January 2026, Fortis was trading around $70 per share, with a 3.5% yield and about 20.8 times forward earnings. That’s not bargain-bin pricing, but it’s also not wild for a defensive compounder with regulated cash flows.

Bottom line

Overall, Fortis can be a smart piece of the solution toward catching up, as long as you define “catch up” properly. For now, here’s what the average $100,000 could bring in annually from dividends alone.

COMPANYRECENT PRICENUMBER OF SHARESDIVIDENDTOTAL ANNUAL PAYOUTFREQUENCYTOTAL INVESTMENTFTS$70.581,417$2.51$3,556.67Quarterly$100,011.86

The honest downside is that Fortis is still interest-rate sensitive, and if yields back up or regulators get tougher, the dividend stock can tread water for stretches. But for a 70-year-old who wants an RRSP holding that behaves more like an income foundation than a thrill ride, Fortis is exactly the type of name that can support a calmer, more reliable income plan.

The post Below Average? How a 70-Year-Old Can Change Their RRSP Income Plan in January appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

Should you invest $1,000 in Fortis Inc. right now?

Before you buy stock in Fortis Inc., consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor Canada analyst team identified what they believe are the 5 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Fortis Inc. wasn’t one of them. The 5 stocks that made the cut could potentially produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider MercadoLibre, which we first recommended on January 8, 2014 … if you invested $1,000 in the “eBay of Latin America” at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $20,568.17!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor Canada’s total average return is 99%* – a market-crushing outperformance compared to 77%* for the S&P/TSX Composite Index. Don’t miss out on our top 5 list, available when you join Stock Advisor Canada.

See the 5 Stocks #start_btn6 { background: #0e6d04 none repeat scroll 0 0; color: #fff; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: 'Montserrat', sans-serif; font-weight: 600; height: auto; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 30px 0; max-width: 350px; text-align: center; width: auto; box-shadow: 0 1px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5), 0 1px 0 #fff inset, 0 0 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); border-radius: 5px; } #start_btn6 a { color: #fff; display: block; padding: 20px; padding-right:1em; padding-left:1em; } #start_btn6 a:hover { background: #FFE300 none repeat scroll 0 0; color: #000; } @media (max-width: 480px) { div#start_btn6 { font-size:1.1em; max-width: 320px;} } margin_bottom_5 { margin-bottom:5px; } margin_top_10 { margin-top:10px; }

* Returns as of January 5th, 2026

More reading

• These Dividend Stocks Are Built to Keep Paying and Paying
• The Top 3 Canadian Dividend Stocks I’d Tell Anyone to Buy
• Protect Your Tax-Free Earnings: 2 TFSA Stocks to Buy Beyond the Boom
• Reality Check: 3 Stocks Retirees Can Count On in Uncertain Times
• 3 Dividend-Growing Canadian Stocks for Passive Income

Fool contributor Amy Legate-Wolfe has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Fortis. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.