9. Household Mode#
Requires Pro or Advisor subscription.
9.1 What Is Household Mode?#
Household mode combines the retirement projections of two linked clients — typically spouses or partners — into a single unified view. Instead of reviewing each person’s plan in isolation, you can see combined gross income, combined taxes, and combined net income for the household as a whole, year by year.
This matters for retirement planning because income taxes in Canada are assessed per individual, not per household. A couple where one partner earns $120,000 and the other earns $0 pays significantly more combined tax than a couple where each earns $60,000 — even though total household income is identical. Household mode makes this dynamic visible and, through pension income splitting, helps minimize it.
What household mode shows:
- Combined annual income from both partners side by side
- Combines budget amounts
- Combined estimated taxes, accounting for each person’s province, credits, and bracket
- The tax reduction achievable through pension income splitting
- Combined net worth across all household assets
9.2 Prerequisites#
Before the Household checkbox appears in the toolbar, three conditions must all be satisfied:
Linked spouse clients. Both clients must be linked to each other as spouses. Set this in each client’s profile (the Spouse field in the client editor). The link must be set on both sides — primary client points to spouse, and spouse points back.
Linked spouse strategies. The active strategy on the primary client must have a spouse strategy selected (the Spouse Strategy field in the strategy settings). This tells the app which of the spouse’s strategies to use when combining projections.
Birthdates set for both clients. Household mode uses each person’s birthdate to synchronize the two timelines — the chart always advances in the primary client’s age, so the app needs to know how old the spouse is at each point. If either birthdate is missing, a warning dialog appears when you try to enable household mode and prompts you to enter the missing date.
Once all three are in place, the Household checkbox becomes visible in the chart toolbar (shown with a ⭐ if you are on a Personal plan to indicate it is a premium feature). The app also requires a Pro or Advisor subscription — attempting to enable it on a Personal plan opens the upgrade paywall.
To enable household mode:
- Open the primary client’s income chart.
- Confirm the Household checkbox is visible in the toolbar.
- Check the Household checkbox.
- The chart and table immediately switch to the combined household view.
Tip: Household mode state is remembered between sessions. If you close and reopen the app with the same client selected, the household view will restore to its previous on/off state automatically.
9.3 Pension Income Splitting#
Background#
Canadian tax law allows eligible pension income to be transferred — on paper — from a higher-income spouse to a lower-income spouse, up to a maximum of 50% of the eligible amount. Because income tax brackets are progressive, shifting income from the partner in a higher bracket to the one in a lower bracket reduces the couple’s total tax bill. The income is not actually moved between bank accounts; it is a designation made on each person’s tax return.
Eligible income for pension splitting:
- Pension and annuity income (at any age)
- RRSP/RRIF withdrawals made at age 65 or older
CPP, OAS, and GIS cannot be split using this mechanism (though CPP has its own separate sharing rules not modelled here).
Auto mode (default)#
When Household mode is enabled, the Auto-split checkbox is on by default. In this mode, the app automatically finds the pension split percentage that minimizes the couple’s combined annual tax, for each year of the projection.
The optimization works by testing every integer split percentage from 0% to 50% in 1% steps, calculating the combined tax at each level, and selecting the percentage that results in the lowest total. This runs for every year individually, so the optimal split can differ from year to year as income levels shift (for example, after one partner’s RRSP is depleted or OAS begins).
The toolbar label reads Pension split: Auto when this mode is active.
Manual mode#
Uncheck Auto-split to take manual control. A slider appears ranging from 0% to 50%. Drag it to set the pension split percentage you want to model. The toolbar label updates to show the current percentage (e.g., Split: 30%). The same percentage is applied to every year of the projection.
Manual mode is useful when you want to show a client the tax impact of a specific split they are considering, or to explore how the savings change as you move the slider.
Tax savings#
Regardless of mode, the household table shows a Tax Savings column for every year — the reduction in combined tax compared to what the couple would owe with no split at all. This is the direct financial benefit of the splitting arrangement.
Note: Pension income splitting is modelled as an optimization tool for projection purposes. Actual elections are made annually on each person’s T1 return. Consult a tax professional before filing.
9.4 The Household Chart#
When household mode is active, all five chart types update to reflect combined household data.
Gross Income, Taxable vs. Non-Taxable, Income After Tax, Net Worth: These modes combine both partners’ figures into a single set of bars. The height of each bar represents the household total for that year — not one person’s income in isolation.
Stacked by Source: This mode shows two stacked bands within each bar — one for the primary client and one for the spouse, each labelled with the person’s name (abbreviated). This is the most useful chart type in household mode because it shows how each partner contributes to total household income across the retirement timeline, and how the relative contributions shift as CPP, OAS, and drawdown accounts phase in at different ages.
Note: Strategy comparison (the “Compare with:” dropdown) is not available while household mode is enabled. Evaluate strategy trade-offs at the individual level first, then switch to household mode to assess the combined and tax-optimized picture.
9.5 Reading the Household Table#
Switch to the Table tab with household mode enabled to see a year-by-year breakdown of the combined household plan. The table uses a household-specific layout with the following columns:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Age | The primary client’s age for that year |
| P. Gross | Primary client’s total gross income |
| S. Gross | Spouse’s total gross income (mapped to the primary’s age using the age delta) |
| Combined | P. Gross + S. Gross |
| Pension Split | Dollar amount transferred from the higher-income partner to the lower-income partner in that year |
| Combined Tax | Total estimated tax for both partners combined, after applying the pension split |
| Combined Net | Combined gross income minus combined tax — the household’s actual after-tax spending power |
| Tax Savings | The reduction in combined tax vs. no pension split in that year |
| Net Worth | Total household net worth at end of the year (all accounts, both partners) |
| Budget (if set) | Household spending target for that year |
| Bgt Diff (if set) | Surplus or shortfall relative to the budget |
The P. and S. column prefixes are abbreviated from the actual client names (e.g., J. Doe and M. Smith become J. and M.), so the columns identify each partner at a glance even in a narrow window.
Tip: Sort or scan the Tax Savings column to see which years benefit most from pension splitting. Years with large RRSP withdrawals by the higher-income partner often show the greatest savings — these are the years where rebalancing withdrawals or timing RRIF elections has the most impact.
Blue Plum Software