Are GICs enough to keep Silvia's nest egg going?

Silvia, 61 and on her own, has kept things simple and safe, parking roughly 80 percent of her portfolio in GICs and treasury bills, and now she wants to know if that much caution is actually enough to make her savings last. Allan takes the question seriously rather than reflexively pushing her toward more risk. He walks through what a portfolio this conservative quietly gives up over a long retirement, since inflation erodes the purchasing power of guaranteed income more than people expect, and pairs that against the real risk of living longer than her money does. He also checks how much of a backstop her government retirement income can realistically provide on its own, so the rest of the plan isn't asked to do more than it should. The piece lands on a familiar but important trade-off: total safety has a cost, just a quieter one than market risk, and the right mix depends on how much of that cost Silvia can actually absorb. It is a grounded read for any cautious retiree wondering whether all that safety is doing them any favours.