What’s the best way to take money out of an RRSP when you’re close to retirement but still working?

There comes a point, usually in the years just before you stop working, when the question shifts from how much to put into an RRSP to how to start taking it out. This piece looks at someone who is near retirement but still drawing a paycheque, and weighs the ways to pull money from an RRSP, or to begin converting it toward a RRIF, without handing more than necessary to the taxman. What makes it worth reading is that it does not treat the decision as purely a tax calculation. The numbers matter, but so does how people actually behave once the regular salary ends and they have to give themselves permission to spend. For anyone wrestling with the move from saver to spender, it is a useful reminder that the most efficient plan on paper is not always the one you will follow.