RRSP season - the retirement polls and ads are in full swing

Preparing for life after work. RRSPs, RRIFs, TFSAs, annuities and meeting future financial and psychological needs.
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Peculiar_Investor
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RRSP season - the retirement polls and ads are in full swing

Post by Peculiar_Investor »

Although it isn't as much of a headline as it used to be, February tends to be RRSP season and with it come many soundbites, ads, polls, etc. about the state of Canadian habits towards their retirement plans or lack thereof. I'm sure the financial pages of newspapers will be filled with mutual fund companies touting their crème de la crème "best performing" mutual funds from their wide stable of choices. IIRC there has been some progress to rein in this practice so it isn't as bad as the old wild west days from the 80's and 90's.

On cue, 32% of Canadians are nearing retirement without any savings: Poll - Article - BNN. Behind the attention grabbing headline are these gems
Pattie Lovett-Reid wrote:According to the CIBC report released on Thursday, the average amount of personal savings Canadians estimate they’ll need to retire comfortably is $756,000.

What’s disturbing to me is that this $756,000 figure is simply an estimate and not based on fundamentals, such as how much money you can expect from your employer, the government and various personal savings vehicles. Once those numbers are calculated, the next step is to determine how they stack up against your fixed costs, and then what’s left over can go toward other lifestyle choices.

Another troublesome finding from the CIBC poll is that the average amount that Canadians save for retirement is only $184,000, while 30 per cent of respondents said they have no retirement savings and 19 per cent have saved less than $50,000.
A pet peeve of mine, the "CIBC poll" and "CIBC report" get repeated mention, but no link or source is actually provided.

The closest I can come is this press release from CIBC, Am I saving enough to retire? Vast majority of Canadians just don't know: CIBC poll that has more details, but again no link to the actual report source. My guess is the actual CIBC report is being kept as a money-maker for CIBC and their advisors for use during this RRSP season.
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