[Sylvanfan]

Not neccessarily a dollar figure, but recently I read some stats in regards to RRSP contributions. In St.Albert where I live the median household income is just over 115k per year. Which is peasantry for you Calgary folk, but a high number when compared to the rest of the country. More significant as a median figure and not an average meaning half of the households in the city are making more than that. Yet the average house hold contribution was 4278. Which amounts to less than 4% of that median number. My household contribution this year will be about 9% of our total income, which in my opinion is still far too low, it should be closer to 15-20% but is supposedly more than double the average put out in this artical. I would guess the median number in St.Albert is closer to 3500 per year or 3% as many big money earners will be maxing out. Granted more people may be using TFSA's too, if anyone has those stats I'd be interested to hear them.

I know it helps a lot that my employer matches 5%, and that a third of my yearly bonus is put into my RRSP. My wife was working in the pharmacy for a large national chain and they only matched to 1%. Maybe the pharmacists had a different plan, but that seemed pretty low to me. Are most Canadians putting less than 5% into saving for their future? If so, the doom and gloomers could be onto something. I've long resigned myself to the fact that my retirement will happen after 70, and be pretty much living out the string. If these numbers are accurate, others are going to be in tough shape.