The magic number for retirement savings is $756,000 | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

Hard to take seriously anything said by a populace that claims it knows what its number is but 90% have zero plan to make it happen. Real plan: Keep electing parties that give us guaranteed annual income or other programs to "redistribute" from those who have money (because we all know that anyone who has more money than we do must have gotten it due to systemic "privilege") is the new Canadian way.

I don't really believe this either. How many did they survey? What was their age? In which provinces? What was their education? Job? Throwing out random numbers is not helping anybody.

I think they could easily come up with an estimate without having been able to save the money.
The estimate is likely informed by media and blurbs from banks telling them they have to save an amount which they know they are not doing and indeed may not be able to do, which may weigh heavily on their minds.

The comments in this topic are focused on the estimates/numbers in the survey rather than understanding that each individual needs to get planning and start using their own numbers.

... Each person will have different numbers.

.. Here is the last paragraph in the article..............

“Assessing if this is enough money is the equivalent of answering the question ‘Am I going to be OK?’ without defining what OK looks like. The real message buried in these statistics is that people need to get more engaged in planning what they want their future to look like.

Here is a new article from Global News. It looks great and very well written.

https://globalnews.ca/news/3981582/how-much-to-save-for-retirement-canada/

Loonie said

The millenials will likely be thinking that by the time they get to retirement, it will cost a lot more than it is going to cost their parents who are retiring soon. I think that's a reasonable assumption. The details may be off, but I thought the graduation in estimates according to age made sense.  

The survey participants are adjusting for inflation. That is clever.

In that case, the $756,000 average is meaningless. It is an unadjusted average of different dollars from 2028 all the way out to as far as 2058 and even beyond.

Bill said
Hard to take seriously anything said by a populace that claims it knows what its number is but 90% have zero plan to make it happen. Real plan: Keep electing parties that give us guaranteed annual income or other programs to "redistribute" from those who have money (because we all know that anyone who has more money than we do must have gotten it due to systemic "privilege") is the new Canadian way.  

Bill, you've hit on a "sweet spot" for me. I would love to see a political party have the guts (sorry, Justin, you don't) to implement universal basic income to replace all forms of social assistance in this Uber-led "gig" economy. Instead of just reacting and increasing minimum wage, which causes employers to cut back benefits or hours for employees, provide a "top up" so people don't have to worry about being evicted or starving. 🙁

This would encourage more entrepreneurship and it would likely pay for itself through the simultaneous sacking of 1000s of high paid bureaucratic public servants in 1000s in hundreds of welfare offices across the country. When you factor in reduced ER and hospital stay costs, not to mention lower incarceration rates, this would be a huge net gain for the public treasury.

#micdrop

Millennials, and Generation Xers, stand to be huge beneficiaries of the largest, or second largest, transfer of wealth that the Boomers are starting to inherit now from the ... what were the Boomers' parents generation called? 😉

I think I probably only "need" about $250,000, provided it maintains its purchasing power, when I factor in what I stand to earn from all of my pensions and so forth. I'm single, no kids and, thus, no beneficiaries.

Cheers,
Doug

musicalmaestro said
Well, a number is just that - a number. For those who find this website/forum and get to this post, you might check out: canada.esplanner.com
FWIW I feel this perhaps the coolest free Financial Planner available online if you are willing to put in the numbers and look at the data.  

MM..your link doesn't work. Went looking for it and it looks like an interesting site.
http://www.canada.esplanner.com/
I just retired so I will give it a try to see what happens.

Key to saving is to start early and let compound return do its trick. Compound return will make seemingly monumental amount turn into relatively small potato over time.

However, no one can save their way to become Jeff Bezos - The only way to do that is to work hundreds of hours a week in efficient way, conducting lots of research before hand and most importantly, take a leap of faith into the unknown and hence, speculating.