Now that the holiday season is over you will slowly begin to hear the media and advertisers tell you about the "Best RRSP Money Can Buy." These messages will hit you gradually and then appear more frequently until that is all that is being talked about at the end of February. After that things will die down once again until next year.

These advertisements will focus mainly on tax savings. The true goal should be on planning and saving enough money for a comfortable retirement income. But that message is lost with all the static and noise that develops. It becomes very confusing and almost impossible to make sound savings and investment decisions at this time of the year.

There are many personality styles when it comes to saving for retirement - some people are planner oriented, others are diligent savers, some struggle with their savings, some are more impulsive and take high risk, and still others deny the issue and don’t even want to think about it. The American Savings Education Council and the Employee Benefit Research Institute studied a group of the "soon-to-be-retired" to evaluate their responses to a number of behavioral questions. They describe five basic groups.

1. Planners are involved in decision-making, saving and investing for their retirement. They are optimistic about their financial future.
2. Savers are more cautious and tend to take less risk with their investments. While being disciplined savers, their returns don’t fare as well as other investors.
3. Strugglers do save and think about their financial welfare, but seem to be without a clear plan to guide them. They are more anxious and unclear about what to do.
4. Impulsive people tend to be risk takers who use aggressive investments and are confident that they will attain their goals. They cut back on their disciplined savings, believing that their high risk investments will be enough and are consequently facing a shortfall in retirement.
5. Deniers don’t take the time to think about retirement, finding it boring and distasteful. Few are confident that they will attain their goals.

So what’s your retirement personality? Be honest, which one are you? Regardless or who you think you may be, most people find a little guidance is extremely helpful to put things in order. Don’t be swayed by the media. Contact a financial planner for advice. A good financial planner will assess your current situation; recommend an action plan to meet your goals and always keep in mind your personality traits for risk and returns. The end result is a plan that should go a long way to alleviate the stress of decision-making.

This is a monthly article on financial planning. Call or write to Rick Sutherland CLU, CFP, FDS, R.F.P., of Fundex Investments with your topics of interest at 798-2421 or E-mail at rick@invested-interest.ca.