Non-retired Canadians have the goal of creating large nest eggs for retirement, but 48 per cent don't yet have a financial plan to help them reach their goal, according to the 2019 RBC Financial Independence in Retirement Poll, released today.

Nationally, the average retirement nest egg goal for a comfortable future is $787,000, according to the poll. Residents of British Columbia had the highest target at $1.07 million.

Respondents expressed varying degrees of confidence about their ability to save enough to build their nest egg. Sixteen per cent said they were very confident, 45 per cent felt somewhat confident, and 39 per cent had no confidence they would ever reach their goal.

Those surveyed said they are willing to take action to help create a nest egg, including: spending less on non-essentials (74%); eating out less (59%); postponing major purchases (45%) and cutting back on travel (34%).

Sixty-six per cent also cited the desire to be debt free as a strong motivator to save.

"Debt is a huge motivator for most Canadians – they're telling us they don't want to live with debt now and they don't want to retire with debt in future," noted Richa Hingorani, Senior Director, Digital Strategy, RBC. "Identifying actions to start taking today is an important first step – and those actions can become much more effective if people put a plan in place to help them reach their goal."