On his Wealthy Boomer web site, Financial Post personal-finance columnist Jonathan Chevreau recently made the link between the time you start saving for retirement and when you will be able to start your retirement in earnest. Click here to read the full article on the Wealthy Boomer.

Chevreau has been the personal-finance columnist at the Financial Post since 1996, and is the author or co-author of eight financial books, including The Wealthy Boomer and Findependence Day, released last fall.

His Wealthy Boomer blog features interviews with investment experts (including Pat McKeough).

In the article, entitled, “Financial Replanning; If you want early retirement, start saving early,” Chevreau writes, “You can pretty much assume that the longer you delay beginning a retirement savings program, the longer you will be delaying your retirement date.” He goes on to note that “I can also think of several people in their 60s who bounced from job to job and never saved a penny — most of them are grimly hanging on to their jobs with no hope of retiring before 65 or 70.”

We’ve always advised that investors start their retirement planning as early as possible. This is especially true with regard to RRSP investing, because investing money in an RRSP gives you the benefit of tax-free compounding. After about seven years in an RRSP, the ability of an RRSP contribution to grow and compound free of tax is usually worth more than the initial contribution itself.

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