What I wish I’d see less of are stories about how to beat the stock market and ones with headlines that make saving for retirement sound impossible. Everyone’s individual situation is different, but the one piece of advice I bet could help most everyone is to keep saving or start saving in some way – be it $10 a week or $100 a month, and to keep your finances simple – simple enough for you to understand and to manage on your own.

I know it doesn’t sound sexy or sophisticated, but I can guarantee that it works. It has for many of our close to two million clients, especially those who have taken some simple steps to build their savings effortlessly through an automatic savings plan, or stretched their savings further by avoiding or reducing unnecessary and excessive fees for financial products.

At this time of year particularly in Canada, the market is flooded with voices, opinions and advice on everything from picking mutual funds to RSP contributions and what products deliver the best tax savings. I hope ING DIRECT’s voice stands out to Canadians. I hope we can help put things in perspective, eliminate some of the confusion and anxiety around saving money, demonstrate we offer a different choice and advocate the importance of saving without making it seem impossible.

I’m personally committed to reaching as many Canadians as I can to spread this message. I want to be part of your conversations about money, and encourage you to reach out to me via this blog, my Peter Aceto Facebook page www.facebook.com/savingsceo or on Twitter @CEO_INGDIRECT, to start a dialogue about achieving greater financial wellbeing in your life.

But we shouldn’t avoid it. In fact we should do the opposite and take it head on. Actually, it’s not really that complicated. Start today by beginning to save something – a little or a lot – on a systematic basis. You know, $50 per week or $100 per month. This advice is not new, or complicated, or sexy, but it is powerful. No matter the amount, the fact that you are saving something, gives you freedom. Saving will give you freedom for your future and give you the potential to take advantage of an opportunity when it comes your way or to bail you out on a rainy day.

However you choose to save and for whatever goal, beware of shortchanging your savings by paying unnecessary fees. Fees come in small bite sizes but they eat away a significant portion in the end. A recent survey we conducted with Angus Reid found that almost half of Canadians are unsure of the fees they pay to buy mutual funds – one of the most popular investments we use to save for retirement. If you add up all the unnecessary fees you pay over several decades of investing, they can make a huge difference in what you’re left with in your golden years.

At the end of the day, no matter where you choose to save your money, we get satisfaction from knowing we are helping Canadians take control of their financial destiny. With a bit of information, more and more Canadians are feeling empowered to take their saving and retirement planning into their own hands.

There is no secret to saving for retirement. It’s the same as saving for any other goal, financial or otherwise. Getting started is just the first step but it is the biggest step. And like many other goals, each step after the first is easier than the last.

This is the solution we advocate at ING DIRECT, and one that I believe in personally. Any amount, be it large or small, does make a difference. It’s easy to set up automatic payments into an RRSP account or into a high-interest savings account as a means of building your retirement savings – set it and forget it. It’s that simple.