If RRSP season is passing by each year without you adding to your savings, you might want to look at how you communicate with your spouse.

Canadians generally talk about their careers, health, spiritual beliefs and family problems without diffi culty.
But when it comes to money, most clam up. Many may think about money all the time, but consider it inappropriate to talk about.

The unspoken rules are: never discuss what you spend unless you've found a great bargain, never reveal your income, keep your bank balance and the contents of your portfolio confidential and never disclose how much debt you are carrying.

Those rules apply even within some marriages.

A survey done by Capital One in conjunction with Credit Canada for Credit Education Week in November 2009 found of 1,656 people questioned, 19 per cent of men and 22 per cent of women say they conceal debts from their spouse.
Many also confess to lying to their partners about how much they spent on a purchase and 86 per cent say they argue about money on a daily or weekly basis.The survey has a margin of error for couples statistics of plus or minus 3.41 per cent, 19 times out of 20; the margin of error for individuals' responses is 2.41 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

"After 20 years of working with people and money, I am still amazed at how people will talk about anything else but money," says Laurie Campbell, executive director of Credit Canada, a charitable organization helping Canadians who are deeply in debt and facing bankruptcy.Canadians still carry financial embarrassment. The roots can probably be found in childhood. We didn't talk to our parents about money and this has carried down from generation to generation."

A 2009 report titled Where has the Money Gone: The State of Canadian Household Debt in a Stumbling Economy, conducted by the Certified General Accountant Association of Canada (CGA) found that household debt in Canada reached a record high of $1.3 trillion in 2008.RRSP contributions had dropped and more Canadians had taken out personal lines of credit and loans without using them for big ticket items.

One-third of the 110,000 surveyed did not have any kind of regular savings, yet 57 per cent believed they were wealthier than three years prior to the survey.More than half (56 per cent) of the non-retired respondents had no idea how much they needed to save for retirement, even though they stated their RRSP would provide their main income.
The margin of error for the survey is plus or minus 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada found that 2009 consumer insolvencies increased by 8.5 per cent from 2008.

Janice MacKinnon, a professor of fiscal policy at the University of Saskatchewan, served as finance minister during Saskatchewan's deficit crisis in the 1990s when it became the first province to balance its budget. She believes consumers have a long-term problem with finances.

"Canadians have high level of debt and that makes them reluctant to discuss their debt," says MacKinnon.
"Part of the problem is the easy access to credit and money. But people aren't absorbing the caveat around credit.
"It's serious when we have the Bank of Canada warning people about not being lured into mortgages they can't really afford because of low interest rates and people are still going ahead."

Campbell agrees that easy credit is a major factor in consumers' dysfunctional finances.
"We need to have new rules where there is a full disclosure of the credit charged," she says.
"But in the long run we have to rely on being financially literate. We can't stress enough how important it is to have savings."

Ironically Canadians have never had so much financial information at their fingertips, from investment advisers to websites with online calculators to government booklets to free workshops. Yet Canadians are still not that financially literate.

A 2006 report from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada found that of the 1,700 people surveyed, 31 per cent had no idea what the annual rate was on their credit card, 58 per cent had two or more credit cards and an additional 18 per cent had just received a new card.

"These days, people have to make sophisticated financial decisions but we are finding they don't have the knowledge. Even though there is a lot of information to choose from, there is a kind of information overload," says MacKinnon.

Both MacKinnon and Campbell are members of the federal government's Task Force on Financial Literacy, whose mandate is to recommend a national strategy for improving financial literacy.

"Our goal is not to recreate what already exists but to find a way to co-ordinate all the information out there and make it accessible to all Canadians across all regions," says MacKinnon. "It's a huge task."

In February the Task Force will start consultations across the country before handing in its final recommendations at the end of 2010.

"We want to hear from Canadians through town meetings or e-mails. We want to hear from (as many) Canadians as possible so we can put in place what is required," says MacKinnon.

For those who can't wait, Campbell recommends working within a budget, keeping an eye on your money and being wary of credit. The Canadian Association of Credit Counselling Services may be able to help you find a not-for-profit credit counselling service in your city.

"There is no magic solution for getting out of debt, but there are plenty of financial tools to help you build a plan of action," says Campbell.Work within a budget and lower income struggle. Keep an eye on your money and on your lifestyle make sure both are aligned. Keep (a finger on) the pulse on your finances and know your next plan of action. Create a savings strategy. And start communicating with each other,” says Campbell.

*Material reprinted with the express permission of Canwest News Service.