Quebecers have the most modest savings goals in the entire country, but don’t have a plan to get there, a new survey shows.

Respondents to a poll for the Royal Bank of Canada said they would need $427,000 to retire, well under the average national response of $787,000.

Trouble is, it might not be enough, depending on your spending, said Julia Chung of financial planning group springplans.ca.

“I just did a rough calculation, so if there is a 65-year-old male who has $425,000 at retirement and it earns say a 4 per cent annual rate of return, he's going to probably get a retirement income of about $25,000 a year before tax,” she said. “I have a client right now who has just over $1 million and he's not able to retire fully on that because he's only 46 years old.”

Almost half of respondents (47 per cent) don’t yet have a financial plan to help them get there.

Is $425,000 enough? How about $1 million?

“There is no magic number,” said financial planner Richard Walsh.

“I have people come in who have $1 million plus and they're in trouble because of the spending habits they have,” he said. “I've had other people who have $1 million and probably spend maybe $40,000 a year and it's like, well, you're going to leave money in your estate.”

Walsh said he tries to make sure his clients understand how much they need to invest, what they're investing in, and above all, he encourages them to get rid of debt.

“If you have $50,000 of debt here and you're paying 6 per cent (interest), you're not taking, you're giving,” he said.

Debt is indeed a strong motivator, according to the RBC poll. As many as 70 per cent of Quebec respondents said being debt free is the top motivator to build a nest egg. Having money to take part in experiences and travel are also strong motivators, the poll shows.

The RBC poll also asked respondents how confident they are of reaching their financial goals, and only 14 per cent of Quebecers said they are very confident. Another 47 per cent said they are somewhat confident, and 39 per cent said they’ll never build their nest egg up enough.

When asked what they would do to save up for a nest egg, 72 per cent said of Quebecers said they would spend less on non-essentials, followed by 53 per cent saying they’d eat out less, 33 per cent said they would postpone major purchases and 25 per cent said they would cut back on travel.