Recently, Bank of Montreal (BMO) released its second annual BMO Household Savings Report. Based on the polling of 1,002 Canadians conducted by Pollara, BMO highlights the average savings of Canadian households in 2013, how much we plan to save in 2014, and what our top priorities are for saving.

More Canadians are saving money!

Last year, Canadian households saved an average of $8,764. According to BMO’s findings, we plan on making 2014 an even better year with an average goal of $9,635.

The people of British Columbia have set the highest goal for 2014, planning on saving an average of $15,117 in 2014. Interestingly, Canadian men plan on saving about $11,228 in 2014, while women only plan on saving roughly $7,989.

The people of Ontario came in above average for 2013, saving about $9,625, but for some reason, our plans for 2014 are falling short, with the expected savings average coming in at only $9,570.

The big shocker of the report is that 17% of Canadians didn’t save a single cent in 2013! That may seem like a lot, but it’s actually a significant improvement from 2012, when a whopping 28% contributed a big goose egg to their savings.

Top obstacles for saving money

I’m sure we can find a million reasons why it’s difficult to save money. Here are the top three “barriers” according to BMO’s report:

1) Insufficient income (69%)

2) High expenses (67%)

3) Management of debt (50%)

Top reasons to save money in 2014

What’s your motivation for saving money? Here are Canada’s top three:

1) Vacation (48%)

2) emergency/rainy day fund (43%)

3) Retirement (39%)

We find it kind of shocking that saving for a new home wasn’t in the top three! Why do you think this is the case? Has affordability become such an issue that people aren’t even bothering to save? Perhaps more and more people are getting loans from family members to buy new homes, so saving isn’t really necessary. Also, Pollara could have polled mostly homeowners, so saving for a new home wouldn’t be a priority.