This is one of those good news / bad news articles about retirement.

First the good news - it clearly outlines the pitfalls of RRSPs and RRIFs.

Now the bad news - contrary to Adrian Mastraccci's advice - you can have too much money in your RRSP and once it is in the RRSP/RRIF you have effectively given it back to the government and lost virtually all control over its taxation implications due to government mandated withdrawal rates.

The article makes no mention of either TFSA's (thank you Jim Flaherty) as a retirement planning tool or of unregistered investments.

It also doesn't make any mention of the impact of either private sector or public sector pension plans.

The real secret to paying less tax in retirement is to start planning early and to have a balanced investment portfolio of non-registered investments (note tax has already been paid on this money), TFSA funds and RRSPs/RRIFs.

This allows judicious planning of withdrawals to minimize taxes paid to wastrel governments.