Saving for retirement is especially important, now that costs are rising. Some are looking overseas at some bargains post-retirement.

OTTAWA — For couples trying to enjoy a romantic Valentine's Day, it might have been a good idea to avoid talking about finances.

A survey released by Royal Bank of Canada on Monday suggests there are many differences in the ways men and women approach investing, including that men are more preoccupied with saving for retirement than women.

Thirty-one per cent of women surveyed said they had not started saving for retirement, compared to 21 per cent of men.

As well, 44 per cent of men said they had put money toward retirement savings over the past year, compared to 33 per cent of women.

Meanwhile, 23 per cent of men said they had put money toward an investment portfolio in the past year, while this applied to 16 per cent of women surveyed.

"What we're seeing in our research is that women are placing more emphasis on taking care of daily needs — often the needs of others — rather than focusing on their long-term needs," said Lee Anne Davies, RBC's head of retirement strategies.

Twenty-two per cent of women said they did not know what kind of investments were contained in their registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs), with many relying on investment advisers to keep track of them. As for men, 15 per cent were unsure what was in their RRSPs.

The survey suggested both men and women have lowered their estimates in recent years of how much money they will need in retirement — especially men.

On average, men said they would need $493,000 to finance their retirement, down significantly from $922,000 in a survey done three years earlier.

Women's estimate of what they'll need fell to $510,000 from $566,000 in the same time frame.

The survey of 1,457 Canadian adults was done online by Ipsos Reid between Oct. 29 and Nov. 4.

RBC said such a sample size is normally representative of the population within three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

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