Many Canadians are worried about protecting their savings to ensure they will have a decent standard of living for their family. (iStock)Canada's financial world was rocked by seismic economic shifts in 2009.

Canadians saw stock markets plunge at the beginning of the year and recover as spring turned to summer. Record low interest rates meant that bonds, usually a safe haven, were now a risky investment. And even the value of real estate became been volatile in many parts of the country.

Corporate bankruptcies and near-bankruptcies placed private-sector pension plans in jeopardy as employees accepted reduced payouts to help companies weather the downturn. In some cases, retirees and retiring workers ended up with nothing to show for years of pension contributions.

As a new year begins, the problem still haunting many Canadians is how to protect savings to ensure they will have a decent standard of living for their family now, and for themselves in retirement.

To help answer those financial questions, we devised a number of hypothetical scenarios that could be applied generally to Canadian households. They involve people in various stages of their lives and with different financial circumstances.

Then we asked financial planning experts from across Canada to give their opinions about the best course of action for each of these scenarios.

(iStock)	Couples in their 20s: For men and women in their 20s, financial planners must seem downright motherly. After all, these young people are finally out working and, just as they get set to buy that cool car or neat vacation, along comes some personal financing expert who says 'you should start planning for your retirement.'
	Single-parent families: The rise of the single parent has led to different considerations when planning for a financial future.
	Young families: Nowadays figuring out how to cover a young person's university or college fees ranks right up there with high marks in terms of the top educational concerns with which parents grapple.
	Empty-nest couples: During the 2008 financial credit crunch and subsequent stock market crash, the group of Canadians facing the biggest potential money trouble included people in their 50s.
	Couple in their 60s entering their retirement: As Canadians approach the age of retirement they have fewer financial options and less ability to make up for market downturns.