Yet it does come up far more often than most adults would imagine.

And Ms. Reid not only talks the talk but walks the walk. The student works part-time as a salesperson at a local computer store and says she has been filing a tax return for the last couple of years in order to build up her RRSP contribution room.

She is convinced that starting young will help her amass a large portfolio before she reaches retirement age some time around 2050.

"In school, we've been talking about the baby boom and how Canada Pension doesn't have enough money, how it's up to us and we're going to have to worry about saving for retirement," she says. "And in math class, we've been doing a lot of financial calculations on the effect of compound interest that show how much you can make starting with just a little bit of money."

Further reinforcement comes at home from Ms. Reid's stepmother, Patricia Lovett-Reid, who happens to be the vice-president and managing director of TD Asset Management.

Ms. Lovett-Reid says her stepdaughter is not alone. Many other young people are also getting the message about the need to start investing in an RRSP as early as possible.

"There's been a paradigm shift. When people first got married, they used to go out and buy a home, but now we're seeing more money flow into an RRSP first, before they start saving for their first home," she says.

Ms. Lovett-Reid says the power of compounding -- which she describes as "the eighth wonder of the world" -- is now being recognized by a growing number of younger investors.

Like many other financial advisers, she speaks with almost evangelistic zeal about the value of compounding and the importance of starting to invest early in life, reinforcing her message with illustrations that resemble parables in which the thrifty young investor amasses a huge retirement saving fund while laggards lose out.

For example, Ms. Lovett-Reid tells of two people who begin their investing at different ages.

The first puts away $100 a month beginning at age 22, getting an 8-per-cent annual return until she is 31 and then stops. Over nine years, she has made a total investment of $10,800. But by the time she is 65, the investment has grown to $238,400.

The second person, on the other hand, doesn't start investing until he is 31, but then invests $100 a month for the next 35 years.

Even though he ends up investing $40,800 -- almost four times as much as the first investor -- his total investment at age 65 is worth only $212,400.

Sandra Hrvacanin, an investment adviser with RBC Investments in Richmond, B.C., uses another example to illustrate the value of building up teenagers' RRSP contribution room.

This features two schoolmates who both get summer jobs at age 13 at a fast-food restaurant, where they each earn $4,000 every summer until they graduate from college nine years later.

The first student's parents have tax returns prepared on their son's behalf every year, while the second's, unfortunately, are unaware of this strategy.

As a result, by the time both kids get well-paying jobs at the age of 22, the one who has filed a return has built up $6,480 in RRSP contribution room, which he can invest as soon as he saves enough money to do so.

By the time he's 60, this $6,480, invested with an 8-per-cent annual return, will have reached $130,000.

Ms. Hrvacanin says she has worked with parents who have got children as young as nine years old interested in investing and filing tax returns for money earned on paper routes and other odd jobs.

"I talk to them about investments like Coca-Cola and McDonald's, things that they can understand, to try to get them interested and then they start to see how they can make money and they really get interested," she says.

Ms. Hrvacanin suggests that self-employed parents hire their children to do part-time jobs and then file tax returns on their behalf to build up their contribution room.

She also advises parents to encourage their kids to file their own tax returns as soon as they are old enough to do so, as this could serve as a valuable learning experience.

Ms. Lovett-Reid has another suggestion for giving young people a head start along the road to retirement savings.

That is to use the $2,000 overcontribution that is permitted under RRSP regulations. "Someone very young may want to put the $2,000 up front and have the compounding work for you," she says, noting that it is important to make sure that the overcontribution is eventually eliminated.

Linda Knight, vice-president of BMO Mutual Funds, has also noticed an increased interest in saving and investing among children and teenagers.

She says a Bank of Montreal survey last fall found that one in four kids between 8 and 12 years old were saving, some giving up toys and video games in order to put aside money for their education.

"There's a lot more talk in families now about saving for what you want," she says.

Bruce Armstrong, vice-president of financial planning at Scotiabank, says it is now quite common for young people to open an RRSP as soon as they start their first job.

He says they are not necessarily thinking about retirement savings, however, as much as the fact that it's a way of getting a tax refund.

The problem, according to Mr. Armstrong, is that many people tend to fall behind with their RRSP contributions once they are married, with children and a big mortgage.

Nevertheless, it is always good to get off to an early start in RRSP investing, Mr. Armstrong says, not only because it means that you may enjoy the benefits of long-term compounding but also because it gets you into the habit of investing and can help establish a pattern of smart financial management that could last a lifetime.