Whatever the literal translation, the point is, a rich man can't get himself into heaven. Jesus doesn't then say "go make yourself poor so you can get into heaven." The disciples response, "then who can be saved?" not "so we need to get rid of our money?", indicates that they understood what he was saying. The prevailing opinion, poor people are unrighteous and rich people have honored God. Jesus is saying rich people can't enter heaven either, basically saying no one can enter heaven.
So the statement appears to be addressing the human need for God, not some statement about material possessions. No one can naturally fit into heaven, no one has earned the right or made themselves into something that can enter heaven. Hence the need for God's involvement, and His sacrifice.
Elsewhere it's not a sin to be rich, but it is a sin to ignore the needs of others or value your money above God. To be unwilling to lose it or sacrifice it when called to. I guess you could call it the difference between "having" and "possessing", if that makes sense (read AW Tozer, he's got a whole chapter on it).
I know this isn't directly on point, but it came up. It's a great travesty when the bible is read verse by verse rather than as a whole because it gets misquoted, misused, misunderstood, and then you get comments about "contradicitons in the bible" from people who have never read it and so forth. It riles me up so I felt it important to explain the cultural and written context of that statement for those who don't know it, since this is one of those "verses in a vacuum."
Anyway, carry on.