Canadians without an employee pension plan face challenging retirement: Report

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TORONTO (NEWS 1130) – Getting your finances in order for your retirement is no easy task and a pair of new reports paint very different pictures of your golden years.

New research from the Broadbent Institute finds the value of retirement assets for people between the ages of 55 and 64 without an employee pension plan, is just $250 for those with an annual salary of between $25,000 and $50,000.

The Institute’s executive director Rick Smith is calling for an immediate enhancement to the Canada Pension Plan. “Today in Canada, about one-in-three single women and one-in-four single men, seniors are living in poverty.”

“The average amount of savings they’re going to have in retirement is about three-thousand dollars one year,” he explains.

However, it’s not all bad news. A Sun Life Financial report says 88 per cent of Canadians think life in retirement is positive. Roughly three-in-10 people believe their biggest retirement surprise was how well they handled living on a reduced budget.

“Life in retirement is more sustainable than you might think,” says Sun Life Financial Canada president Kevin Dougherty.

“Despite current economic conditions, Canadian retirees are doing quite well living on just over 60 per cent of the income they had when they were working. And this average doesn’t change much when comparing men with women or taking marital status into account.”

According to the report, 10 per cent of Canadians say they are spending less than they expected to in retirement.

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