Anonymized sample of 100,000 financial plans reflect rise in average income and savings rates
While the coronavirus pandemic has had a significant financial impact on Canadian households, a new survey suggests that it hasn’t been enough to stop three key upward trends.
Planswell, a Toronto-based startup that allows Canadians to create free financial plans, recently shared the results of an analysis it performed on anonymized and randomized data aggregated from 100,000 financial plans created on its platform.
“Like others in the financial space, we were eager to see how Covid would affect the financial wellness of our citizens,” Planswell CEO Eric Arnold said in a statement. “In the data, we certainly didn't see the devastating effect we all feared. In fact, it seems Canadians are prospering.”
The company found that the average income of users has risen by 8.5% since its 2018. The percentage of income that households set aside for savings increased from 9.5% to 14.5%, which for the average household today amounts to $1,739 per month.
While mortgage debt rose 7.4% to reach $195,857 on average, home values over the period increased at a much faster pace, gaining an average of 21.4% to reach $509,352.
Planswell also reported a spike in average household assets within its data, exceeding $300,000 to day compared to their 2018 level of approximately $200,000. That trend, the company said, speaks to the changing demographics within its consumer base as it focuses on outreach to wealth accumulators as opposed to retirees.
According to Arnold, Planswell users are typically between 30 and 65 years old, and the data from the study comes from self-reported figures.
And whereas working Canadians have gone through a generally disruptive and stressful year, the percentage of people with group benefits has held steady at just above 74%. Meanwhile, self-reported smoking rates maintained a downward trajectory from 7.9% to 6.2%.
