Snapshot survey sheds light on pre-retirees' plans and preparations for life after work
Longer life expectancies aren’t the only thing making retirement saving harder for people across Canada; a decline in workplace pension coverage, rising costs of living, and the growing burden of debt are also taking a toll.
Against this backdrop, new research from the National Institute of Ageing (NIA) gauges the level of retirement readiness among Canadians in and nearing retirement.
Among Canadians aged 50 and older, more than half (56%) said they were retired or receiving a disability pension, while roughly a third (35%) said they were still employed (either full-time, part- time or self-employed).
Between the ages of 50 and 64, 56% of Canadians were employed, while 30% were either retired or receiving a disability pension. Fourteen per cent of people 65 to 79 reported working, and 83% said they were retired or receiving a disability pension. For people 80 and beyond, those numbers were 3% and 94%, respectively.
Focusing on older Canadians who had not yet retired or were not receiving a disability pension, only 25% reported having no desire or plans to retire. The rest said that they intended to retire, but were at various stages of readiness. Among those aged 50 and older, two fifths (38%) said they had yet to make specific plans or decisions to do so, 18% said they have a plan, while 5% said they were in the process of retiring.
Just over a third (35%) of older Canadians who were still working and planning to retire said they were confident they could do so whenever they desired.
Compared to older women, older males said they felt more assured about having the money to retire when they wanted to. Among elderly 50-year-old males in Canada, 38% of those who stated they intended to retire said they would be able to do so when they wanted to because they could afford it. Only 31% of women felt the same.
The survey also revealed regional variations in how confident Canadian workers with retirement plans felt in their ability to do so whenever they chose.
Quebec workers were the most confident, with 44% of working adults aged 50 and older who expected to retire stating could financially afford to retire when they wished. Ontario had the second-largest share with 34%.
