Interest rates, inflation putting retirement at risk for Canadian renters, home owners: survey

Have you started saving for your retirement? If the answer is no, you aren’t alone.

A survey from the Co-operators out Tuesday shows more and more people are putting off saving as they focus on making it day to day.

The data, which looks at the retirement goals of Canadian renters, says 77 per cent haven’t started saving for their golden years.

“Even Canadians who own a home or are renting, they may need to push out their retirement dates in order to feel comfortable that they have saved enough in order to retire and maintain a standard of living,” executive vice-president of retail weath, Jessica Baker, explained.

She adds that nearly half of mortgage holders and renters believe they’ll be working past their retirement age.

“The cost of living is high and people have to make choices amongst their expenses and when they have to make those decisions I think they decide that they can’t afford to start saving,” Baker said.

Baker recommends speaking with a licensed financial advisor to help build a plan that considers your budget, and sets savings and investment goals that work for you.

The one-in-four respondents who say they developed a plan reported the highest confidence in their financial security, according to the report.

“A lot of the respondents to the survey said that they want to plan but they just don’t know how to get started and those that do have a plan feel better about their retirement savings goal,” Baker said.

Meantime, Calgary’s job market is expecting nearly 500,000 job openings to appear in the next decade with technical services, retail trade, healthcare, accommodation and construction leading the way, as it’s estimated that one in six residents will be 65 or older by 2030.