Working Canadians have become less confident that they will be fully retired by age 65! They also have a third worry, that they will run out of money in retirement!
Working Canadians are much more worried than retirees, about running out of money. The 2015 Sun Life Canadian Unretirement survey finds that current workers are two and a half times more likely than current retirees to believe they will outlive their savings. While the survey has tracked the expectations of working Canadians over the past seven years, Sun Life Financial expanded the survey for the first time to poll current retirees about the realities of their retirement. “This really is a tale of two retirements,” says Kevin Dougherty, President Sun Life Canada. “It is striking that in today’s economic environment, they’ve developed a view of retirement that previous generations of workers would not recognize.”
For the first time since Sun Life Financial began surveying the retirement expectations of Canadians, the number of Canadians who expect to be working full time past 65 has now surpassed those who believe that they will be fully retired. This number has grown over the past seven years as three out of five (60 per cent) Canadian workers now expect to work either full time (32 per cent) or part time (27 per cent) when they retire, compared with fewer than three out of 10 current workers (27%) who expect to be fully retired.
When workers were asked what the number one reason was why they expect to be working at 66, the top three answers continue to be:
- To earn enough money to pay basic living expenses (21%)
- Disbelief that government pensions will be enough to live on (18%)
- To earn enough money to live well (16%)
No matter your age, it is never too late to take action and look at opportunities to better understand your retirement options!
