Jan 23: BEST FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE

January 23, 2023

StatsCan study finds retirement income rates better than expected

Writing for the Advisor’s Edge blog, James Langton reports that — after research by Statistics Canada — that “retirement has been turning out better than expected for many Canadians.”

StatsCan recently published data from a follow-up study from a group of retirees, who were first surveyed in 2014 with a follow up two years ago, the article notes.

The research found that “retirement has been comfortable financially for more people than expected,” the article reports.

In 2014, 67.5 per cent of respondents said “they expected their retirement income to be adequate, or more than adequate, to comfortably maintain their standard of living,” the article states.

Jump ahead to 2020, and “81.6 per cent found that their retirement income was sufficient to comfortably cover their living expenses,” the article adds.

The StatsCan study found a similar increase in satisfaction levels among both women and men, the article continues. In 2014, 68.5 per cent of men and 66.4 per cent of women “expected to have an adequate retirement income,” the article reports. But by 2020, those numbers jumped to 82.2 per cent of men and 81 per cent of women, the Advisor’s Edge article tells us.

Those with disabilities and with high school education or lower also saw improvements in their retirement income, the article concludes.

In 2014, the article reports, 72.4 per cent of those with a disability and 73.5 per cent of folks with high school educations or less said they had adequate retirement income. Those numbers jumped in 2020 by “17.1 and 23.2 percentage points, respectively,” the article concludes.

According to a post on the CHIP reverse mortgage site, “the average retirement income in Canada currently sits at $65,300 per year, per household (before tax). That works out at $32,650 per person, if the household includes a couple.”

It’s not stated in the Advisor’s Edge piece at what income threshold people become happy with their retirement income, but we can probably assume they are making the average amount or better.

Some of that $32.6K per person will come from government sources, such as the Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security, or the Guaranteed Income Supplement. Traditionally, the rest of a person’s retirement income comes from two other sources — workplace pensions and personal savings.

Employers — are you offering a retirement program for your team? Did you know that the Saskatchewan Pension Plan can help you deliver a retirement savings program at your workplace? The scaleable SPP works for both large and small businesses, and relieves you of the heavy lifting of collecting and investing contributions and distributing statements and tax slips. Check out SPP today!

Join the Wealthcare Revolution – follow SPP on Facebook!

Advisor’s Edge, CHIP reverse mortgage, James Langton, Statistics Canada, StatsCan

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