Personal Finance Survey Finds Nearly 1 In 3 Canadians Fear They'll Never Recover From Pandemic
We’ve been told to prepare for a long recovery from the global COVID-19 pandemic, but a new survey suggests many Canadians fear that, for them, a full recovery will never materialize.
That’s what 30 per cent of respondents said in a new survey from FP Canada, the industry licencing group for financial planners. It’s a clear sign of just how poorly Canada’s heavily indebted consumers were prepared for an economic shock of the sort we have seen this year.
The “Coping with Covid’s Financial Impact” survey found 42 per cent of Canadians are “not in a strong enough financial position to handle the challenges of the second wave of COVID-19.” Virtually the same percentage ― 41 per cent ― say they are already in worse financial shape than they were before the pandemic.
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Youth and the “sandwich generation” ― those caring for both children and aging parents ― are feeling particular pressure, said Tina Tehranchian, a Toronto-based certified financial planner.
The “sandwich generation” are “usually baby boomers close to their own retirement years who have to (plan for) a longer lifespan than their parents, which means they need more savings to live on,” Tehranchian told HuffPost Canada.
“But some of them still have kids in university or even high school, and they have aging parents. That doubles the pressure on anyone in that situation.”
Half of young adults sought government help
Youth are another group who have been particularly affected by the economic shock. The FP Canada survey found that slightly more than half of the adults under 35 had borrowed money in some way to make ends meet. Half had also taken advantage of some kind of government subsidy or payment deferral program during the pandemic, and 29 per cent relied on the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).
“If the government benefits were not there, the situation would have been much more dire,”...
